“Our politicians have been in the business of giving us more of what we want — more education, more health care, more prisons, more pensions, more security, more entitlements.  And yet — here is the paradox — we are not happy.  Having overloaded the state with their demands, voters are furious that it works so badly.  In America the federal government has less support than George III did at the time of the American Revolution:  Just 17 percent of Americans say that they have confidence in the federal government, less than half of the 36 percent found in 1990 and a quarter of the 70 percent found in the 1960s.  More people now identify themselves as independents than they do as Republicans and Democrats.

“In short, the state is in trouble.  The mystery is why so many people assume that radical change is unlikely.  The status quo in fact is the least likely option.”

John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, “The Fourth Revolution,” in Cato Policy Report (July/August 2014)