How to wake up America's sleep-walking services?
Amy Wu says even as its government shutdown ends, America still has to fix the larger problem of its lethargic services and stifling bureaucracy
First, the good news: the furlough season is over. Being based a stone's throw from the nation's capital, the topic hits home. A friend, who'd been on furlough since the government shutdown began on October 1, e-mailed me on day 10 and said she was suffering from cabin fever. "Feels good to be back at work," she now e-mails.
In the pool locker room, I overheard another victim tell her furloughed friend that "the only thing good about this is there's a lot less traffic … It is very depressing."
Well, now we Americans can exhale, sort of - the commuting nightmare is back. But at least everyone can get back to work.
Interestingly, some Chinese media pegged the shutdown as inspiring. The Southern Metropolis Daily praised US society for continuing to function without the government.
How the world views the US can be baffling, curious and vastly different from the reality of day-to-day living as an American citizen. Shutdowns, red tape, big government and furloughs are hardly inspiring at a time when the economy continues to struggle. Many of my fellow Americans were angered by the shutdown and viewed it as an embarrassment. For many of us, it was proof of how inefficient the US has become in many aspects of life.
And having lived in Hong Kong and recently returned to my homeland, I can attest to how painfully inefficient things often are here. The postal system is one example of first-class inefficiency. Little wonder that it suffered a US$740 million loss in the third quarter, increasing the year-to-date net loss to US$3.9 billion.