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Interop requirements may serve better than direct government control. At the very least, it’s worth being clear eyed with respect to the quality of government

Interop requirements may serve better than direct government control. At the very least, it’s worth being clear eyed with respect to the quality of government run services. What would be necessary for the government to run a service like Amazon successfully? Is our government today capable of doing such a thing? I think the answer is clearly no.

smhost 6y ago
> What would be necessary for the government to run a service like Amazon successfully? Anti-corruption measures to stop politicians from sabotaging those services. E.g., USPS.
- AbrahamParangi 6y ago
  Idk if USPS is truly an example of excellence, even if they are an example of govt excellence. In 2020 they shipped 70 billion packages, of which 90% was spam.
  - oblio 6y ago
    > In 2020 they shipped 70 billion packages, of which 90% was spam. Is that their problem, though? I don't think anyone expects the post to police package contents.
    - amalcon 6y ago
      They do police package contents to a degree, but only for actual crimes. Postal spam isn't a crime (and probably shouldn't be, as much as I'd like to get rid of the spam). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Inspection_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Inspectio...
    - shiftpgdn 6y ago
      They do police package contents, pretty heavily even. They allow spam (presorted bulk mail in post office terms) because the spammers have a strong lobby.
  - ClumsyPilot 6y ago
    Well 90% of products on amazon are shit too, maybe some made with child labour. Are you sure this comparisom will be favourable?
girvo 6y ago
Government run services can be absolutely excellent though. It’s not a pure truth that government run = subpar.
- Kalium 6y ago
  You're absolutely right. They can be. With that critical truth that you've touched on said... American civilian resident-facing government services tend to be organized and run with all the strong incentives being to make it good for everyone but the residents. Usually the workforce has a strong union and management has their goals, but us users have no strong force to exert except distant oversight in the form of Congress. Some organizations escape this. Others do so partially at best. Most do not. State DMVs are notorious pits of utter misery, and this is generally an honest reflection of experience. You can report a passport lost online, but you have to file a DS-11 in black ink at a post office to request a new one. This process can be easy or hard unpredictably, depending mainly on how nice the postal worker feels that day. There are few to no organizational incentives towards better customer service. Why black ink? Because the State Department says so. And they don't have to care what you think.
ClumsyPilot 6y ago
The GPS has like no downtime, same for the enrgy grid and the post office. Not that i see calue in nationalising Amazon, but i thi k it would be fine

smhost 6y ago

> What would be necessary for the government to run a service like Amazon successfully? Anti-corruption measures to stop politicians from sabotaging those services. E.g., USPS.

AbrahamParangi 6y ago
Idk if USPS is truly an example of excellence, even if they are an example of govt excellence. In 2020 they shipped 70 billion packages, of which 90% was spam.
- oblio 6y ago
  > In 2020 they shipped 70 billion packages, of which 90% was spam. Is that their problem, though? I don't think anyone expects the post to police package contents.
  - amalcon 6y ago
    They do police package contents to a degree, but only for actual crimes. Postal spam isn't a crime (and probably shouldn't be, as much as I'd like to get rid of the spam). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Inspection_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Inspectio...
  - shiftpgdn 6y ago
    They do police package contents, pretty heavily even. They allow spam (presorted bulk mail in post office terms) because the spammers have a strong lobby.
- ClumsyPilot 6y ago
  Well 90% of products on amazon are shit too, maybe some made with child labour. Are you sure this comparisom will be favourable?

girvo 6y ago

Government run services can be absolutely excellent though. It’s not a pure truth that government run = subpar.

Kalium 6y ago
You're absolutely right. They can be. With that critical truth that you've touched on said... American civilian resident-facing government services tend to be organized and run with all the strong incentives being to make it good for everyone but the residents. Usually the workforce has a strong union and management has their goals, but us users have no strong force to exert except distant oversight in the form of Congress. Some organizations escape this. Others do so partially at best. Most do not. State DMVs are notorious pits of utter misery, and this is generally an honest reflection of experience. You can report a passport lost online, but you have to file a DS-11 in black ink at a post office to request a new one. This process can be easy or hard unpredictably, depending mainly on how nice the postal worker feels that day. There are few to no organizational incentives towards better customer service. Why black ink? Because the State Department says so. And they don't have to care what you think.

ClumsyPilot 6y ago

The GPS has like no downtime, same for the enrgy grid and the post office. Not that i see calue in nationalising Amazon, but i thi k it would be fine