[pas]

> [--------] didn't care that product quality was dropping off a cliff.

fill in the blanks! it's not management, it's the customer. if the customer doesn't care management doesn't care.

it's a tragedy, but it's what it is. citizens as users need to demand better. it's just politics. in the end revealed preferences show that users don't care that much. they learn the shitty system to do their thing, and then they go home to their family/dog/MMORPG/life.

and users don't care on the meta level either, to have better procurement processes.

[asoneth]

You're right, management was simply the messenger relaying customer priorities.

I will point out that enough consumers are willing to pay for a quality products that many niche companies exist to serve them. Many citizens choose to move to countries/states with better services even if they have to pay higher taxes. There are employees who reject higher-paying jobs that require interacting with poor-quality software or processes. (I work for a niche company that makes and uses high-quality products in a high-tax / high service state so I know many people like this!)

> citizens as users need to demand better.

I get what you mean, but as you point out many people's revealed preferences show that they don't actually want quality in which case they already do "demand better" -- it's just that for them "better" means cheap, fast, and convenient.