The real cost of living. [The "transaction cost" of being alive.]

WendyMcElroy.com: The transaction costs of life are soaring:

"For a few years, I have been complaining to my husband that the transaction cost of being alive was soaring...and almost always because of increased governmental requirements and ensuing governmental inefficiency. One example: it took me 8 months to get a replacement birth certificate that I needed for no other reason than to meet the requirements of another government form that was necessary to engage in an activity that was previously handled by the production of a driver's license. I have never been arrested; the most legal attention I have ever gleaned is a parking ticket. As an anarchist, I have no excuse. But a clean slate does put me in the enviable position of probably never being denied entry into the world's ports. What I am denied is freedom of travel and that denial comes in the form of transaction costs."