Bribes Have Gone Up Too

A self-deprecating popular expression in Korean society used to mean that inflation has raised even the “black market price” of corruption.

Bribes Have Gone Up Too

Overview

“Bribes have gone up too” is a self-deprecating expression in Korean society used to mean that, amid prolonged inflation and soaring asset prices pressuring the everyday economy as a whole, even the “black market price” of illegal transactions such as bribes and solicitations has risen along with it. Rather than a proposition verified by actual statistics, it is closer to a rhetorical phrase and meme that condenses the perception that inflation in the legal market habitually spills over into illegal domains. It is repeatedly cited in news comments, community forums, and jokes within workplace and public official circles, establishing itself as a representative phrase in the discourse on “perceived prices.”

Main Content

Nature and Etymology of the Expression

This expression is not a newly coined word originating from a particular person or event, but an idiomatic sentence that solidified after appearing in similar forms several times. Variants such as “These days, even bribes aren’t worth money” and “Bribe prices have gone up, so I can’t give them” are used together, and its core is the perception that “economic pressure penetrates even into domains that cross moral boundaries.” Although humorous in form, behind it lie cynicism that corruption has become chronic and resignation that inflation is squeezing the lives of all classes.

Socioeconomic Background

Entering the 2020s, as the consumer price inflation rate remained high for several years and burdens from real estate, jeonse deposits, and interest rates accumulated, the gap between “perceived prices” and “official prices” became a social topic. When food, dining out, public utility charges, and labor costs rise simultaneously, the perception arises that the “transaction unit price” of the underground economy, such as bribes and solicitations, is also relatively reevaluated. The gist of this expression is the narrative that practices once handled with cash envelopes or small-scale hospitality are replaced by larger-scale provision of interests, money and goods, and conveniences as prices and expectations rise.

Legal and Institutional Context

Since the enforcement of the Act on the Prohibition of Improper Solicitation and Graft and the Restriction of Financial Transactions (부정청탁 및 금융거래의 제한에 관한 법률, commonly known as the Kim Young-ran Act), Korea has specified in numerical terms the standards for public officials and others receiving money and goods. As caps on meals, gifts, and congratulatory/condolence money were stipulated by law, the boundary between the “upper limit of legal hospitality” and the “lower limit of illegal bribes” became a subject of social debate. Whenever these caps were adjusted to reflect inflation, sarcastic reactions such as “the state has recognized the price of bribes” often emerged, contributing to the spread of the expression “bribes have gone up too.” Although bribery crimes under the Criminal Act, the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, and the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act are applied in overlapping ways, the gap between punishment levels and actual detection rates is also part of the background to this discourse.

Linguistic and Cultural Spread

This sentence is reproduced through various media such as internet memes, entertainment subtitles, current affairs cartoons, and workplace wit. It tends to see search volume and citation frequency rise together around the release of inflation indicators in economic news and around reports of misconduct by public officials, and the sentence pattern “N has gone up too” itself has settled as a meme grammar, giving rise to derivative expressions such as “salaries have gone up too” and “jjajangmyeon has gone up too.”

Latest Trends

In 2024–2025, even as the high-inflation, high-interest-rate phase entered a calming process, debates over perceived prices continued, and revision discussions surrounding the caps on gifts and meals under the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act were repeatedly raised. Whenever discussions proceeded on raising the cap for agricultural and fishery product gifts, temporary increases during holiday periods, and adjustments to the meal expense cap, criticism that “the system is following the unit price of bribes” clashed with defenses that it was a “reasonable adjustment reflecting reality.” At the same time, with the strengthening of discipline in the public official sector, operation of the conflict-of-interest prevention system, and the development of digital evidence and fund-tracking techniques, methods of detecting bribery have become more sophisticated, and a trend is observed in which the means diversify from cash to virtual assets, luxury goods, stocks, and provision of private conveniences. For this reason, a diagnosis also appears that “bribes have gone up, but only their form has changed.” The fact that Korea’s ranking in international comparison indicators such as Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index has stagnated or repeatedly fluctuated slightly is also cited as a background for the continued circulation of this expression.

In short, “bribes have gone up too” reads not as a simple joke but as a social signal that simultaneously touches three axes: prices, inequality, and institutional trust.