>often we rip on government agencies from our perch on...Hacker News, when we really have no idea what's going on.

In a single department, we don't know.

As a whole, it's been shown over and over that like any organization, government becomes corrupt.

Between defense and universities, I've heard depressing ancedotes as well.

It's lucky and temporary you had a good experience.

That seems like a pretty cynical perspective to me. Like if Edison had said "it's been shown over and over that electric light bulbs don't work" after the first couple hundred experiments didn't pan out.

In every country, in every world, in every decade of humanity, in every department.

But this time will be different.

Very interesting take.

You clearly have never dealt with people from local jurisdictions, such as from the local city government or county governments, and even up to the state.

I hate to say it, but every one of these folks I have encountered falls into two categories: 1. Recent college graduates who don't know much if anything, 2. People who have worked a government job for a long time but have little intellectual capacity to understand complex subjects.

I deal with people in local, city, county, and state governments all the time.

Haven't met many recent college graduates, as they don't usually have the experience to land a government job. Have met a few old-timers. But otherwise almost all of them were efficient, helpful, and good at their jobs. In the specialized departments, they definitely had the intellectual capacity to understand complex subjects and could have earned significantly more money in private practice if they wanted to waste their lives in a rat race.

I guess I need to find a job in your area then, because my experiences here are the pits.