Public-service institutions are out to maximize rather than to optimize.
The most important obstacle to innovation is that public-service institutions exist, after all, to “do good.” This means that they tend to see their mission as a moral absolute rather than as economic and subject to a cost/benefit calculus. Economics always seeks a different allocation of the same resources to obtain a higher yield. In the public-service institution, there is no such thing as a higher yield. If one is “doing good,” then there is no “better.” Indeed, failure to attain objectives in the quest for a “good” only means that efforts need to be redoubled.
“Our mission will not be completed,” asserts the head of the Crusade ...
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