Spending More and Getting Less

We took a Federal and California tax return to the Post Office today. Both were required to be postmarked by Monday, May 17th, and we did the mailing a few days early. (These returns weren't ours, which were mailed on April 14th.)

First-class mail service has deteriorated. It will take four days to deliver the 1040 to Fresno, which is 180 miles (3¼ hours) away.

Worse, the USPS estimates that Form 540 will be delivered on Tuesday to Sacramento, which is 110 miles (2 hours) from Foster City. It takes five days to get a piece of mail to the State Capitol.

If speediness were crucial I would have driven the tax returns to the destinations myself, as I've done a few times in my career.

Services that the government provides---police, schools, mail, tax processing, border patrol, public health--have experienced well-publicized failures during the past year. During the same period the private sector has erected the infrastructure to work from home and produced COVID-19 vaccines years earlier than anyone had a right to expect.

Meanwhile, based on its stellar record, the government takeover of the economy continues apace with an explosion of taxes and spending....