I agree... I wouldn't give you $5 for a Segway, let alone $5000.
My point is that the people who sell them appear to be living in a fantasy world.
It's not a good thing that many (if not most)decision makers take bribes, but it IS a real thing.
And it's probably an eternal thing as well.
A 70 pound gizmo, doing 12 mph on a crowded sidewalk is a do-able thing, but it's just dicey enough in today's civil law environment to provide a little bit of friction...
The kind of friction that can almost always be greased by an envelope full of money.
It's been this way all my life, and my father's as well.
It's real simple... If you hate the idea of bribing people so much that you refuse to do it, your business options will always be constrained by your choice not to do so.
Hmmm. Isn't bribery an impeachable offense? I suppose when 99% of our "officials" are guilty, they don't fall over each other to launch bribery investigations.