It's... People!
"When someone says that getting rid of religion would prevent untold wars and loss of life I say they are vastly underestimating the power of people to find a reason to hate one another."
—Anonymous
What's to blame for societies problems? Bloated government, international banking and organized religion, right? Wrong. Despite what techno-anarchists, the right-wing media, sovereign citizens and libertarians say, the problems of the world are caused by, and have always been caused by, people. Specifically, assholes. In fact, most if not all of the problems in your life right now are caused, usually by several degrees of separation, by some douche bag. Work only gives you a half hour for lunch? Poor service at a restaurant? Long line at the DMV? The problem isn't structural to employment, food service or the government. Somebody, somewhere is saying, "Let's not spend money on that."
My complaint here is that for whatever reason, people on the radical left and/or right are quick to blame established institutions rather than the people in charge of them. They feel if we would just tear it all down then create a new society, more freedom and justice would emerge. The question that always comes to mind is this: What about the assholes? What makes institutions corrupt isn't the institution itself but the people in charge, mostly assholes. Any new institution you build is just as likely to be staffed by terrible people. In fact, a totally free society will give the terrible people that much more latitude to be terrible. If we chopped the law books in half what would you do with your new freedom? Speed? Steal? Murder? Well, I know you wouldn't but we all know someone that would. You can't give freedom just to the good people. We either all get it or no one does.
Our bloated, overly complex and molasses-paced government actually does a pretty good job at curtailing the influence of jagoffs. It's done so with laws. From speeding to theft to murder to insider trading the underlying theme of laws is this: Don't be a selfish asshole. Increasingly complex laws beget an unwieldy bureaucracy but it is the complexity and the dilution of power that prevent assholes from taking over entirely. That is the price we pay to live in the safest era of human history. And as long as the world is absolutely full of complete and total cocks, I gladly sacrifice my freedom.