Indeed, the first measure of a government should be its degree of success at preventing people from seizing unjustified advantages. Successful production of services depends on one or both of these meta-policies. While industrious workers, skilled management, and dynamic leadership are desirable, they are not always reli- ably accessible. Competition and community do not substitute for government. They are the instruments through which gov- ernment facilitates the working out of public purposes by a free people.
State government is frequently unproductive.
Funds intended for one pur- pose are used for others. Usually this is not so much the perverse achievement of villains as misallocation by a system gone awry. As we will see, the rules and bureaucratic incentives that pervade government often permit and even encourage ordinary people to act in ways that protect themselves while harming others. State government is so important and so costly that it must be made more productive. Not to do so would jeopardize our future as weighty tasks continue to be performed poorly.