I'd argue that the corruption in the U.S. is merely a higher level comprised of a political class corporatist oligarchy of meta-corruption that doesn't hinder the productivity of the private sector as much.
It is parasitic, like say G.E., tax breaks, and windmills etc. or even when it dies quicker, like Solyndra, there's at least certain facade of sustainability about it. It employs people, utilizes skilled trades, creates secondary economic activity with other providers in the economy like construction, and sub-contractors, in a pseudo-Keynesian way that still eats its own tail, but does so much more slowly.
Broken window fallacy still applies of course, even if the broken window is so many steps removed, but you can go on that way for a long, long time. And if your lucky, the host organism/economy might even grow despite the parasitism, and completely cover the problem with net gains during good times. It all still happened at the expense of the taxpayers directly, or indirectly through the Federal Reserve, quantitative easing, and inflation.
The more overt third-world corruption tends to convert assets and kills entire industries in one fell swoop, like aggressive cancer, and/or a MRSA necrotizing fasciitis.
