Social Security
Medicare
Public Hospitals
Public Education (primary and secondary)
Public T***sportation
Welfare
Insurance
Minimum wage, maximum hours, overtime, child labor
Pensions

and so on.

Over 24 million people work directly for Federal, State, and Local governments.

Federal contractors employ over 19 million people.

Then there are state and local government contractors...I couldn't find numbers for those in the brief time I spent looking.

Thus, America is pretty heavily on the side of Socialism.

Yes, judging in general is very personal. I judge visual arts for a pageantry circuit locally so am in tune with how *we* do it, and those individuals involved with adjudication. We are experts in our field, and I would expect no less from a contest ran by a reputable organization in our visual medium. Criteria is key, and any contest on the up-and-up would have such for the judges to use
as a base for their commentary. But, realistically, judges are human and subject to their experience when looking at *anything* much less ranking something esoteric like photos. I like to think most, if not all, adjudicators have a sense of responsibility toward their task and are serious about their judgment(s)...and I think that's all you can ask for. But an advantage would be to know what the criteria is any given event, neh? In our marching band shows tailoring our shows to the judges criteria (AKA "writing to the sheets") is bottom line...if you don't it becomes even more of a dice shoot.