Way to name drop inside Medium. :-)

Yeah, no one wants to examine why we do what we do too closely. That tends to never make sense in aggregate. Reminds me of pols telling citizens almost every year that their tax increases, of any kind including fees, are a smaller percentage than some previous years or time periods. Yeh, statistics. But governments big and small are acting at the behest of elites all over the globe, that's a huge reason for the lack of government funding, the .gov tax revenue distros around the planet are made to look like they need more each year.

That is, we have yet to identify the big welfare loafers around the planet. Who do we know live by a philosophy of more and more each year? Yep, the elites of growth capitalism are driving this faux revenue shortage, and not alternative ideas of living within our means on the planet. Unfortunately as you note that ship has sailed.