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Transaction costs are the friction in the gears of society, but the worst transaction costs are the ones that reflect government failure. You can see it in ever cliche about government, from the dreaded DMV lines to the passport control bottleneck. Drawing on Milton Friedman's "Barking Cats" essay from 1973, I explore why bureaucracy remains fundamentally immune to reform efforts, regardless of which political party holds power.

The frustrating reality is that bureaucracies operate with completely different incentives than private businesses. While companies balance money costs against convenience to attract customers, government agencies focus solely on their budgets while taxing citizens with enormous "trouble costs." North Carolina's DMV perfectly illustrates this dysfunction—appointments require six-month waits while the state proudly touts its budget savings. Most maddening is that these aren't even genuine services, but rather artificial permission requirements the government imposes before allowing us to live our lives.

This represents a textbook government failure—what economists call a Pareto inferior outcome. Most citizens would gladly pay slightly more in fees or taxes to avoid wasting hours (or months) of their lives in bureaucratic purgatory. That additional revenue could easily fund more staff and faster service. Yet the system has no mechanism to capture these preferences or respond to them.

The problem isn't partisan, and it can't be fixed by shuffling leadership or staff. As Chris Rock might say about bureaucracy—"that tiger ain't go crazy, that tiger went tiger." Bureaucracy simply acts according to its nature. Reformers who believe they can fundamentally change how these institutions function are like people who want cats that bark—they fundamentally misunderstand the beast they're dealing with.

Listen in for insights on why bureaucratic inefficiency persists despite our best efforts, complete with revealing (but not really funny) quotes from political thinkers ranging from Schumpeter to Trotsky. Have your own bureaucratic horror story to share? Let me know in the comments or on social media.

Links:

Friedman article 1973

Keech and Munger article 2015

Chris Rock, "Tiger!"

Parkinson's Law

Michael Munger: The "Trouble Tax"

If you have questions or comments, or want to suggest a future topic, email the show at [email protected] !

You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz