[twobyfour]

Here's a major one the article missed: short-sightedness.

In industry and commerce, that may be optimizing for short-term cost-cutting over long-term efficiency.

In education, that might be standards and incentives that lead schools to "teach the test" so the teacher/school gets a positive evaluation this semester - rather than investing in teaching how to learn or instilling a love of learning.

In healthcare, that might be high costs and bureaucratic obstacles that deter people from seeking evaluative and preventative care - at the cost of much more expensive later-stage treatments down the line.

In real estate, it could be crappy building materials and lower standards of craftsmanship that help build faster and cheaper but result in more problems and higher utility and eventually maintenance costs down the line.

In infrastructure, it can be deferring maintenance so you can cut taxes - resulting in more expensive repairs when things fall apart completely for want of a bit of paint or grease.

And so on ad nauseum.

[tmbsundar]

In quality circles this is known as cost of poor quality. We might need Deming type thinking again to counter the short term thinking.

* Deming's chain reaction: *

http://www.transformationforum.org/Chain_Reaction.html