The Post Office, Healthcare, and Europe

TJIC, comments on how governments seem to prefer closing parks instead of letting other groups run them. He recalls his experience with the Government's view of "customer service":

A few months back I noticed a few metrics showing that our out-of-stock numbers were climbing. I investigated and found out that we hadn’t received a single DVD returned from a customer in four days.
The chief customer support guy at the local branch of the USPS had previously made a big deal out of introducing himself and giving me his card (my firm is the biggest initiator and recipient of mail in the entire town, so this isn’t surprising).
So, I call the chief customer support guy, and he tells me “Oh, yeah, the employee in charge of Business Reply mail is out on vacation this week”.
I’m a bit appalled - I’ve got customers who are having the wait for DVDs, employees sitting idle, and more … because someone went on vacation.

A cynic would say wait until they do your health care, too.