I think bureaucracies do tend to suck, but I also think there are often people who stand to gain from making a bureaucracy suck. For that reason, I suspect it'

I think bureaucracies do tend to suck, but I also think there are often people who stand to gain from making a bureaucracy suck. For that reason, I suspect it's good idea to leave interpretive space for the possibility that a given bureaucracy has been intentionally hamstrung, or is Kafkaesque by design. I suspect calling Comcast is miserable because the process is designed to exhaust and manipulate you out of quitting, for example. I suspect it's possible to build systems that enable you to ensure an ER visit will cost $500 instead of $10000--but our insurance companies may feel like the uncertainty deters people from seeking care.