Only the government

Gary Sisco · January-24th-2006, 10:56 AM

could have come up with this.

So, I get a vets' e-list in my box today and one of the things in it is an announcement about how vets can go online to obtain copies of their service records, DD214s, etc. My DD214's in a safe deposit box in Burlington, where I haven't been during business hours for more than two years. I've been wanting it because I'm due a VT state-issued decoration but I need to send them a copy of the 214 to get it. So, I read this thing and go to the site and fill out all of the required information, on and on, and on and on, and finally get to the end.

Only to be told that now I can print it all out and *mail it* to the appropriate address.

Like I needed online access to do that!

I don't even want to know how many millions of dollars the feds spent creating that bit of idiocy to waste people's time.

Doc Martin · January-24th-2006, 11:14 AM

During the 1980s, senior British government officials spent quite a bit of time and money debating how best to protect the Loch Ness Monster from poachers, according to recently released memos. "Unfortunately, Nessie is not a salmon and would not appear to qualify as a freshwater fish under the Salmon and Fisheries Protection (Scotland) Act 1951," wrote an official with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Officials ultimately determined Nessie is protected under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act and would not require special legislation.

The whole story here http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/53911-print.shtml

Monte Smith · January-24th-2006, 01:44 PM

Gary, the exact same thing happened to me when the Virginia state government made a big deal about a program to get your once-annual free credit report. All you had to do was go to the website and fill out a long list of questions and then get told to print it out and mail it in. Thanks.

Gary Sisco · January-25th-2006, 08:31 AM

What is it about bureaucracies that a one-step item -- post the mailing address and leave it at that! -- has to become a 100-step item to nowhere?

They talk and write the same way. If five words will do, use 10,000 instead, half of which are acronyms incomprehensible to anyone else.

I just read a serious essay called "On Bullshit." It sounds like a joke but isn't. His conclusion is that bullshitters (spin doctors, whatever) are actually worse than liars. Liars at least have a respect for truth enough to make a conscious decision to depart from it. Bullshitters don't care about the truth at all. They just bullshit to avoid it and to distract the people they are talking to from it, the truth being simply irrelevant.

patricia · January-25th-2006, 09:37 AM

Actually, Gary, On Bullshit is a book, written by Harry G Frankfurt and is well worth reading, even though it pretty well just confirms what most have known all along.
We have a book review program on CBC Newsworld, hosted by Ian Solomon.
He interviewed Frankfurt a few months ago about his book, which had just been released.
The interesting part was the discussion of whether bullshit and lying are the same thing. Apparently, people think that there is a difference.

Tom Storer · January-25th-2006, 10:20 AM

Gary and Monte, what the government was doing in the cases you describe was to save money by having you print their forms for them, without having to actually set up a system to receive and process the forms online. It does make the forms themselves easily available to those who have internet access--but anyone else still has to go get them wherever printed copies are available. Cost-cutting described as digital innovation.

Scott Dolan · January-25th-2006, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary

What is it about bureaucracies that a one-step item -- post the mailing address and leave it at that! -- has to become a 100-step item to nowhere?

Answered and asked.

Monte Smith · January-25th-2006, 11:14 AM

T.S. is surely right that paper-reduction and cost-saving is what the government believes it is doing, but at least in my case what they advertised was a simple e-click to bureaucratic convenience, and it was false advertising. A simple note on the home screen to the effect that you will not be able to file this info online would have been appreciated. Instead what you got was a bullshit error message on the final page: "Your application cannot be processed at this time. Please print out forms and mail to the appropriate address."

Fuck you.

Gary Sisco · January-25th-2006, 11:15 AM

Pat -- That's the book I read. (Really an essay but in little book form.) His conclusion is a very powerful blow to pomo and subjectivism, by the way. A savage blow, actually. I cheered him with every page. My mentor and I were saying the same things 20 years ago and more (and still) but Frankfurt got to it in a very direct, entertaining and memorable way, without losing any power. A slamming hit, right there.

Tom -- You don't think vets could just sit down and write out their name, serial number, address of record on enlistment, and years of service, sign it and mail it on their own without having to go through all of those intermediate steps? It's an amazing waste of time and money. In fact, I did just that, years ago, because they fucked up on my original DD214 and had me being discharged the day before I'd enlisted. (Good proofreading skills, right there.) Many millions of guys managed to get their records without answering seven online pages of questions, only to have to print them out and mail them, in the end.