Thursday, July 10, 2008

Why Libertarians Should Not Change States

Local Protected Monopolies and the State DMV.
Can't hook up my phone land line in the next 8 days? Fine, I'll just take my business somewhere else. Oh, wait....
Nothing compared though to the DMV, who will not let me have an Indiana drivers license until I get clearance letters from both the Kansas DMV and the Massachusetts DMV, neither state have I ever even been to (which is not an accident). The Massachusetts DMV will not send the clearance until I get the New York DMV to fax them proof that I have never been issued a drivers license in
New York, thereby proving I never received a speeding ticket in Mass. The Kansas DMV will simply send the letter once I send them a check for $6.

I also have been keeping track of my average weight times to speak to a real person for customer service with a real person for the various monopolies:
DMV's (IN, MA, KS, NY): nine calls averaging 45 minutes (no outliers here, they are all pretty close to the mean)
AT&T (phone): 2 calls averaging 6 minutes
AT&T (internet): 4 calls averaging 2 minutes
Comcast (internet): 2 calls averaging 1 minute
Duke Energy: 3 calls averaging 18 minutes
DirectTV: 3 calls average 3 minutes

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