Today the BMV (Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Ohio) demonstrated to me exactly why the government should not be managing our health care (or car companies, banks, education, etc for that matter).
Now, I have a bad habit of losing things. Particularly my wallet. I, uh, misplaced my wallet and needed to replace my license. I have not known the location of my Social Security card for... well... I don't know. In any case, I needed to go to the Social Security Administration and get a printout confirming my Social Security Number. Which I did. For once there wasn't a line. It is a miraculous thing when there isn't a line at the S.S.A. office. That took all of five minutes. Personally, I think it was a set up for what was about to happen next. Things were going too smoothly.
Since I was in Ravenna anyway, I went to the main BMV office rather than one of the License Bureaus. You know those twisty lines they have with the ropes? It wound around. Three times. I stood there for probably twenty minutes, twiddling my thumbs. That's to be expected. It's a government office, one that most people deal with at least once a year to get their tags. So I'm not freaking out at this point.
I get up to the counter. This grumpy, awful lady takes my S.S.N. printout and my birth certificate. She hands me the "application" to get my duplicate license, and asks me for my address. I rattle of my mom's address (I moved home last year because the economy sucks in general, but for the record I have lived on my own) thinking every thing's hunky dory because I changed my address with the BMV about a month ago when I realized (belatedly) that the tags had expired on my car. I never had a car in my own name until 2009, so... yeah. Anyway, I had just changed my address with them a month ago.
"That's not your address in our system. I'm going to need to see proof of address."
I explained to her the whole story I just explained in the previous paragraph.
"Well, it hasn't it our system yet, so I'm still going to need to see proof address."
What. The. Heck. How pathetic is it that in this age of computers after a month (more than a month, actually, probably closer to two or three months) that they couldn't get a simple change of address into the system. I mean, you can literally send information from here to Columbus in a matter of seconds. What. The. Heck.
So the lady sends me out to my car to look for something proving my address. Now, I don't know about you, but I generally don't keep my bank statements in my car. Or my mail for that matter. I did find a Valvoline receipt with my name and address on it. She of course said that wasn't valid proof of address, and I would have to go get a print-out of my account information from my bank and have them sign and stamp it. Or I would have to produce some sort of utility bill (which I don't have because I live at home).
Now, I don't know about your bank, but generally most banks require you to have some sort identification, preferably photo identification, in order to give you anything with your account information. Luckily for me, my cousin is a teller at the branch I go to, and everyone there knew me well enough that they were willing to vouch for my identity and give me the print out. Problem is, my bank is in Kent. I had to drive all the way back to Kent, then all the way back to Ravenna (though in hind-sight I suppose I could have gone to the Kent License Bureau, but I wanted to face off with the nasty lady at Ravenna).
The story gets better. This next part doesn't have so much to do with the inefficiency of government bureaucracy as it does general annoyance. Apparently we have to punish people with CDLs (Commercial Driver's Licenses). Getting a duplicate of a regular Class D license in Ohio costs $22 (highway robbery). Getting a duplicate of CDL (Classes C, B, and A for those who care) costs $27. Guess who only came prepared for the $22? Yup, you guessed it. I had to drive all the way back to Kent to get five more dollars because the BMV does not take credit cards (not that I had one anyway with the AWOL wallet).
At this point I'm so ticked off and I've already stood in a ridiculous line twice at the Ravenna BMV office, that I decided to go to the Streetsboro License Bureau near home instead. Now we're back to the stupidity of government offices. On Wednesday, just Wednesday, the Ravenna BMV is open till 6:30pm instead of just 5pm. I assumed, therefore, that the Streetsboro office would be the same. I mean, they both offices for the same Bureau, right?
The Streetsboro office was closed. They're only open till 6:30pm on Mondays. I didn't bother checking Kent, though I'm curious to see if their late day is on Fridays. Anyhow, I ended up trekking all the way back to Ravenna to wait in another hugely long line and finally get my license. I also learned from the much nicer lady that I dealt with exactly why I had to go through all the run around to begin with.
