Due Credit or Stopped Clock?

I still don't trust government. It's incompetent, and to a great degree because it tries to do things which it is incapable of doing. Education comes to mind; we've all had our share of horror stories about the DMV too I'm sure.

But in the interest of playing fair, the Michigan Secretary of State deserves props from me this morning. When I ordered my new license plate sticker online last Wednesday a window opened to tell me it would be three weeks in coming. That was an acceptable time frame, as my April birthday was just about three weeks off then.

Lo and behold, the new registration and tag came today. Or yesterday, Monday as it were. 

Well, okay, credit where it's due. Everything came in under three weeks. But I still don't trust those incompetents.

How convenient

Yesterday I renewed my license plates over this neat little thing called the Internet. It was quite convenient, especially as all Michigan Secretary of State offices are closed due to the corona virus panic attack. But I've done it in the past anyway. It's very easy. So why was I being charged $1.65 as a 'convenience' fee?

Isn't it quicker, easier, and healthier (he snidely points out) to renew this way? And I certainly do confess that I wouldn't stand in line at the MSOS for two or three hours to save a buck sixty five. Still, to do something in a manner which is quicker and cheaper for everyone (I'm not tying up an SOS employee for ten minutes) and yet be charged for it grates on me.

It's not just government agencies doing it. I go to the stadium to buy baseball tickets (when there's actually baseball that is) because I don't see the point in paying three or four bucks per ticket for the convenience of buying them online. But at least I have the option of not attending baseball games. I have to deal with the state government. A government which gets plenty of money from me anyway through the myriad forms of taxation such as license plate fees.

Rant over.