Make government simple again

Take education. For most children from K-12, people pay into a universal public school system. But when it comes to college, we have partially government-supported schools, topped up with a hellish maze of subsidized loans and grants, and the world’s dumbest tax-advantaged savings account for parents. How about decent public and community college (where the vast majority of students go) paid for with taxes?

Retirement is a similar problem. We load tons of responsibility on individuals, who are supposed to use tax-advantaged accounts like the 401(k) to save and invest in one of a slew of complicated mutual fund plans. Unsurprisingly, it does not work for most people. Instead it mainly fuels a cottage industry of swindlers who trick people into high-fee plans. How about instead we expand Social Security, paid for with taxes?

Or take health care. The whole health-care industry could not possible exist without the elaborate network of government regulations, subsidies, and programs that backstop it at every point. Yet the amount of complexity this system dumps on the citizenry is simply brain-melting.