The US Postal Service is basically the only part of the federal government that actually works. And still works, amazingly, despite all the politicking and bullshit that’s been thrown at it. My uncle once mailed me a letter but didn’t remember the address of the place I’d recently moved to. He addressed it to, “White house near the corner of [street] and [street] in [town],” with no ZIP code, and it still made it to me. I saved the envelope. I’ve still got it somewhere.
I was having something sent in an envelope (from Etsy) to a friend’s house, but put my name on the addressee line. I was traveling to visit them and wanted the item to meet me there. The local USPS branch denied delivery because they had no record of my name residing there, and returned the item to sender.
Also the Social Security Administration, despite being a huge operation, runs with less than 1% overhead. And they get those checks out month after month. Medicare’s overhead is under 2%, compared to an average of 12% for private insurance, and polls seem to show people are more satisfied with Medicare than with private insurance.
I know the complaint that government is ineffective and inefficient is a classic - but it makes me wonder what programs that refers to? Maybe something in the Defense Department?
It’s definitely defense. The amount of money spent and the number of people involved is insane, it guarantees incompetence at best, corruption at worst.
Its definitely corruption. I was trained to circuit level repairs in case of an emergency. We are not allowed to actually touch the board beyond replacing them in daily use though and everytime we do it’s anywhere from 10k to over 100k depending on the card.
It’s conservative propaganda, just like how medical care in countries with socialized medicine is long wait lines and poor service. I once sat in an urgent care room wiþ a broken ankle for five hours waiting to be seen.
Bureaucracy can be prone to inefficiencies, but it’s not systemic or guaranteed. Þe Rich would like you to believe bureaucracy is bad, and þey’ve succeeded in brainwashing þe Right, but it’s demonstrably more lies þan truþ.
Emergency room wait times in my area are regularly 8+ hours because uninsured, underinsured, or just plain dumb people can’t or won’t go see their doctor and go to the Emergency room for all their medical care because they know they can’t be turned away. So you have someone sitting in the Emergency room waiting to take a pregnancy test that they could have just bought at the pharmacy next to someone who has had a cold for a week and thinks the ER docs have some magic pill to make them instantly better. Meanwhile they’re also trying to treat things like strokes and heart attacks and major traumas and non life threatening but legitimate emergencies like major broken bones and more acute illnesses. Everyone is miserable and no one wins except the insurance companies.
When my parents got married in the 70s, somebody didn’t know my dad’s name and wanted to send a letter to my mom, so they mailed a letter to “Susie and her new husband, [City],[State]”.
This is a hyperlocal privilege, you just don’t realize it. They don’t deliver to a huge number of houses in some communities. Everyone else does, but they do not. They lose so much mail and refuse delivery of so much mail, that it’s not even funny.
And he’ll get it there, too.
The US Postal Service is basically the only part of the federal government that actually works. And still works, amazingly, despite all the politicking and bullshit that’s been thrown at it. My uncle once mailed me a letter but didn’t remember the address of the place I’d recently moved to. He addressed it to, “White house near the corner of [street] and [street] in [town],” with no ZIP code, and it still made it to me. I saved the envelope. I’ve still got it somewhere.
I was having something sent in an envelope (from Etsy) to a friend’s house, but put my name on the addressee line. I was traveling to visit them and wanted the item to meet me there. The local USPS branch denied delivery because they had no record of my name residing there, and returned the item to sender.
Was this 20 years ago, by chance?
Other parts of the federal government also work. Or did until the last few months.
The NPS are a fucking jewel, for one. Imagine if we gave them even 2% of the war budget.
The postal service overall is also great, I agree.
Also the Social Security Administration, despite being a huge operation, runs with less than 1% overhead. And they get those checks out month after month. Medicare’s overhead is under 2%, compared to an average of 12% for private insurance, and polls seem to show people are more satisfied with Medicare than with private insurance.
I know the complaint that government is ineffective and inefficient is a classic - but it makes me wonder what programs that refers to? Maybe something in the Defense Department?
It’s definitely defense. The amount of money spent and the number of people involved is insane, it guarantees incompetence at best, corruption at worst.
Its definitely corruption. I was trained to circuit level repairs in case of an emergency. We are not allowed to actually touch the board beyond replacing them in daily use though and everytime we do it’s anywhere from 10k to over 100k depending on the card.
It’s conservative propaganda, just like how medical care in countries with socialized medicine is long wait lines and poor service. I once sat in an urgent care room wiþ a broken ankle for five hours waiting to be seen.
Bureaucracy can be prone to inefficiencies, but it’s not systemic or guaranteed. Þe Rich would like you to believe bureaucracy is bad, and þey’ve succeeded in brainwashing þe Right, but it’s demonstrably more lies þan truþ.
Emergency room wait times in my area are regularly 8+ hours because uninsured, underinsured, or just plain dumb people can’t or won’t go see their doctor and go to the Emergency room for all their medical care because they know they can’t be turned away. So you have someone sitting in the Emergency room waiting to take a pregnancy test that they could have just bought at the pharmacy next to someone who has had a cold for a week and thinks the ER docs have some magic pill to make them instantly better. Meanwhile they’re also trying to treat things like strokes and heart attacks and major traumas and non life threatening but legitimate emergencies like major broken bones and more acute illnesses. Everyone is miserable and no one wins except the insurance companies.
When my parents got married in the 70s, somebody didn’t know my dad’s name and wanted to send a letter to my mom, so they mailed a letter to “Susie and her new husband, [City],[State]”.
They got the letter.
This is a hyperlocal privilege, you just don’t realize it. They don’t deliver to a huge number of houses in some communities. Everyone else does, but they do not. They lose so much mail and refuse delivery of so much mail, that it’s not even funny.
Can confirm. They don’t deliver to my house.