Asset Mis-allocation.
This is a serious and chronic illness which you may not see it in short term.
For instance, all the funds used to built the sophisticated expressway do not alleviate the traffic problem, only to aggravate it. Imagine if this fund is properly channelled to finance the mass rapid transit like skytrain and subway some 10-15 years ago.
In investing, assest mis-allocation could do harm to your portfolio as well. Mis-proprtion of fixed income and equity portion in your portfolio could retard your expected return and eventually reduced your retirement nestegg.
To ensure that you don't mis-allocate your money, you need to establish the investment philosophy and stick to it. You can read more about this subject in "Common Stocks and Uncommon profit" by Phil Fisher.
Alas, once the government has mis-allocated the budget, only the honest tax payers, like us suffer. Anybody in the goverment dare to take responsiblity. NONE...I feel so sad.