Apparently the Ohio BMV is at least a month behind in all their paperwork and mail-outs. People who ordered tags online almost two months ago still haven't received them, and have ended up coming in to buy tags. And we want these people to run health care? Well, I suppose it wouldn't be exactly these people. I mean, this just the Ohio state government messing up the BMV, we haven't even scratched the surface of what federal can do.
The moral of the story: Show up to BMV at 10am with at least $50 on your person and every scrap of personal information you can think of in your purse.
Oh, yeah, and don't lose your wallet.
Just think, when the government runs the rest of our lives as poorly as they do the BMV, we'll get to do this same thing at school and the doctor's office!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Allow Me to Explain Myself
Now that I have had time to cool off from the vote, I should explain my last post. Let me state clearly, I do not believe that all social programs are evil. I have serious issues with the way welfare is currently set up in this country and I think our president regularly lies through his teeth, but I do not believe that all social programs are by their very nature wrong.
Sometimes you need a hand up. I firmly believe that hand up should come from local organizations, churches, and people, but in the event that none of those options are feasible, some sort of social safety net is not completely unwarranted. However, that safety net should be very, very, very minimal.
Right now in this country there are literally people who will be part of the welfare system for life. They are born into it with parents who are already on welfare, then they hop on it themselves at eighteen. Often times they are often parents themselves by that point. They stay on it, in some cases popping out more kids, live in Section 8 Housing, work a few minimum wage jobs here and there, and then eventually collect Social Security.
That is not everybody. There are many, many people who genuinely fall on hard times, take advantage of food stamps or Section 8 for a while, and then get back on their feet and get off the system. Those people use the system responsibly, and suffer from the stigma the people that I described in the proceeding paragraph create.
However, as we move more and more towards a socialist society, the first type will become more and more the norm. The current Health Care reform is merely an example.
Here is my proposal for welfare. In order to receive any kind of aid at all, a person should have worked at least two solid years in his or her past. Food stamps should be for families only, and a person should only qualify for enough for the number of family members that her or she has at the time he or she applies. If you can’t afford to support your family, you shouldn’t be screwing around risking expanding it. There should be a two year limit on any kind of aid, and the requirement that the person gets a job a year in unless he or she is a non-traditional college student with a family.
That’ll never happen.
The message that is being sent to America’s youth is that they are entitled to help from the government. Those evil rich capitalists are responsible for every woe. We are exchanging liberty for… honestly, I’m not even sure what we’re exchanging it for. But I am afraid.
But going back to what I said in the second paragraph, I do believe that the focus should be on local organizations. This country would be a much happier place if we would all turn our eyes back to our own communities and do what we can to help lift up those around us. We spend so much time worrying about what’s happening in every other state while the family down the road could use a few extra cans of food. Focus on your neighbors. Help your neighbors. A few churches and charities that take local outreach seriously can make a much bigger impact on the poor in their community than any federal program.
Take all that money that you donate to political parties or causes and invest them in local free clinics and food banks. Do something for those around you. Relieve the suffering in your own community, and let the rest of the country do the same.
Sometimes you need a hand up. I firmly believe that hand up should come from local organizations, churches, and people, but in the event that none of those options are feasible, some sort of social safety net is not completely unwarranted. However, that safety net should be very, very, very minimal.
Right now in this country there are literally people who will be part of the welfare system for life. They are born into it with parents who are already on welfare, then they hop on it themselves at eighteen. Often times they are often parents themselves by that point. They stay on it, in some cases popping out more kids, live in Section 8 Housing, work a few minimum wage jobs here and there, and then eventually collect Social Security.
That is not everybody. There are many, many people who genuinely fall on hard times, take advantage of food stamps or Section 8 for a while, and then get back on their feet and get off the system. Those people use the system responsibly, and suffer from the stigma the people that I described in the proceeding paragraph create.
However, as we move more and more towards a socialist society, the first type will become more and more the norm. The current Health Care reform is merely an example.
