[SunshineTheCat]

> they pass laws to regulate things they have zero clue about

While you are correct with this statement in this context, I would say it applies to most things in government in general.

The vast majority of lawmakers have zero experience solving any real world problems and are content spending everyone else's money to play pretend at doing so.

The reality is, most government "solutions" cause more problems than they solve, after which, they blame their predecessors for all the problems they caused and the cycle continues.

[wredcoll]

> The reality is, most government "solutions" cause more problems than they solve

The "reality" is that propaganda heavily encourages you to ignore the government successes and only focus on the failures. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine who benefits from that.

[SunshineTheCat]

> "government successes"

Please, name for me one product or service that the US government has created, that people willingly buy, that has made your life tangibly better.

I can list a billion made by businesses.

Please, go for it. Just one.

[ericb]

I see Massachusetts as sort of the non-insane liberal counterpoint to California.

Things work here and nobody seems to be passing the "oops my unintended side effects and clueless regulations messed things up horribly." Or, if they do, it is at something like 1/10th the level.

We didn't start warning label spam everywhere. We don't have weird propositions that are causing run-away housing prices. There aren't bar codes on our 3d printers, or cookie banner requirements on every website. Well, ok we do, but that nonsense all came in from other places.

We did pass laws to lower PFAS/PFOAS. That seems reasonable. Government can work.

[cucumber3732842]

MA legislature is too busy enriching themselves with back room dealing to f the state up too much.

I wish I was joking. They get audited yet? Pretty sure that was a ballot measure that passed by a huge margin years back and last I checked they were stalling...

[wredcoll]

> We don't have weird propositions that causing run-away housing prices.

Most of those are a reaction rather than the cause. People want to move to california, it creates a different set of problems for california vs Massachusetts

[dlev_pika]

I like MA, but you realize the challenges are vastly different, right?

The sheer size, economic volume and cultural diversity of CA presents a pretty unique set of issues.

[alistairSH]

most government "solutions" cause more problems than they solve

Zero basis in fact. We’re in the wealthiest nation on the planet. Most of us live better than any previous generation. To claim all that success is completely in spite of government is ridiculous.

[SunshineTheCat]

Are you under the impression that the government created all that wealth?

[rurban]

Wealthiest nation? More like unwealthiest of all nations.

U. S. by far the largest current-account deficit (over $1.2 trillion).

U.S. has the largest goods trade deficit (over $1 trillion).

[Hammershaft]

It's true, and yet there are real market failures that even a very ineffective government can improve on dramatically, like innovation & research output via basic science.