Some robust metrics for administrative capacity and performance would be good, but it is not obvious how that would work. It is bothersome that much of this an

Some robust metrics for administrative capacity and performance would be good, but it is not obvious how that would work. It is bothersome that much of this analysis ends up being layers of questionable conclusions. For example, the idea that the US has trouble with subways is often justified by reference to the LA subway and the NYC Second Avenue subway. Closer inspection, though, reveals that the LA subway was put off for so long in part because it was known that it would require much tunneling through rock which would be very expensive. In the case of the NYC Second Avenue subway the initial proposal was made roughly one hundred years ago and was rejected as unreasonably expensive to attempt because of the extensive complications. The subway plan was raised again and again over the years each time being rejected as unrealistically expensive. Then recently it was decided that improvements to tunneling technology would finally make the Second Avenue subway possible, but unfortunately when completed it turned out to have been unreasonably expensive to build. Instead of taking into account the context and nearly one hundred years of analysis concluding that the Second Avenue subway could not be practically built people instead conclude that the cost overruns are part of some mysterious malaise that has settled on all infrastructure construction work. It could easily be the case that American administrative capacity is not in decline, but society has become more complex. Certainly the move from paper records to digital media has greatly improved administrative capacity across almost all commercial industry and government.