Greetings from Croatia

I'm on the coast of Croatia, preparing for a couple of speeches later today. As you can see from the picture below, the view from my balcony is spectacular, even for a rube like me. But this blog is dedicated to public policy, so time for a lesson about the inefficiencies of communism and central planning. My hotel may have a beautiful view, but it was built by the government during the communist era (when Croatia was still part of Yugoslavia) and it remains a state-run enterprise still today. This becomes apparent in many ways, including a breakfast buffet that is far less appetizing than the one at my hotel in Brussels. But the most revealing thing (and it would disappoint Al Gore) is the grotesque inefficiency of the heating system. There are no individual controls in the rooms. Guests merely control the fan, which pumps out heat in the winter and (one assumes) air conditioning in the summer. That doesn't sound too unreasonable, but my room stays above 80 degrees even with the fan completely off. So I have been sleeping with the sliding glass door open, even though the outside temperature at night is in the mid-30s. But this is hardly an ideal solution. When the wind blows, I am too cold. When the air is calm, I am too warm. I don't mean to whine, and I'm still glad to be in such a nice setting, but I can't help but think that if a government can't design and operate a hotel efficiently, what hope is there for government health care?