Failure Is Excellence To The Mediocre!

An article in yesterday’s Washington Post clearly shows the gap between the RESPONSIBILITY our government has and the ACCOUNTABILITY or lack of accountability to which they are held.  The article  confirms  that the I.R.S. expects  to answer only 71.2% of the calls made to the agency in 2010.  They are elated that the number is up from 70% in 2009.  Further, of the calls that are answered it will take 11 minutes and 38 seconds to actually get someone on the phone.  This is an increase of almost three minutes over the ridiculous time required in  2009.  Also, the I.R.S. is not responsible for the answers given by their agents over the phone.  It is estimated that as many as 40% of the answers to questions asked of the employees on these calls is incorrect and could cause serious problems to the individual if they use this inaccurate information in filing their return.

Now let me understand……upon calling the I.R.S. I have only a 2 in 3 chance the call will answered…..after a wait of almost a quarter of an hour and the answer to my query will likely be wrong!  Imagine how long your company would stay in business with this standard of performance.

The standard in my company is that every call will be answered on the first or second ring, by a live person, with a pleasant voice that indicates to the caller that we are pleased that they called us.  Further, their problem will be solved in some way as quickly as possible.  And we are held accountable for the answers we give.   If we did not  conduct business in this manner we would not be in business long.   The key is that individually and collectively we take RESPONSIBILITY and we are ACCOUNTABLE.   Our very existence depends on it.

With the government there is no accountability at any level.  When was the last time you heard of a government worker….I mean employee….and there is both a difference and a distinction between the two…..getting fired.   Today we see even  President BO’s actions illustrate that he can say what he needs to in order to get what he wants and then do as he wishes…in total disregard to his promises.  It is beyond frustrating that government is allowed to continue to be sub-mediocre in performance without punishment.

The situation is getting worse.  Government is the only sector that has grown during this recession…in both numbers and salary levels.   Add to this the fact that only half of eligible taxpayers actually pay taxes  (this represents 1/3 of all US citizens) leaving the burden to the other half…..of which you and I are a part. You can easily see the problem we face.   Bigger government plus fewer taxpayers equals a snowball of disaster rolling downhill and gaining speed.  The time to solve the problem is getting shorter and the hurdles increasing.  We better wake up as a Nation or we are doomed……if it is not too late already.