>a LOT of things work better than they do in the West, not because of monetary incentives, but because things are simply done differently here, and some things are done better.
I'm not totally convinced though, because a lot of times when you investigate these "simply works better" claims, it's because the end users, either through culture or training, have been taught to accept bad service and not complain about it, which glosses over a lot of the real problems with some of these systems that we're told work better.
I'm directly comparing my personal experience as a consumer who grew up in Canada and then moved to Eastern Europe. There's a lot of stuff I didn't imagine could possibly "work better" but they do.
Furniture. Instead of buying fixed mass-SKU items from IKEA or Amazon, it is common to order custom-made furniture in Ukraine. I once ordered an office table in Ukraine on Rozetka (Ukraine's version of Amazon) and was surprised when the seller reached out and asked me what height I want it, at no additional cost.
Dentists. For 10% of the cost you get the same (or usually better) service. I've been doing regular dental cleaning since I was a child.
Delivery. Ukraine's delivery service Nova Poshta Shopping in Ukraine allows me to order from almost anywhere in the world, including Amazon in the USA (they have shipping addresses and warehouses all over the world). I recently ordered a spare part in the US and a book in the UK from different sellers in those countries, and both items reached me within 10 days in Ukraine at less than the cost of shipping within the original country. Much better the poor experience of international shipping in the US and Canada.
Also another cool thing when ordering online in Ukraine is that the post office allows you try and return things in the post office itself. So you can order second-hand items on a market like eBay/Craigslist and you don't need to trust the seller. You can open the box, test to see if it the thing works, and send it back to seller if it's not to your satisfaction -- the post office itself takes escrow of the item for a minimal cost, and transfers money to the seller only if you got to try the item and are satisfied with it. This means you can easily buy second hand stuff online without organizing local meetup or needing to trust the seller.
ATMs. You can withdraw cash from most bank ATMs without even having a bank card on you, just by scanning a QR-code from your phone using the banking app.
Identity theft protection. All major dealings in the bank in Ukraine are photo-id'ed, i.e. the teller takes a picture of you when you make a request on your account. This really helps against identity theft, as a person with all your details would also have to fake your appearance to be able to open a mortgage or get credit.
I'm not totally convinced though, because a lot of times when you investigate these "simply works better" claims, it's because the end users, either through culture or training, have been taught to accept bad service and not complain about it, which glosses over a lot of the real problems with some of these systems that we're told work better.