When in Mumbai, you send your driver to the DMV to get you a drivers license, along with the standard bribe for the inspector. This would not happen if the cos

When in Mumbai, you send your driver to the DMV to get you a drivers license, along with the standard bribe for the inspector. This would not happen if the cost of putting a bad driver on the road was so high that the society would fight to prevent it. That would be the case if the legal costs, repair costs and above all medical costs of an accident were enormous. Like it is in the US. But no, in India the government will bail you out if you get in a road accident. They do that by providing free healthcare, maintaining low fines, leaving glaring legal loopholes for your convenience and in most cases keeping motor mechanics in a low income tax exempt category, so you can fix your vehicle for dirt-cheap. Hence you don’t care if a terrible driver is permitted to drive. Neither does society at large. Strong economies are driven by the duality of strong incentives and costly penalties. Weak ones are undone by cultural and economical ecosystems built solely for saving each other’s ass.