Posted by Rohit Krishnan:
Life in India is a series of bilateral talks that are conducted a thousand times a day. And that drives the ethos of life here.
Now, I see the world clearly after several years. And it’s a big change.
The physical infrastructure has become much better. The roads are good, well maintained, and the highways are very good. They built 7500 miles last year, like last year. And they are beautiful…
But:
Living in a country built through bilateral negotiations everything at the same time a dream of freedom and an incredibly inefficient way to multitask. Ronald Coase told us this in 1960.
“if land rights are well defined and transaction costs are low, private parties can negotiate external solutions without the need for government intervention”
But Indian life is dominated by transaction costs. Every time a driver swerves his car when the signal is not for him it creates a conflict that surrounds the entire system. Every time someone has to spend the effort doing a 1:1 conversation they lose time and efficiency. It’s so sad.
…The reason this is not easy to fix is that the ability to negotiate everything is great. When all the law is negotiated you get to fall back on stupid things like closing off part of a parking garage with rubber bands just for asking. Life in the West feels so crowded because of this, we are all drowning in rules.
Here is the full story.
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