Typical story
It is always baffle me why people suggesting that the government will take more responsibilities where it use to, or at least should have been, handled better by private competing entities. But we often have to confront the fallacy that the government can do something better, or that by removing artificially the profit factor the service level will be magically improved. Stories about the stupidity and complete lack of efficiency of government’s services, like the one told by Megan McArdle, are not the exception but the more common description of what one should expect:
At the age of nineteen, way back in 1992, I purchased a beer in a Philadelphia bar.
[...]
The problem, you see, is that at the time of my conviction, I did not have a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Driver’s License. Indeed, I had no driver’s license at all, being one of those benighted city people who get their first driver’s license at the age of 23. The laws of the State of Pennsylvania, however, say that the Department of Transportation is entitled to suspend the driver’s license of anyone arrested for underaged drinking. And the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is, apparently, determined to exercise this privilege. Thus, the spectacle of a 35 year old woman being informed that she is about to have her driver’s license suspended for underaged drinking.
To add insult to injury, I am expected to fill out a form and, at my own expense, mail it to the DOT in order to commence this suspension.
This would be funny and mildly annoying if it were not for the fact that until they clear the suspension, I cannot get a DC driver’s license, because states are required to scan for violations from other states before they issue a new license. (No word on how I got one out of the State of New York). And until I get a DC driver’s license, I cannot register the car I just bought. The DMV here, after much wrangling, gave me temporary tags, but it looks like I’m going to have to garage the thing for three months unless the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania relents. Which, at this time, they show no evidence of doing.
This is a story we all familiar with - a government agency that has no profit incentive, and is by nature a monopoly, doesn’t get punished by the consumers and has very little incentives to become more efficient, or to provide better service. And yet, despite any evidence for the contrary and any logical argument, people keeps wants more services for “Free”.