It's bad because of the lack of a fitness function: if we do something inefficiently, but we can afford to pay for it(which we always have, because of resources

It's bad because of the lack of a fitness function: if we do something inefficiently, but we can afford to pay for it(which we always have, because of resources, having-an-empire, new technologies, etc.), it just keeps going. Once the buck stops, heads roll, and the parts of US history where it got close to that, the textbooks like to say as little about as possible. So, most of the positive changes we make come from either random whims of the rich: "we can't have that here, my sinuses are too delicate", or moments of revolt that scare the rich into action. But the actions also tend to be random and often go down the authoritarian maintain-status-quo route.