Simple example: just compare IRS tax forms with HMRC here in the UK. It's as night and day. Even though they're both income tax agencies administering a complex

Simple example: just compare IRS tax forms with HMRC here in the UK. It's as night and day. Even though they're both income tax agencies administering a complex tax code. (Yes, the hobbling of government is limited to certain functions: and even within those functions it varies considerably -- it can be argued that there's serious incompetence in the administration of big military procurement contracts, for example, but the reason is that it makes it easier to spread the pork around, which is necessary to steer any large project through to completion because of the way federal spending is administered; whereas once the horrifyingly expensive procurement program has delivered a weapons system, actually operating it is usually carried out quite effectively.)