Shawn Stratton PHP Geek

Of Passports and Efficiency

Some of you may know that I have dual citizenship (American and German,) I was born here in the States but I grew up (until almost 10 years old) in Germany and my mother is full blooded German.  Here lately I've thought a lot about what it's meant to me to have both citizenships and to have grown up in Germany and have thought about what impact it might have if my son (who's now 5) spent some time in Germany.  Because it's nearly impossible to get a passport on a decent schedule I thought long and hard about it and decided to renew my passports (German and American as they are both expired) and to get Phillips passports now rather than wait until later when it may become more of  a pain.  I've noticed an interesting difference in the forms needed to file for the passport and I think this highlights some of my thoughts and complaints about Government service in general.

German Application

I went to the German Consulates website, I clicked two links and voilà I was at the fillable PDF which I was later able to print.  The document itself was rather short at 2 pages printed, lackluster and only included instructions above the fields as to what was to go in the field.  I quickly filled in the information and printed the document (it's now sitting on my desk next to me,) and was done with process.  The application process will be an interesting one, you have to call a number to schedule an appointment with the German Consulate (it's the same in Germany just not with the Consulate) and I'm sure when I schedule and finally go I'll be in the building at the time scheduled, it'll be a rather short visit, and when I walk out I'll be done minus the wait for the printed passport.

American Application

When I google'd the American Passport Application I came up with the state department page on applying for a passport, after clicking through 2 or 3 pages I finally managed to find the "apply online" button (which does not allow you to actually apply on-line.)  The American application was a guided process with a paragraphs worth of instructions on every page instructing me to fill out this field in certain ways and complaining if things didn't fit right.  When I finished filling in the information (not that unpleasant of an experience) I was able to download a 6 page pdf to print and take with me to a passport application station.  The thing I realize here is that I will not be able to schedule an appointment and most likely when I go to apply I'll be standing in line waiting for someone to rubber stamp the application (just to mail it off later.)  Of the actual application, only 2 pages are specific to my information (out of a total of 6) the other 4 are warnings, instructions, and general information that I should retain before I travel.  In the end I'll wind up going to a post office here in Buckhead, paying the fee, and waiting a few weeks to receive my printed passport.

The Difference

I guess it's easy to see the difference to an extent, but the underlying problem may not be as evident.  Here in the states anything to do with Government is always convoluted with a myriad of exceptions to every process, special rules for this and that, and in the end we still deal with wait periods and disorganization.  I would almost bet that if I submitted the applications on the same day that I would get the German passport back first, although in this case I don't have my last German Passport (which will increase processing time because the consulate will have to do some checking into my past.)

My Problem

We have become so helpless when it comes to government that it requires someone to hold our hand anytime we interact with it and I think it's high time that we start reversing that.  When I apply for a passport I don't need someone to tell me, in detail, on how to fill out my name and if you really think about it I doubt you do either.  Sure we're all bound to make some mistakes, some more than others, but the correction for that is not putting more process on everyone else.  I should probably state that I'm not trying to say that the US Government stinks and that I want the German Government style here, maybe I do, but it's not due to a national identity crisis or because I believe that Germany does everything so much better, I'm merely posting my thoughts as a way of sharing my frustration and hopefully bringing up some thought and discussion.

Far Reaching

The problem here reaches further than government anyway, it's part of our culture I think, I've seen it in the way we handle our private business (yes I'm guilty of it from time to time as well) and in our daily work (at least as a software engineer.)  For example, of the several companies I've worked for, we tend to create more process every time we get our hand smacked by releasing a bug in production or perhaps someone failing to follow steps and getting a bad result.  The end product is nearly always more thorough instructions/documentation, more validation via process, and more reviews of what's being done.

The Solution

Who knows what really would reverse this problem we have as a society?  I certainly don't,  I'd like to think that if we all thought about how to do things right and spent a bit more time thinking about what we're doing before we just go and do it that this wouldn't be as much of a problem, however, in the end that's probably not it, at least not by itself.  Until we get a grasp on it I would advise to do just that though, look at what you're doing, identify ways to streamline the process, and realize that more isn't always better.  I'm going to close with a favorite idea that may just be related to this issue (This is the name/topic of several Facebook groups):

Cure for Stupidity: Take the warning labels off of everything and let the problem correct itself.