Like driving while poor. It’s very very common for someone to get a fine that they can not pay, then lose their drivers license for failure to pay. Then get stopped and have to deal with driving without a license, which can include jail time.
You may also be missing the fact that many other countries weren’t designed around needing a car. Chances are, if you can’t afford a fine in the first place, losing access to driving will guarantee that you cannot work, making it less likely you can afford to pay the fine. It’s the escalation that’s the problem, but also indicative of the punitive nature of laws weighted against underclasses. Any law with a fixed rate fine is essentially a law that “only exists” for the poor.
You may be right that this is a world wide problem, and I’m only imagining places that don’t punish the poor so harshly. That said, I saw an article recently that gives me hope. It was a jurisdiction in the US where police handed out gift cards to some auto parts store instead of citations when pulling over vehicles for faulty equipment. While the cynic in me thinks this is just a play by the auto parts store to grow it’s market, I like to think it’ll provide good data to drive policy.
I can't speak for other countries, but here in the UK courts can be resistant to charges snowballing like this against a defendant as it's a recognised problem. Fines can be delayed, split into instalments, reduced or put pending against credit history for up to 5 years - although if they find you are able to pay but unwilling they get tough fast. DWL can result in longer suspension of a license, fines, or community service.
It does help that traveling by public transport here is a lot less likely to be a problem, to be fair.
Source: good friend was a public defender.