While it is an aspect of the expat lifestyle that many first timers have a hard time swallowing, it is a simple fact that every country around the world utilizes some form of a greased-wheel system, otherwise known as bribery. The reason that most Americans have difficulty grasping the concept is because they have been trained over the years to believe that bribery is bad, when in fact they do it every day of their lives but they never think twice about it because it has been carefully hidden under the guise of express fees. But when you get down to it, that's all that express fees really are: bribes. They are extra fees required in order to see services rendered at an expedited level, and while they are not always called express fees in other countries, they exist in every corner of the globe.

In Mexico, for example, the entire system revolves around tips, which are referred to as "la mordida". Translated into English, this means "the little bite", and it is a direct reference to the fact that every time you have to pay an express fee it is a little bite out of your wallet. Mexicans do not view this as corruption, and rightfully so; at its most basic level it is not corruption, it is simply an express fee paid so that you can see services rendered at a more rapid pace in comparison to what they would normally be finished at. The problem is that most Americans automatically view express fees in other countries as corruption because that's what they've been trained to do since they were children, constantly brainwashed with propaganda regarding how inferior every other country outside of the United States is and how corrupt every other country is in comparison to the United States with their "perfect little system". Your primay goal as an expat living on a long-term basis in another country is learning to accept that express fees are not always called such on foreign soil; sometimes they take the form of local colloquialisms such as "la mordida".

Although it does take some getting used to, once you adapt to the expat lifestyle you will begin to see express fees around the world for what they are: bribery in its most basic form. And regardless if you hail from the United States or not, you will be dealing with these fees in some form or another. Just because you happen to come from the U.S. doesn't mean that you aren't dealing with bribery on a daily basis; you've just been trained to think of it as something else as part of the propaganda machine.