Conditions of complex problems and opportunities

From Neoliberal Welfare Policy for the U.S. 2/17 by Arnold Kling.  The subheading is "The Federal government is too clumsy."  He is discussing policy approaches which might function as a universal basic income (UBI) without all the negative consequences of UBI.  Mildly interesting.

What I liked is an upfront statement of four principles or observations.  I would put them more generally than in the context of UBI.  My version would be longer but more encompassing.  For any problem or opportunity:

There will always be disparate outcomes as long as there is variance in capability and circumstances.  The coercion necessary to iron out natural variance is incompatible with innovation, prosperity and human flourishing.

Variance in capability includes inherited attributes, acquired knowledge, cultivated skills, chosen behaviors, and developed goals.  These typically are shaped by religion, culture, class and era circumstance.  Every individual varies on every dimension both in absolute and relative ways.  

People suffer economic hardship for a variety of reasons. These include the direct consequences of their own choices; the (often unanticipated) indirect or second-order consequences of their own choices; and,  consequences arising from conditions over which they have little or no control.

Public and social policy is very scale dependent.  Many programs can succeed at a micro level but fail when scaled.  

The more specific and local the knowledge needed, the more likely there is to be scale failure.  

All human systems are constrained by money, time and talent.  All algorithmic systems are limited by computational power.  

The knowledge problem is real.  The more complex, dynamic, interdependent and chaotic the problem definition, the less amenable it is to computational solution.  

The larger the scale, necessarily the more remote from the problem.  The more remote from the problem, the greater the probability of failure.  

Problem definition and iterative experimentation are necessary elements of any evolved solution.  

All problems and opportunities are subject to the above conditions.  To understand the options, one must understand the above conditions in terms of the problem or opportunity.