> U.S. is too bureaucratic or unfair Not so much at the local level where a citizen deals with the bureaucracy, but certainly at the level where lots of money

> U.S. is too bureaucratic or unfair Not so much at the local level where a citizen deals with the bureaucracy, but certainly at the level where lots of money gets allocated and spent, such as military procurement. Just look at what SpaceX has managed to achieve largely outside the world of government cost-plus contracting at a small fraction of the budget of its competitors. Large parts of the military-industrial complex are jobs programs for underserved portions of the country disguised as 'defense'. The inefficiency is purposeful. It keeps mounds of people employed in states where there otherwise wouldn't be much investment. It requires an army of federal bureaucrats who spend years writing detailed waterfall-style calls for bids, then an army of engineers at the large firms that craft bids that are happen to be perfectly suited to the government's needs. A clique of politicians from those states that will provide unwavering support to make sure the jobs remain in their states A small town worth of lawyers, accountants, inspectors, to make sure that the entire process is 'fair' and 'transparent', and to produce thousands of pages of documentation to a public that will never read (but is always available to defend against charges of corruption). This is still 'corruption', but legally, done at a massive, industrial scale and with more steps. But note that much of this is simply make-work, the equivalent of digging holes and filling them again. The country would probably be safer and have a better military if we were just honest with ourselves, made those industries efficient, and then pay off the existing beneficiaries with direct transfers and massive investments in health care and education.