[notShabu]

In trading there is an idea called the "hurdle" which is a measure of inefficiency that any trade has to be above in order to actually make a profit. E.g. if the bid/ask spread for gold chains or options is 2% then any arbitrage has to be better than 2%.

For companies this hurdle rate is from political friction. Any improvement that doesn't provide benefits in excess of the political friction generated doesn't get implemented.

And in large institutions this friction can be very high. E.g. planes not crashing for Boeing or kids-not-being-shot for the U.S. seem like obvious things-to-fix.

But they generate so much destabilizing political friction that they just can't.