I don’t remember where I first heard it but this is one of the most thought-provoking things I’ve come across in recent years, often in a very uncomfortable way.
“The output of a system is the purpose of that system”
It made me look at the harmful results of systems not as accidents or imperfections to be fixed but as intended or at least tolerated outcomes.
e.g. An economy that has homeless people is, at least in part, designed to make some people homeless.