[mlyle]

> "The system" is a hodgepodge of thousands of different laws, programs, agencies and organizations under a multitude of federal, state, county and city jurisdictions and operating under rules and budgets that were approved over numerous different sets of elected and appointed individuals over decades, each of which had to strike compromises and try to work within the existing system.

Yah... the problem is, there's a critical mass where the main job of the system becomes to perpetuate the status quo. Efforts at simplification or to raise efficacy are threatening to too much of the system and attract substantial resistance.

I think a core problem facing the US is a lack of administrative capacity in government. We have excessively complicated systems collapsing under their own weight, but steadfastly defending their own existence. We have the political right thinking this is an inevitable characteristic of government, and so they create a self-fulfilling prophecy by kneecapping administrative strengths whenever they can; and we have a political left that is so excited about all the things government can do to help that they don't spend nearly enough effort considering how we can build the administrative systems necessary to reap these benefits.