I agree. With all the brains, you'd think we wouldn't let the government abuse us so much.
perhaps its just the fact that California is so huge and local control over expenditures is really, really gone. Its much easier to use people when they're far away and not your neighbors. Its a lot harder to see exactly how you're being bled dry when there are 18 layers of obfuscation.
It suffers from the same issues that the federal government does: democracy doesn't scale. The larger the task of governing, the harder it is, the more room for graft and waste, rent-seeking and inefficiency.
The US is the largest economy in the world and last I checked California is the 5th. Places like Sweden have higher taxes, but they also have a much more manageable task of governance and more efficient public sectors. You put some tax money into the Swedish government and you might get some valuable services out of it. You give some to Uncle Sam or Uncle Arnold, and it is disappearing in some corporate/union/special interest pocket through some thousand-page bill.
exactly. the smaller the country, the better run it seems. I like Switzerland's model.
its impossible for someone to siphon off resources when the democracy consists of 10 people and almost certain to happen when there's 50 million.
Of course, the naysayers will tell you that complex societies are tough to manage and require more government, but that's bunk. It should require less government, as there is far less border per person to defend.
perhaps its just the fact that California is so huge and local control over expenditures is really, really gone. Its much easier to use people when they're far away and not your neighbors. Its a lot harder to see exactly how you're being bled dry when there are 18 layers of obfuscation.