I don’t know when exactly I decided that government was “inefficient.”
Prior to 1978 I had no political opinions, really, more like an emotional characterization of the world that I inherited sans reflection from my family of origin. So I’m guessing our 1980s president, whose names began with “R,” might have had planted a seed. Could also have been the experience of waiting in line at the DMV, driving being so important to a teen. And then of course, that MBA. Free markets forever. Oh, sure, we learned about market failures, the Tragedy of the Commons, the Prisoner’s Dilemma, etc. but still.
Don’t worry. I’m not about to launch into a screed on political economy. I’m wholly unqualified and besides, it’s Saturday. Nor am I urging any wholesale change to the American political or economic system. Again, unqualified. But as you probably guessed, over the years I’ve changed my thinking about government in the same way I formed it in the first place. I listened to experts and paid attention to the world.
My sister threw the the first punch to my belief structure.. I mean, not literally, we haven’t hit each other since I was 12. We can both still remember flinching before getting thumped on the back. But, maybe 20 years ago, we were sitting around my dad’s pool and I said something like, “government should be run like a business,” and very calmly she explained to me how and why that would not be possible or even advisable. I don’t even remember what she said, exactly, but she’s an expert on the delivery of social services and I very clearly remember my gut response.
I understood I’d made assumptions with insufficient knowledge.
Then when my mom died, while legions of private businesses treated me like a receipt, the Medicare staff said they were so sorry and stayed on the phone until we had everything sorted out. Later, when I fretted about Social Security and finally got hold of a representative, they were warm, funny, fully humane if understaffed. And told me what I needed to know without insisting I give my cell number so they could text me every day insisting I buy ceramic frogs or wrinkle reducer or sneakers.
You can see where this is going. Either things have always been so and I was ignorant, or, private sector delivery of products and services has gotten more annoying while government agencies have become more efficient.
A final anecdote.
I take Spanish and weight-training classes at our local community center. Given that they happen weekday mornings, all participants are over 60. The staff, however, is young, 20s and at most early 30s. So the other day I asked the young woman behind the desk, “What’s it like, I mean, we’re all old!”
And she lit up. “I love it,” she said. “And we get the homeless people too. There’s one guy, he sits there most mornings,” she pointed to a bench by the front door. “There’s one woman, she’s here every day, and one week she didn’t show up, and when she did she came with her daughter and I said to let me know if she wouldn’t be coming in because we worry.
And, in the evenings we get all the little kids,” she waved around the the lobby and I could see through her eyes the flock of preschoolers dressed for dance class. “Totally different vibe.”
All of this with an enormous, true smile.
“Well thanks,” I said. “I guess that’s the point. Community.”
She nodded, my eloquent summary far less moving than the people she deals with every day.
So, a reminder, changing one’s mind is OK. We believe what we believe and do the best we can, as I’ve been told, with what we knew at the time. If we’re lucky, over the course of our lives we know more. The private gym I was going to got too dirty. Have a wonderful weekend.
19 Responses
Well put, and amen.
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing the conversation you had with the woman behind the desk at your community center. There is hope for humanity.
I live in the DC metro area. The DOGE actions have been devastating. Any operation can be more efficient, but the government has different objectives than businesses. The changes don’t have to be cruel and chaotic to federal employees and the people they serve and help worldwide, but cruelty seems the point. Going after Habitat For Humanity? Awful. I’ve been walking around with functional depression since January 20th.
“Functional depression.” Yes. That’s exactly right. I’ve run out of words to express the outrage.
I hope you have some people of like mind nearby to commune with. I find it helps a lot.
You’re welcome. Keeping hope alive as best I can. I can’t imagine how hard it is to live in DC right now. And I agree, can you imagine going after one of the noblest and most useful organizations in America, Habitat for Humanity?
It’s part of the larger distinction between dollars and value, in my opinion. There’s so much value to the “inefficiency” of the government — that’s where the oversight and transparency are. If the process were completely pared down, there’d be no respect for the public’s access to how things are done, who’s doing them, and what standards are being met. All that has less immediacy than a one-on-one conversation, but it’s just as strong a component of community.
There is such a different between dollars and value, especially when the concept of “profit” isn’t a part of the goals.
As a little girl I accompanied my mom to City Hall to pay the water bill and noticed the cool terrazzo floors and how nice the people were to my mom. My first job was in that City Hall because of those experiences. I spent almost my entire career in public service I’m here to say – thank you for this! The vast majority of people in public service are there because it’s a calling. I know for sure my little contribution has helped countless people over the decades, even if all I could do was listen.
What a lovely memory, you and your mama. Thank you for your time in public service. Sometimes listening is the most valuable thing of all.
I appreciate that you gave “inefficient” quotes here. “Efficiency” should have them whenever DOGE is spelled out, given how clear it is that Musk &c are weaponizing incompetence while they purport to be streamlining-with-an-occasional-reversible-oopsie-cough-EBOLA to create conditions where it looks like the private sector is doing Americans a favor by, say, cutting red tape and taking over the VA. Efficiency-without-quotes is beside the point; if an entity is *essential,* it can make a Rube Goldberg machine look sleek for all I care.
Good differentiation. The incompetence of those who have decided that the “government should be run like a business” would be laughable-if it weren’t so tragic.
Oscar Wilde: “The cost of everything, the value of nothing.”
“Efficiency” feels more like eugenics. No flu shots next year which will be a death sentence for many who are over 60. Also, I read the chief scientist overseeing the Tsunami warning system for the Pacific Coast was terminated.
I’ve been reading articles explaining why our government is not a business and why the postal service cannot be expected to run with a profit. But, your explanation says it all. We are (or aspire to be) a community and that is how most of us achieve a certain amount of satisfaction and sense of well being. And, we are all in this together.
Well said, but it is my understanding that Medicare is actually more efficient than private insurance (measured by the cost of administration). So compassion doesn’t necessarily reduce efficiency.
What I fear is happening is that DOGE et al are deliberately trying to break government so that private companies can take over those functions and profit from doing so – which is pretty much the definition of corruption.
My observation is that most people who say government is “inefficient” have never had to rely on it for anything significant. And they aren’t friends with anyone who has to rely on it.
I recently had a reason to take my county transport service to go to physical therapy and the grocery store (I was in between cars). Our beautiful rural county has two spotlessly clean vehicles that look like giant bread boxes on wheels. Though I dimly knew it existed, I’d never thought much about what county transport was like for those who don’t have cars or are too elderly or handicapped to drive.
What an eye opener. The drivers are jolly! They pick up people and take them to doctor appointments. They transport people to jobs who don’t have cars or only have one car in the family. They take little old ladies to the hairdresser. They operate a lift for those in wheelchairs and scooters. The best part is that they relate to everyone as more than riders – it’s a real community feeling with real conversations and lots of laughing during the rides. They know everyone’s situations. I had no idea.
What scares me is that this is both locally and federally funded. The riders pay a small fee. Given what is happening with federal funding, I am worried for the future of this wonderful service.
In so many instances, people do not know about what the government is actually providing even when they are direct beneficiaries. They do not know how governments collaborate to support programs like the one you so beautifully describe.
I spent the most significant portions of my career in federal service and also working for a university (to encourage public service) and for a legal service program (on behalf of people with limited access to the legal system and who had much need to interact with the feds). To see what is happening to my former colleagues directly (closures and faux “consolidations” of regional offices around the country, wholesale terminations) and indirectly through the labels being tossed at them is beyond disheartening. And while now in private practice, I still represent those who rely on the federal government and I wonder daily who is still there to pick up the phone.