From Broken to FUBAR
Partial list of areas where the whole damn thing is broken.
You do not have to look far to find a problem so utterly messed up that you can properly invoke the old military saying.
This does not mean it cannot be fixed relatively simply, which is certainly not the same thing as "easily". Although, I do find most simple fixes to be theoretically easy if we could just get over ourselves including casting aside vested, concentrated, special interests who are out to benefit themselves at society's expense.
Housing (subsidize demand while restricting supply v1) - Homeowner debt is advantaged in our tax code (a bit of foreshadowing of an item below). Additionally there are many financial inducements for homeownership. Added to this are the many subsidies for home purchase or rent. At the same time building/creating/providing homes (for rent or ownership) is heavily restricted to the point of being quasi illegal in many cases. And credit is very constrained by legal regulation shutting out many potential buyers—who then become renters. Kevin Erdmann is your guide to this one.
Higher Education (subsidize demand while restricting supply v2) - Even before student loan forgiveness was a gleam in the progressives’ eyes, we had significant distortions in the market for higher education. On the demand side we directly fund institutions, directly fund students, encourage employment credentialing to the point of requirement, and otherwise separate costs from benefits. Then we restrict production through direct means like preventing and punishing competitors (accreditation and failure to fund) and indirect means like refusal to expand (If the ivies are so grand, why are they so small?). In addition to all this, this institution suffers from a decay that might not be correctable in at least a great many of the places where the disease has metastasized. Arnold Kling is insightful on this topic.
Primary Public (Government) Education - I'm fairly convinced it is not possible to ascribe good intentions to those in power. Certainly most teachers, many administrators, and almost all parents are who are participants in the system do indeed have good intentions. There is no better case study in the power and importance of good incentives with regard to organizational theory and design. Intentions are not enough. Where government school works, it is private school in disguise—schools that are exclusive by virtue of neighborhood price tag. I’ll channel Corey DeAngelis via Bryan Caplan to bring a fuller picture.
Immigration - The best way to understand the problems with immigration is to see it as a highly distorted aspect of the labor market. It is a series of own-goals whereby we create barriers between job seekers and available jobs—both those that exist and those that would exist. Chaos at the border is a symptom on the disorder that is nevertheless emblematic of the ailment. David Bier gives a semi-deep dive into this.
Drug Policy - It goes something like this: Bad things are bad, but, uh, these other drugs are good. Subsidize the good ones. For those in between that people of status enjoy, treat them much more favorably even if still discouraged. Don't do anything that might in the least encourage the baddies so no harm reduction. Ignore the Iron Law of Prohibition. If we simply preach and imprison enough, we will slay this dragon. Rinse and repeat and double down. Jeffrey Singer sees through this nonsense.
Taxation - Must I explain? We needlessly complicate it to a level that only a self-centered tax lawyer, accountant, or financial planner could appreciate (and profit from). We tax the things we want more of (resource creation), and we avoid taxing the things we want less of (resource use/destruction). The entire thing is totally rotten. Scott Sumner is a beacon of reason here.
Healthcare Financing/Payments & (to a lesser extent) Provision (subsidize demand while restricting supply v3) - Yet again we find ourselves getting the worst combination of socialism plus subsidy—say what you will of the adherents of Lenin; at least they didn’t hand out BOGO coupons to people waiting in the bread lines. Juliette Sellgren’s interview of Michael Cannon provides more insight.
Foreign Policy - Foreign policy is inherently complicated and fraught. Engagements are naturally quagmires waiting to happen. This is sadly to the benefit of those who sell arms and those who preach crusade. Keep this in mind: there is essentially no way to plausibly argue that there are good guys and bad guys because in all but the most absolutely exceptional situations we (the American government) supports, funds, arms, aids, helps, and fights, arms/funds enemies of, thwarts, backstabs, ousts, etc. BOTH SIDES in virtually every conflict. Not to mention the U.S. government creating and/or escalating many, many conflicts. Here Richard Hanania is very instructive. Scott Horton is as well—his 20-year anniversary lookback at the Iraq War is a thorough example—even if he is just a bit too conspiratorial in some of the conclusions he draws.
Notice how these are members of my The Big Six—low-hanging fruit of public policy. So what makes them simple/easy to fix at least in the cases of The Big Six? For the very fact that they are so dreadfully messed up, any work toward a solution will come with magnified results. Plus we can consider dramatic, wholesale changes since we can hardly make it worse.
So be optimistic—as bad as it is, it almost has to get better if we only try.