Going through my videos on my computer is one of my favorite time sinks. This video came to me, and it made me smile:



There's skill there!

Soon a posting from the McChord Airforce show. It was a great time, but don't get me started on the heat. But over 377,000 people went to it this year, apparently breaking all sorts of records.

The crew -- my family and the rest of the extended clan attended this great show. With the sound of F-15 still ringing in our ears, and a patriotic sunburn on our heads and faces, we walked to the buses. The other half of our brood decided to take their vehicle, in the traffic, while us good, green citizenry decided to park our car and use good, liberal-friendly buses. We had a little test then...who would win? Of course with the bus route being prioritized by the government, we should come out ahead. What did we get for our good karmic action?

A sunburn on top of a sunburn. The car-based brood came out ahead, less sunburned, and less chagrined.

The bus system here in Seattle/Tacoma area is suspect as it is, but here we saw government efficiency at its height. When we were leaving, in the heat, we had to wait for a bus. And wait. And wait. There were thousands of people waiting, no one knew if the buses were even going to come. One lady had to be carried away in an ambulance. The airshow schedule was not a secret. Instead of a phalanx of buses waiting, as my experience in a recent Rush concert,we were greeted by three. Three buses. Thousands of people.

This is government in action. Government has no accountability. No profit motive (buses were free). No pressure to act because it wasn't really in their best interests.

It is a microcosm of what you see in any government run institution. These transit people I'm sure are fine people, don't get me wrong. But the system is predicated on a cost-efficiency model, not a profit-model. Therefore the services will not be as adaptive as a system based on market forces. The culture of cost savings vs. profit will mean a degradation of service quality since there is no competitive pressure to improve. The point? Remember this vignette when you vote for that big health care bill the democrats are cooking up. :)