My suggestion is simple, remove all forms of incrementally increasing training prices/bribing (tipping) prices as you rank up/lvl up.

From an RP perspective it makes absolutely no sense for things to cost more as you become stronger and actually detracts from the purpose of putting in effort to begin with.  On top of this, the only person that is put at a disadvantage from this system is the newer player that needs time to learn everything before they dive into things and usually when they find out they should have done things differently from the get go they lose interest.

I understand the arguments that as you rank up you can earn more money so things should cost more.  My answer is you are off your rocker with that logic.

the reason for having to bribe past a certain amount is to earn trust with the dealers in the world bribes in a world based around money and power show you are committed so it makes sense that someone must trust you to deal a certain amount of drugs with you much like the real world you wouldnt sell drugs to someone you dont know ifthey came up to you and asked you for say 20 kilo's but if it were someone youd built rappore with itd be a different story

the only things that really cost more as far as i know the higher your rank goes is tipping the dealers/fbn and the shooting range

It's not the issue of the number of times you have to tip that bothers me, just the idea that it costs more to do the same thing as more work is put into the game that bothers me.

It makes sense that it cost more though if you take time and think about it. Whoever you are bribing takes on more risk the higher profile you are. A gangster doesn't hit most police radars. While a Don would be followed almost all the time. Waiting for him to make a mistake. For me to help the guy that is most likely to get me in trouble. Well I would charge that guy more. That guy being the don. The guy on the police radar. The gangster is just some little old gangster. He going to serve one night in jail for a dime bag and be back out on the street the next day. 

the only thing that should be a flat rate IMO is the shooting range i know very few people use it but why does that price increase? its not like it hands out +2's and +3's as your rank grows

drugs i under stand as the higher you rank up the higher your access to the rest of the drugs(in a rp perspective you dont jump right to cocaine you start small with booze or weed and grow over time) so drugs bribes should cost more to essentially make you commit to jumping to the next tier of drug trafficking

sadpanda would a don of GF not get free bribes? after all they are more powerful positions in this world of ours and surely we cant expect a random drug dealer to demand cash from a high ranking criminal, maybe be rid of bribing for dons and gf's or half the price due to their notoriety 

Why in the world would anyone charge less for more risk? That makes 0 sense at all. I'm sorry but I'm not putting myself out there for a Godfather if I was a FBN Agent just because of his status. Sure he could shoot me but then he would lose his in also at this moment we are not able to shoot them for not helping so that changed things also. 

Pay the fees. 

From a game balance perspective it makes less sense the more you think about it.   How many Dons does there have to be in the game at a given time for people to stop using this argument? 

Why does it cost a wise guy more than an earner to train at the shooting range?  To tip for prices, ect?

I get it, it's cup cakes but to newer players it s not and they don't like it.