Liberalism is what's wrong. The pirates could be taken care of in a month, but the liberals wouldn't allow what it would take to do so. The same goes for Afghanistan. The economic system's condition is due to massive over regulation. Tens of thousands of pages of new regulations are passed every year, and they are always looking for new angles to tax and regulate us even more.

Appealing to the lowest common denominator in our society is a big factor as well. Look who makes up an increasing large percentage of the government workforce, and you can esily see where the inefficiency is coming from. Intelligence testing for government positions has been eliminated in favor of political vote buying.