When a business or industry always requires regulatory and administrative permission to move fast, the baseline state of that industry changes from innovation until its proven dangerous, to stagnate until proven safe. This threshold is precisely where productivity growth drops because of the friction of regulatory policies.
At what point do you think that strict regulatory friction becomes a concern to the economic growth of a business, an industry and the country at large?
China, the US, Japan, etc. Not every part of these countries, but bigger cities have systems so smooth that you can easily set up your business and get the required documents without spending much time. I am not from these countries to tell you how smooth it can be, but I am from a country where I know how much time they take. Sometimes they take months to give us an official copy of a document haha. I mean the copy alone.
Some countries have smooth systems only for those who will pay because if you are not willing to pay and want to complete your tasks in a legal and genuine way, then you will be delayed more than the normal time, so next time you won't choose this way. Instead, you will regret your decision and will pay them the next time.
Governments can do a lot if they want. It is just that they don't want to end this suffering for the poor. Mostly they don't take bribes from those who are already in a lot of power and can cause trouble and harm to the whole system. So if you have that much power, you will be given a pass at every checkpoint, but if you are poor, you will be tortured at every checkpoint, every verification post. The clerks, who are nothing and have no such jurisdiction, will cause the most trouble no one could imagine.
