It’s axiomatic that government, without any market pressures to improve or even succeed, will do most things at least worse than, and often incredibly badly compared to the private sector.
The list is long. In fact, the list of things that government does better than market-influence organizations has…um…not a single entry. Of course the argument for interstate networks of roads, and armed forces, and all of the processes and infrastructure that crosses state lines seems like a justification for government involvement. But the reality is that government can perform those functions only because of its size and the regulation that it created to protect its monopoly over certain things.
The list of catastrophic failures is long, but there is a greatest hits list that is depressing and, sadly, sitting squarely on the shoulders of every tax-paying American.
Social Security: Just go to the SSA website and look at your deposits over the course of your career. Then run the numbers and figure out how much you would have had the United States government simply stayed the f*ck out of your business and you had invested it at some nominal rate of return. Try 5% to start, even though that is significantly lower than the historical rate of return of the stock markets. [Please don’t slit your wrists]
Medicare/Medicaid: The fraud swirling around those two programs has been estimated at multi-billions of dollars…per year. The disincentives for the entire healthcare industry emerged from those two programs and their many descendants. It is perhaps the best example of the government doctrine that the shortest distance between two point is a cube…except…
We arrive at the United States Postal Service!
Wow…if you want to see the inefficiency of government, just poke around the USPS for awhile, and you will be stunned. From a mess of products that nobody wants to the incredible sloth of many of their employees, it is a case study in how not do things. And the sad thing is that they have gone far beyond their mandated purview and have expanded into the private sector where there is a vibrant package delivery system. Why does the USPS have a monopoly on 1st class mail but can also compete with private companies in other deliveries?
But let us discuss the pathetic performance of their system and not even get into the murky legal basis of most of their functions.
Below the fold is the complete scanning history of a package sent to me from Campbellsville Kentucky. That’s about 800 miles, or a 14 hour drive by tractor-trailer. Read it from bottom to top…it’s amusing in a vomit-inducing way.
*Out for Delivery, Expected Delivery by 5:45pm
DILDOVILLE 00000
September 26, 2024, 6:10 amArrived at Post Office DILDOVILLE 00000 September 26, 2024, 3:53 am
Arrived at USPS Facility DILDOVILLE 00000 September 26, 2024, 3:48 am Departed USPS Regional Facility TETERBORO NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER September 26, 2024, 3:11 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility TETERBORO NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER September 25, 2024, 8:10 am
Departed USPS Facility PHILLIPSBURG, NJ 08865 September 25, 2024, 5:50 am Arrived at USPS Facility PHILLIPSBURG, NJ 08865 September 25, 2024, 5:05 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility QUEENS NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER September 25, 2024, 3:18 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility QUEENS NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER September 24, 2024, 11:11 pm
Departed USPS Regional Facility NEWBURGH NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER September 24, 2024, 9:03 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility NEWBURGH NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER September 24, 2024, 7:05 pm
In Transit to Next Facility September 24, 2024
Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility TETERBORO NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER September 23, 2024, 8:42 pm
Processing at USPS Facility ELMWOOD PARK, NJ 07407 September 23, 2024, 11:25 am
Arrived at USPS Facility DILDOVILLE 00000 September 23, 2024, 4:00 am
In Transit to Next Facility September 23, 2024, 3:36 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility TETERBORO NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER September 23, 2024, 3:18 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility TETERBORO NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER September 22, 2024, 11:17 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility LOUISVILLE KY DISTRIBUTION CENTER September 21, 2024, 9:25 pm
Departed Post Office CAMPBELLSVILLE, KY 42718 September 21, 2024, 5:12 pm
USPS picked up item CAMPBELLSVILLE, KY 42718 September 21, 2024, 12:31 pm
Shipping Label Created, USPS Awaiting Item CAMPBELLSVILLE, KY 42718 September 20, 2024, 10:11 pm
In an age of incredible computing power that runs software to optimize package movement through delivery systems, combined with amazingly precise scanning systems, the idea that a package can by misrouted at so many stops along the way is difficult to understand.
As the great Milton Friedman stated so perfectly:
“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, within 5 years, you’d run out of sand.”