Xan, Ive never heard someone talk about a country like that other than the US.
I can understand how frustrating it must be to see it so plainly. Is there any sort of talk about adressing those problems (waste of resources, corruption, abuse of authority)?
Do you feel like your country could ever overcome the problems you pointed out?

I'm going to agree with Pete on America, but go into a little more detail...
The civil freedoms of americans is definately a double edged sword,
In the eyes of the law and governing powers, an individual has the benefit of the doubt every time. The best example I can give is this:
Imagine a guy is clearly casing a neighborhood. You can tell he doesn't live there because he's driving slowly, eyeing each house in detail. You've seen him doing this plenty of times before and you realize it is only a matter of time before he breaks into someone's house.
If you report him to the police as a suspicious person, a unit will come. If they show up in time and actually spot him, they'll ask him specific questions such as where he's going and where he came from.
Its not difficult to pretend he's just out for a drive, so the cop tells him to leave the neigborhood.
But he's free to come back.
He's free to continue casing the area and will probably just change the time of day he rolls through until he is comfortable that a particular house is unoccupied and risk of being caught are lowest.

There's really nothing you can do. You cant prove he is planning anything illigal. You can confront him, but you cant forcably remove him.

It goes beyond that, but its a good example.

Another thing I deal with daily is sexism and racism. That may sound dumb, considering Im a white male, but hear me out.
Everyone is quick to accuse me of sexism or racism. I have to consciously watch what I say very closely because nearly any conversation can be twisted into one of the two.
I have learned since back in school not to mention someone's race at all, even if it would clarify for the listener who the subject is. I am not able to point out differences of cultural backgrounds or gender, even when the idea directly impacts an explination for miscommunication between people that i am trying to clarify.
I work with a lot of chinese people, they don't understand American slang. I'm not able to say that to most people I work with.

Whats worse is I have been accused of sexism at work when I was in the Navy. Not for anything I said, simply for the way I split up the work load (trying to put people who get along naturally together on tasks or simply putting someone on a job they are already good at).
It came to a point where I had to spend weeks proving that I was not motivated by anything other than a subordinates knowledge, quals and work ethic.

I was accused of racism once there. Luckily, it was by a kid who claimed every white person he worked with was racist and it blew over quickly.

Its a serious issue in american society, though. The white male is always the abuser. I understand that douchebags in the past messed it up for me, but people my age and younger never had it bad. Diversity is celebrated these days, not insulted. I'm all for it which is why it angers me to be accused of something so petty.

Truth is, every time I've had to deal with an accusation like that, it was because someone was trying to get out of doing their job. The union mentality, someone else can do it, pass it off to the next guy, everyone else is doing it.
Guarentee, Im the 'next guy'. I am that someone else and it causes those lazy asses to resent me because Im "making them look bad", or "ruining their good thing".

Thats just about every day for me.