Why public services are lousy

Ever wonder why government provided service is so uniformly terrible? Marketing guru Seth Godin offers a clue. Seems that he likes a particular breakfast, and is willing to pay for it. But he still has trouble finding it:

If you run a hotel (the sort of hotel that charges $15 for breakfast) you might have a few questions. Here we go:

Can we use a standard restaurant skillet? The cast iron is too hard to clean.
Of course you can. If you do, you'll end up with eggs that have no real color and are a little flaccid, but it'll work.

Can we use a portable propane burner instead of a real stove? It's easier for us.
Of course you can. If you do, though, you won't have a lot of heat and it'll take a long time and not taste as good.

Do we have to use fresh herbs? That'll add more than $3 a day to our costs.
Of course you don't have to use fresh herbs. The eggs won't taste as good, naturally.

Whole wheat tortilla? Most of our guests are satisfied with toasted Wonder bread, which is a lot cheaper and comes in a big loaf.
Sure, you can use that, but I'm not going to eat it.

I notice your omelet is sort of big... our policy is to only use three eggs, so if you want an egg-white omelet, it's going to be pretty tiny. It's not fair to give you more eggs, because it's the same price as the regular omelet. Is that okay?
Well, since eggs cost you 8 cents each, I can understand your desire to standardize and keep your costs really low. So, sure, go ahead.

...

Please come again to our expensive restaurant! It's a purple cow! It's remarkable! Because we said so.

"But Ted," I hear you ask, "what does this have to do with public services? Sure, this is typical corporate fail, but it's corporate fail. You're just ranting again." Oh, and I see you rolling your eyes, too.

Here's the connection to public services:

NSW state corporation RailCorp has threatened a Sydney software developer with legal action if he fails to withdraw a train timetable application that is currently the second most popular application in its category in Apple's App Store.

Not only is this a popular application, but it seems that Transit Sydney is selling it. So what's the big deal with RailCorp (also a government entity)? Seems that someone there has a bee in his bonnet about Copyright:

As a government body, RailCorp information is protected by Crown copyright, a contentious provision in copyright law that has recently been used to block attempts to access information on the location of Victoria's bushfires and even seemingly innocuous information as the locations of public toilets.

In other news, eggs are eight cents apiece.

Via Slashdot, where an Australian commenter expresses his frustration:

In the Sydney case here is the worst part: Their railway system is known as being beyond terrible. Trains don't show up, break down, disappear, bypass stations, ticketing doesn't work, there's bugger all security. There's a real culture of sloth, laziness and corruption there. And here's a guy selling something to help commuters (and offered to give it to the railways department for free) and they threaten him instead.

The difference when it comes to breakfast, is that you can go somewhere else. The market will correct, as the Seth Godins and Borepatches take their custom elsewhere. If you don't like the mass transit, take the other mass transit. Oh, wait.

So why on earth would you expect mass transit to be anything other than execrable? The Organs of the State do not self-correct. Entropy rules. Of course government services will be lousy.

Let me end with a story from my days at Three Letter Intelligence Agency. Most information there was classified (it was an Intelligence agency, remember), and so you couldn't just throw most things into the trash can. You'd toss the classified trash into big brown paper burn bags that would be collected and disposed of.* There were pneumatic chutes all over the building where you'd put the burn bag in, and a vacuum would drag the bag down to the central disposal area.

One day, the pump that created the vacuum broke, and it stayed broken for months. This meant that everyone had to schlep their bags down to the basement, which was annoying. At one of the management "Town Hall" meetings, the subject came up. After listening to the Really Important Manager for a bit, someone in the back of the room shouted out:

Why does the only thing in this building that's supposed to suck, not suck?

If I remember correctly, the answer was something about eggs costing eight cents apiece or something.

* They weren't actually burned. They were shredded, pulped, and bleached, and then sold as recycled paper pulp.