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More Cosmetics Than Reality

No single elected official has the power to change the system. The system is, in fact, largely unelected and unappointed. The bureaucracies are massive. The cumulative regulations and legislation that empowers them are monumentally complex, impossible for any single mind or any one generation to comprehend. The process of reform is messy, structured so that the special interests with the most lose get decide where it goes. It is highly unlikely that this process will result in an overall net good for the cause of human liberty. This is why there seems to be so little relationship between promised results and actual results. We do well to keep in mind that politics is more about cosmetics than reality.
Also, someone inside the system has little chance of changing it. A well-established tradition of merit rating becomes the current system's most valuable weapon for its own survival. People who attempt to change the system (for the better) have no chance of recognition. (N. Logothetis)

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