see if I can describe this correctly / process improvement

Instead of using common sense solutions to fix the problem, people have to re-invent the wheel. A lot of it is revenue. The government needs money; where do they go to get it? From the only place that they can; the people. Quick story, and the only place that I have heard of this happening. Back in the 60’s the Commonwealth of Kentucky built a limited access highway through the mountains of Eastern Kentucky called the Mountain Parkway. It was a toll road and they said that as soon as it was paid off, they would remove the tolls. No one really believed that this would happen. However, the road was paid off (I believe, about 10 years early), and the tolls were removed. One instance where the government kept its word.

They didn't keep their word because we still have the tolls.

Car pool discount being eliminated from the Hudson River crossings in NYC, so the toll goes from $6.50 to $12.50.

Another example that I can provide is my wife and son use Epipens. There was a lot of publicity with it.

For years, they got them for $0. Insurance and the mfg. paid both the cost, plus copay.

Then, a generic came out. We had to pay $25 because no more subsidy from the mfg. But I saw that my employer's cost went from over $500 down to under $200.

Here it is 2019, and we're back to name brand, where my employer pays over $500. The only procedural difference? They made it so we can't use the mfg copay and must pay $25 ourselves.

imho that is shuffling chairs on the deck of the titantic, and everyone is satisfied as long as

a) drug mfg gets paid a lot
b) insured pays a little

I'm not out to stick it to my employer, really. That they were saving due to generic is fine with me.

Call me a cynic but when you talk about the government, follow the money. No politician wants to "raise taxes," so they play games like raising tolls, elimination car pool discounts, and still charging tolls when a road (see Ohio Turnpike, e.g.) is fully paid for. Those things aren't called taxes, they're called anything else. Follow the money.
Medicine/drugs? Follow the money. In my opinion, drug companies must be the biggest contributors to politicians' pockets. Notice I didn't say politicians' campaigns, I said pockets. Yep, just call me a cynic.

Phil

it is all about collecting money. It is unfortunate. Because they can keep on doing it, the budget goes up and up and there is a lot of waste in government spending. It is like their own piggybank and they look good when they give the money away. The politicians don't care and even though people complain, they still keep the same politicians in office by voting for them at every election.

it is interesting I remember as a kid in elementary, the sec of state and governor came to our house for dinner. what I remember the most was having state troopers driving up and down our quiet dead end street, and playing in the governor's limo until its battery went dead. Odd, right? Why would keys be left in it? Even as a little kid, I knew enough to turn the key backwards (back then) for the ACC so we could listen to the stereo. When I got to school, my English teacher asked me if the governor were at my house on saturday.

As far as the sec of state, he was the one who is often misquoted and believed to have said he was in charge around here lol as if he didn't know the VP and speaker of the house were next in line.

Point is, as a kid, politics meant nothing at all. but to my mid 30's dad, my mom said his head was so big it couldn't fit in a room back then.

Maybe it's all about power. But imho public service should mean we all succeed together. The Corvette did. But it's such a tiny area of GM, and tiny number of people are fortunate to buy one. The means and opportunity should be developed. Nothing should be free as some propose. my .02

just remembered another detail--the former Sec. of State, was not at the time he came to our house--in my mind I was thinking wouldn't secret service agents be present lol I wish we could time travel back being a kid is way better

I worked for a City, the Department Heads would go on Spending Spree at end of fiscal Year. Even when we had a Budget Crisis they still did this, their explanation was is they left it, it would get taken away next year. Gee, you mean we didn't need that much waste? The other one I love is getting a raise, we had a allowance for "Safety Boots", it would get raised but the "Approved" Venders always raised the cost of Boots more then the increase.

Evidently Festivus has commenced with the Airing of Grievances.

"I gotta lotta bones to pick with you people!"

This is funny, like from the bizarro world. Out of nowhere, we were issued refunds by amazon.com. It stated that we had bought some items on Cyber Monday, and they strive to offer the lowest price possible, and a lower price was offered so we are refunding the difference to you.

Then, my wife accidentally ordered something that she had already bought locally.

So I logged in, stated ordered by mistake as reason for return.

Amazon says, how can we make this right? What do you mean, I just stated it was ordered by mistake, our mistake lol

So I go through the process and one of the choices is returnless refund. That's where you don't do anything, and they issue a refund.

This is why my amazon stock hasn't performed well in a year! haha