Here is my proposal for welfare. In order to receive any kind of aid at all, a person should have worked at least two solid years in his or her past. Food stamps should be for families only, and a person should only qualify for enough for the number of family members that her or she has at the time he or she applies. If you can’t afford to support your family, you shouldn’t be screwing around risking expanding it. There should be a two year limit on any kind of aid, and the requirement that the person gets a job a year in unless he or she is a non-traditional college student with a family.
That’ll never happen.
The message that is being sent to America’s youth is that they are entitled to help from the government. Those evil rich capitalists are responsible for every woe. We are exchanging liberty for… honestly, I’m not even sure what we’re exchanging it for. But I am afraid.
But going back to what I said in the second paragraph, I do believe that the focus should be on local organizations. This country would be a much happier place if we would all turn our eyes back to our own communities and do what we can to help lift up those around us. We spend so much time worrying about what’s happening in every other state while the family down the road could use a few extra cans of food. Focus on your neighbors. Help your neighbors. A few churches and charities that take local outreach seriously can make a much bigger impact on the poor in their community than any federal program.
Take all that money that you donate to political parties or causes and invest them in local free clinics and food banks. Do something for those around you. Relieve the suffering in your own community, and let the rest of the country do the same.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Children for Life
Today I go into mourning for my country.
What we have succeeded in creating is a society that lacks individual, personal responsibility for one's own self. We have created a society in which the public is responsible for the health and well-being of the individual. We have created a society in which there are no adults. We are children for life, living in a bubble-wrapped world under the vigilant eye of our loving nanny, the federal government of the United States of America.
People in this country no longer grow up. We coddle our children, we make excuses for our teenagers, and we hand out entitlements like candy at Halloween. What makes your child any more deserving than any other? Why should money that could go towards one child's care be taken from his or her parent’s pocket to care for yours? Why are you entitled to a single thing that belongs to me or my neighbor?
Ask yourself, do you honestly believe that anyone else is responsible for you? Is it anyone else's responsibility to make sure that you have food on your table? A roof over that table?
I don't need to be taught the definition of charity. I will gladly give you the shirt off of my back if you only ask me. But if you demand it from me, expect it from me simply because you exist, you do not deserve it. You are not entitled to a single material thing in this world. You are not entitled to clothing, or food, or money, or health care. You may work for them, or you may die. Nothing is a guarantee. You have the right to pursue happiness, but not the promise of finding it.
I would rather die than force someone else to pay my medical bills. If I cannot pay my own way and no one else is willing to voluntarily reach out a hand to me, then I will die. I will make it or break it on my own. I expect nothing more and nothing less from every other able-bodied American.
What we have succeeded in creating is a society that lacks individual, personal responsibility for one's own self. We have created a society in which the public is responsible for the health and well-being of the individual. We have created a society in which there are no adults. We are children for life, living in a bubble-wrapped world under the vigilant eye of our loving nanny, the federal government of the United States of America.
People in this country no longer grow up. We coddle our children, we make excuses for our teenagers, and we hand out entitlements like candy at Halloween. What makes your child any more deserving than any other? Why should money that could go towards one child's care be taken from his or her parent’s pocket to care for yours? Why are you entitled to a single thing that belongs to me or my neighbor?
Ask yourself, do you honestly believe that anyone else is responsible for you? Is it anyone else's responsibility to make sure that you have food on your table? A roof over that table?
I don't need to be taught the definition of charity. I will gladly give you the shirt off of my back if you only ask me. But if you demand it from me, expect it from me simply because you exist, you do not deserve it. You are not entitled to a single material thing in this world. You are not entitled to clothing, or food, or money, or health care. You may work for them, or you may die. Nothing is a guarantee. You have the right to pursue happiness, but not the promise of finding it.
I would rather die than force someone else to pay my medical bills. If I cannot pay my own way and no one else is willing to voluntarily reach out a hand to me, then I will die. I will make it or break it on my own. I expect nothing more and nothing less from every other able-bodied American.
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