It looks obvious

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”.

Vouchers, as an interim solution, for school choice isn’t a bad idea. This is probably why the teachers union oppose it so much. After all letting parents choose the best schools for their children is much more efficient than any federal program of measures and standards that doesn’t reflect any thing of real value.

Thanks to the Club of Growth I was reminded of this wonderful scene in my most favorite TV show. It sums the issue pretty well:

If big government is such a great thing why does it use newspeak?

Title definition here.

Reading this story I could not wondering what is the justification for handing more responsibilities to an organization that has track record of failing on much simpler tasks? Would you let a company running crucial parts of your business if you knew that the failed constantly when handed less complicated responsibilities?

Year after year, decade upon decade, the U.S. Senate’s network of restaurants has lost staggering amounts of money — more than $18 million since 1993, according to one report, and an estimated $2 million this year alone, according to another.

The financial condition of the world’s most exclusive dining hall and its affiliated Capitol Hill restaurants, cafeterias and coffee shops has become so dire that, without a $250,000 subsidy from taxpayers, the Senate won’t make payroll next month.

The Senate decision to privatize the restaurants is a good decision, now it just need to recover from the illusion that it can better handle other affairs and leave our general welfare out of its inefficient hands.

Back when I was in the Israeli Command and Staff college a friend of mine wrote a paper about temporary units - units that were built to solve a particular problem. Not surprisingly those units stayed active long after the problem they were suppose to solve disappeared. While working on the paper he found a story, which unfortunately I couldn’t find since, about the British army. The story is that for many years the artillery batteries kept the position of a soldier that gourd the horses, although they were fully mechanized. The story about the British army might be a legend, but many similar stories are not. This is how in Belgium the central bank still employs 2000 people although it has no currency to oversee since 1999 and this is why we will always read about demands for budget increase and never the opposite.

This should add to the skepticism about the wisdom of the new regulatory initiative of the Treasury Secretary. At the end of the long regulatory process we will end up with new set of regulations and government agencies on top of these that we already have - not instead of them. Obviously when the banks protecting themselves from bad business practices by requesting the government to bail them out they are inviting more oversight. However the answer was to decline the bailout, not to add more regulations.