Agree with a lot of this. The Espstein analogy wasn’t supposed to be about the degree of problem, but about its *kind.* in other words, it was just meant to show that a “fair” system that inevitably requires human subjectivity, that is overrun with corruption, liars, cheating-as-a-rule, and outright malice, does not mean that its design ensures a fair or just outcome. 

The point you make about how bad the conditions were in the country help bring that point home. You can’t fix awful values and a society run by fear with a cleverly designed bureaucratic process. Ultimately it is still all executed and enforced by humans. 

Again this isn’t a claim of what action should be taken. Only that there are no clear options even though some may seem “sound” in principle, when we forget that the system isn’t mathematical like #Bitcoin, but inescapably human in its operation.