I think there's something challenging to put my finger on about India, which is something like: "When you have an overall country atmosphere where you (even if

I think there's something challenging to put my finger on about India, which is something like: "When you have an overall country atmosphere where you (even if you are conscientious and care) think others are not conscientious and do not care, then you will come to not be conscientious and care either." So there is an effect where enough people disobey rules or lack standards, that eventually no one follows the rules. Traffic is ridiculous because no one obeys the rules, manufacturing is subpar because no one thinks anyone else will care (or will put up with shoddy deliveries). And this is not some racist / cultural prejudice. It is totally changeable. The evidence I have here is that people from India, when living in the US, completely adapt and become "positive rule-wanting people". There is something about a critical mass of rule-breakers that sends a system into a negative spiral. As others said, probably China was like that too at some time in the recent past. And even the US was (or might become) this way. The opposite effect is also in force: when you live in Japan, for example, even as a visitor, and see that no one is littering on the public streets, even when they do not provide trash cans, you don't litter either. But let a certain viral % of rule breakers take hold, and if your group culture does not value what is being broken, you can descend into a loss of discipline. Again, this is not some prejudice -- it is a human factors / malleable / totally changeable thing. But it will take decades I think. And have lots of forces trying to stop it from improving. Sometimes I think you need to create an isolated bubble where enough people agree and see how it can work, to propagate it elsewhere. Otherwise the forces of mediocrity pull you back down into chaos.