Governments are exasperating

Folks ask me why I do not trust government (they really do). Today I shall try to answer why. And I will try to be as neutral as I can, so I do not appear to be any of the isms I am constantly accused of being. Also, because I don't want to offend the dignity of our civil servants. They are, most of them I readily concede, only trying to make a living. I respect and understand that. So please forgive the choppy, roundabout language.

I traversed to a government agency today to transact business which my government demands that I transact. I arrived within their reasonable hours and waited to transact my business.

When my number was announced, I approached the counter. I offered my paperwork. They asked why I had presented them one particular paper. I answered, because I had understood it was expected of me.

They assured me that it wasn't necessary. All will be well. Then they presumed to work on my requests.

And they messed them up. Fortunately I caught the errors (there were three). The point is I had to tell them how to do their job before I could get out of their office. And I have no direct experience of how to do their job. They were supposed to be the experts.

Everything is straight now. I think. I won't actually know until my things arrive in the mail. But this was not the first time I have dealt with inefficient government and I doubt it will be the last. Bureaucracies tend to be inefficient and their hirelings tend to be less than stellar, whether by their fault or that of the bureaucracy itself. And that is one of the reasons why I don't trust government.