I was going to have a policy-oriented post about the value-added tax or something like that, but I have to complain about government incompetence as it is affecting my life right now.
I'm en route to Ireland for a speech. I started my day in Florida and took a connecting flight to Chicago (where I am right now). The Palm Beach Airport experience was reasonably pleasant, featuring free Internet (yes, I'm willing to utilize services financed by Florida taxpayers).
Chicago is a different story. One of the worst things about being at an airport is going through security, so it is a sign of a terrible airport when you land for a connecting flight and can't get to your new gate without exiting the secure area and having to go through security again.
If that was the extent of my hassle, I wouldn't grouse too much, but the geniuses who designed the international terminal at O'Hare didn't put any restaurants inside security. So after going through security and finding no place to eat, I had to exit to the terminal again.
I'm a cheap bastard, but I paid $6.49 so I could get online and vent my spleen while munching on sub par airport food.
As long as I'm bitching about airport incompetence, I may as well take a shot at Dulles Airport in Washington. I'm vaguely sympathetic to administrators who are running airports that were designed before 9/11 and all the added security hassle. But Dulles recently completed a very expensive renovation, and the system for funneling people into security is even worse than the previous system. I would describe it if I could, but that's impossible. Suffice to say that people wind up layered next to each other in long lines for each X-ray belt.
In the private sector, people who make bone-headed mistakes suffer consequences. In the government, they get excessive salaries and lavish pensions.
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