link to original reddit post by /u/Aggressive_Reason_76

I was thinking earlier today about doing an iceberg chart on how government is incompetent or inefficient. I decided to make my own list of examples in the top of my head, but given the list worldwide is very extensive I figured it would be even better. If someone else is interested and knows photoshop it would be great.

I have only put examples of inefficiency or incompetence, so cases like holodomor or massacres will not be in this list, as they requiere intent.

Level 1:

Here go the most common examples of an inefficient government. Including but no limited to:

-Potholes

-The DMV (bad service)

-Bad local waste management

- Absurd costs governments pay for things (I.E a $640 toilet seat or spend $800k to study monkey drool)

Level 2:

-The American Public School system (reffering to how the country used to be on the top of the education ranking prior to the creation of the department of education. Now it ranks pretty low)

- Gender studies in the middle east: Another example of wasteful spending. Could go either here or in level 1.

Level 3:

-California's exodus: The current ongoing migration from California (and other blue states) to red states due to the descending standard of living.

-The 2008 financial crisis: (which wouldn't have happened if the state had created very bad incentives)

-California's railway: After 2008 California wanted to build high speed railway across the state. It hasn't been finished yet and IIRC there have been lots of overcosts.

-Tent cities: In democrat controlled states or cities tent cities have became a common phenomenon. It is very conected with the deficient real state market, which will go later.

Level 4:

-The tsa: An organization with lots of funding and little results

-Alcohol prohibition: Not american but if IIRC alcohol prohibition didn't cause people to drink less (but more) and underground bars served for financing criminals.

Level 5:

-Government didn't end child labour: I found it shocking that child labor was descending naturally without government interference.

-College tuition crisis: College tuition has increased at a gigantic rate, especially thanks to the interferance of the federal government.

Level 6:

-American Welfare state: This one if very connected with the war on poverty. Without extending a lot it has made the lives of poor americans worse. The povery rate of african americans, which had been descending from the 1860s to the 1960s even with segregation, has remained at the same level of the 1960s.

-War on poverty: More than 20 trillion dollars spent over the last 60 years to cause no difference on the poverty level of the united states.

-War on drugs: A costly failure which has put cash in the hands of criminals and created the greatest prison population in the world. (I consider the prison situation in the U.S malicious, and that's why I didn't include it)

-American Healthcare system: A extremely regulated system which, often presented to be unregulated, harms the image of capitalist healthcare. Made to protect corporations from competition, hurting consumers.

-Argentina: About everything in the country, especially pandemic management. Enormous taxes, regulations and inflation with no intent of changing anything. IIRC it scored on the top places in the misery index.

Level 7:

-The new deal: What got me into Libertarianism was learning the big lie on the narrative of how FDR fixed the USA with astronomical amount of spending. FDR had the same policy of Hoover (despite this being presented as a free market icon) and may have even extended the depression. The management of the 1920 recession would have been much better.

-Lost nukes: Check: https://www.atomicarchive.com/almanac/broken-arrows/index.html#:~:text=Since%201950%2C%20there%20have%20been,been%20lost%20and%20never%20recovered.

-The Great leap forward famines: Between 15 and 55 million deaths from the collectivization of farms.

-Venezuela's production crash: Steel, oil, gold were among the industries that were nationalized and have become inefficient as hell.

-Hiperinflation: A continuation to the last one. The destruction of the purchasing value of the people, although I would argue is extremely maliciuos, may be done out of mere ignorance.

Level 8:

-The economic calculation problem: Every attempt of the government of controlling the economy will be rendered useless for the lack of market prices. Prices are valuable information for the producers on efficiency, and without them efficiency won't be possible.

Those would be the levels I have thought about, but I'm open to any suggestions!