“ So the first thing we’d see is that institutions matter — only America doesn’t have many, enough of them” — Well, I think we have way too many institutions. Let’s look at the environmental organisations. We have our town Conservation Commission. I know these folks socially, I can go to them and get something done. Then there’s a State Department of Natural Resources — small state, I can have a chance at making some impact there, I know my State Rep socially, I can go to her and get some action. Then there’s the EPA. No chance I can get that giant bureaucracy to even acknowledge my concerns, even if I go to my state Congressional Reps and Senators. But there’s more — NGOs. We have a local NGO for our lake. But there's also a regional Lake NGO, and a statewide lake NGO. We have four state Audubon NGOs, and then there’s the National Audubon.
There’s sometimes conflict in the goals of all these different institutions. Federal Threatened Species wants to, and has, sought to re-establish Bald Eagles in our area. Loon Committee wants to grow the population of loons. But last year, the eagles ate all the loon chicks.
I could do the same for food security. Local food pantry, state Food Bank, State Government food assistance programs, and how many different Federal bureaucracies with a slice of this pie?