• Institutional clarity to demand not just efficiency, but purpose. Our agencies, programs, and budgets should be judged not by in- puts, but by whether they enhance the quality of life for all. • Civic clarity to recognize that we are not passive victims. We are participants. And if the theft continues, it is because we have al- lowed it to be normalized, rationalized, and disguised. In Theft at the Public Till , I argued that the problem was not bad people but bad systems—systems without a goal, systems incapable of aligning incentives with values. That argument holds. But now we must add: these systems persist because they benefit powerful actors, and because too often the public lacks the tools, the language, or the solidarity to fight back. Let this afterword serve not as an epitaph, but as an invitation: to resist resignation, to demand alignment, and to remember that while the theft may be systemic, so too can be the solution. Because if time was once “coming,” and later “now,” then in 2025, the reality is starker still. Time is nearly past. But it need not be final.
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