I work for the government.

Oh I agree 100% on cancellation of services. But it isn’t ineptitude. I never could get an emergency call service cancelled with Vivint when my mom moved to assisted living. Supplied them with everything they asked for 3-4 times and the bills kept coming. Finally just let it go to collection. I don’t mess around with dishonest or inept business for long.

The problem is with government you don’t have a choice of telling them to screw off or going to a competitor.

And as far as just plain incompetence, I’ve never seen anything like my examples from government. And I deal with a lot of large, diverse companies.

Do you think the problems you cite from the private sector are ineptitude or predatory?

 

What makes you think it's an either/or situation?

 

I’m asking your opinion. Based on the fact you listed companies without any other specifics I’d say a combination. A gas company with few or any “real” competitors is more likely to be predatory than a Wal mart checker that’s senile or brain dead from meth and heroin.

On to government. What percentage is predatory or incompetence?

 

You are employed by the government. You work for the same exact spectrum of incentives that motivate everyone else. In theory, governments have very different motives than for profit enterprises. However, the actual people in both government and the private sector are motivated by the exact same spectrum of incentives. Those employed by government are no better than those they govern and therefore should not be vested with authority to impose even their very best intention upon those they govern. They are no better than us. It's not that they're any worse, or that they're intentions are anything but benevolent. It's just that, in my opinion, such benevolence should be reserved to the parents of small children.

 

There is no difference between the people who work in government and those who work in private enterprise, though there may be differences in the kind of people who choose to work in government versus those who work in private enterprises. There are real and significant differences in the incentives found in the systems they work within. Private enterprise works on a voluntary basis that requires the business to serve its customers and the customers to voluntarily trade with the business. Government mandates interactions with their "customers" through force of law. Private enterprise has to make a profit or go out of business. Government operates on confiscated funds and has no valid mechanism to even calculate return on investment or profit. Private enterprises are constrained by their budgetary limitations. Government budgets aren't constrained and as a rule grow continuously. The differences in the systems results in very different behaviors by the people working within them and especially those running them.