Little by little, bit by bit, family by family, so much good can be done on so many levels

There is no reason to believe that bureaucrats and politicians, no matter how well meaning, are better at solving problems than the people on the spot, who have the strongest incentive to get the solution right.

What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people versus just having somebody in Washington make a rule.

Bureaucrats sometimes do not have the correct information, while citizens and users of resources do.

In some settings, however, rampant opportunistic behavior severely limits what can be done jointly without major investments in monitoring and sanctioning arrangements.