Rich Gibson, I am unable to decode the meaning of the paragraph, "The DMV slam is always used to indict government provisioning of services, but the key difference is that basically no one involved with the DMV transaction is served by the DMV in any meaningful way. It is a government 'service' that _may_ be needed for tracking/etc but neither the consumer nor DMV benefit."

The DMV definitely provides a needed consumer benefit. Perhaps because they're so poor at providing it it's hard for you to imagine that that is exactly what it does.

And jleader I agree wholeheartedly with your Scott Adams quote. Cable service has sucked for a long time because most all of them have monopolies granted by local governments. Now that satellite is coming on strong, my local company is offering all sorts of deals, discounts and much more responsive service.

If you guys think of the government as generally MORE responsive to people's needs you're welcome to your delusions.

Everything about the government militates against giving really outstanding service. One prime reason is that the nature of government makes it hard to adequately compensate truly brilliant people who come up with truly brilliant ideas.

There's a parallel in the private sector. A corporation has a cafeteria. Should they run it themselves or outsource it? Outsourcing will almost always be a better deal. Why? Let's say the cafeteria will cost them 1% of their gross. A genius who could slash a massive 25% off of their cafeteria bill will only save a quarter of 1% for the company. But if that same guy works for a cafeteria contractor he will lower their costs tremendously. He would be a very minor cog in a very big machine at general corporation but I heroic genius at a cafeteria contractor.

So what kind of company is he likely to end up at? What kind of company is likely to get the best cafeteria managers?

Similarly, is a brilliant, innovative FTTH expert likely to look for a civil service job with his town, or with a company that eats, lives and breathes FTTH?

Specialization is not a bad thing. It's a good thing. It's the reason you can go out and buy a pair of shoes instead of having to make them yourself.