this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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Idk man, have you ever seen how poorly run government businesses like the DMV are?
Do you seriously think the DMV would be ran better as an archipelago of tiny privatized fiefdoms that get gradually gobbled up by the most ruthless one of the bunch?
Ask a Californian how well PG&E manages the state's power grid.
I'm a Californian. They manage it very, very poorly, up to and including knowingly let people die in preventable local disasters for financial reasons.
No, probably not. But the point remains that the government can be very disorganized, underfunded, and just generally bad at running facilities. If we hand out food production off to the government then we need to take extreme measures to ensure they have adequate funding, competent leadership, and are well insulated from corruption.
The underfunding generally causes the other problems you already listed.
Again, what are you proposing? The status quo which is destroying the planet? More privatization?
I'm not proposing anything. I literally said "idk man". I'm just pointing out that "give it to the government" isn't a one and done solution.
That's a bit of a lie because you keep saying "government bad" and with nothing else said that implies that the status quo that is failing life on Earth is acceptable to you, right now.
And if you're proposing nothing else but "government bad" then you're supporting the status quo, again, by implication.
Every time I hear someone complain about the DMV, USPS, etc, I assume they're being difficult to the workers. Every experience I've had with these kind of government services, I read up ahead on what I need, organize my shit, and show up prepared with a smile.
When I do that you see a wave of relief over the worker and they return the smile and respect. You can basically extrapolate the verbal abuse they deal with all day long.
With my secret method(being nice and respectful), every USPS worker I've interacted with has either been very friendly, or neutral but relieved.
Leave our brave troops alone goddamnit, be nice to them.
I think a lot of middle-aged-and-older edgelords had so much media exposure to "dae le post office" and "dae le DMV" (especially the "going postal" brainworms that infested the late 90s) that they substituted the reality of using such services for the fantasy they brought in, expect it to happen, and are abrasive assholes to those workers just to make that fantasy feel more real.
You're probably in an area with a functional DMV. I concede that some states run their DMV pretty well, but California certainly isn't one of them.
Once again, exhaustively, since you brought it up here, what are you proposing for the California DMV? More privatization? If you say "government bad" and just sit there congratulating yourself, you've said nothing useful at all and are still supporting the status quo by default.
the DMV is not a business.
You missed the message for the word. Call it whatever you need to, facility or what not. The point is that it's awful in places like California.
You seriously think privatizing California's DMV would be an improvement?
so a government can run a DMV well? if such a thing is specific to some places and not others, you cannot make it a general rule, can you?
I can tell that person is probably not in California (or is maybe some kind of MAGA sucker from the Central Valley) if they complain about the California DMV and want it privatized like the circus fire that is the state's PG&E monopoly.
I'm certainly not a MAGA proponent. I didn't say I wanted it privatized. It was meant to be an example of the disaster that governments can make of something relatively simple. We can't afford that with our primary food supply. So if it was handed off to the government, extreme measures would need to be taken to ensure it's properly funded, managed by competent and qualified people, and well insulated from corruption. It's not as simple as "just let the government do it".
You claim you're not calling for privatizing the DMV. So what are you calling for?
If you say "increased funding and more staffing with expanded benefits" then I will nod to that.
The current status quo is failing and more than that is cumulatively destroying the planet.
I wasn't calling for anything. The conversation is about the meat industry, not about the DMV.
Saying "government intervention bad" over and over again is calling for more of the status quo. That's what a default position is if you condemn proposals to change it and say you "aren't calling for anything" otherwise.
Yes, actually. The DMV in Washington is surprisingly well run. But the California DMV is a nightmare that we cannot allow to happen with our food supply. Ultimately it's not a simple handover and there would need to be abundant safeguards in place to ensure our food supply is managed competently and insulated from corruption.
Well when you try to run a service that is by definition unprofitable, "like a business," the only way to hit the financial metrics is to cut salary and headcount. This obviously leads to shitty service. That said in states like New York and Illinois the DMV is actually pretty well run, though the number of locations is a bit lacking.
It’s just a question of resources. Typical neoliberal strategy, strip budgets down to the bone, take out half the marrow, when the whole thing crumbles point at it and say “look how shitty this is, we need to privatize it!”
Austerity is theft
Do you think that that is just axiomatically true?