I'm guessing you're american even though this story Is about a british voting system. So you want local military, local FAA, local social security, local CDC, local EPA, local interstate highways, local FDA, local FDIC, local NASA, local weather satellites... I could go on but it seems like every little city providing all these services might be a tad wasteful.
Why would it be wasteful: Lack of economies of scale.
If you claim that states or municipalities can get together to leverage such scale, then you've just reintroduced bureaucracy and waste. This is why centralized control is useful. The US Federal government, one of the largest employers in the US (cause there is a lot of stuff to do for citizens) can guarantee health insurance to its workers because it's big.
This is what frustrates me so much about republican/conservative free market rhetoric. They hate government because it interferes with markets, and then they try and hobble the government's ability to use market forces to save tax payers money. And then they accuse the government of being wasteful.
Ah, so the goal isn't some principle about democracy, it's about a desire to get rid of SS, let polluters pollute, and to have unsafe food. He should have come out and said that then.
Or, perhaps overreaching bureaucracies should be eliminated and allow these united states to handle their own populace as they see fit, while abiding by the Constitution.
