What you are suggesting is that all societal problems are "people problems". So we should just give up trying long-term solutions and just engage in partisan po

What you are suggesting is that all societal problems are "people problems". So we should just give up trying long-term solutions and just engage in partisan politics all the time. You are making the perfect the enemy of the good. This is not about fixing everything all the time. This is about giving individuals in general leverage against their institutions. The goal is to put systems in place that make the individual battles (for liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness) easier. I think your failure to identify the nature of this situation is emblematic of a failure of common liberal/leftist thought. P.S. We still live in a time of great prosperity and freedom. That's largely due to technological progress. Technology can be the difference between feasible and impossible regulation. Technology changes the very landscape on which the political battles occur. To ignore the influence of technology on politics is to go into battle blindfolded.