I gave my questions as examples of large groups behaving unoptimally. That happens all the time everywhere, so using the "well why hasn't the market sorted it out then" argument against any one question (vacation policy in this case) is a little naive.

> Are you expecting everyone's political opinions to mesh with yours so closely that we'll all agree if a theory seems to contradict them, it must obviously invalidate the theory?

I don't see where politics come into this unless you think Prop 13 is good for Californians or that U.S.'s nation-building in Iraq went swimmingly.