Are Paved Roads "Unnecessary Government Spending"? What is Government in a Democracy?

Yesterday we went out into the countryside to visit a friend who lives on a farm. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the leaves are just starting to turn colors. On the drive back home, we saw a Jeep Wrangler (a large 4 by 4) with a spare wheel cover like on the right. It says, "PAVED ROADS: Another Fine Example of Unnecessary Government Spending."

This struck me as peculiarly American. Of course, I understand that this is partly in jest; the website where this spare wheel cover is sold sells other humorous tire covers (see below) and notes that with this cover you can "and enjoy the stares when the guys behind you read it." (I'm actually not sure how you're supposed to see the faces of people behind you without crashing into the people in front of you, but that's another issue.)

The website where this is sold is called Extreme Terrain Off-Road Outfitters, and they have a smaller sticker for $5, about which they say: "Does your rig rarely see the road? Happier on the trail? Government annoy you? (You're not alone!) Get a few grins with this decal."  So they think it is funny. But at the same time, it is not. It is serious political propaganda.

The notion that the government is an oppressor is not new in the US, and it goes back to the 1776 Revolution, as exemplified by the famous Gadsden Flag with the coiled snake and the words "Don't Tread On Me" and the anti-tax Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. Anthropologists also view states as fundamentally oppressive and exploitative institutions. Most people view the rise of states as the beginning of "civilization," but in fact, they are just created when a minority (a priesthood, an oligopoly, a nobility, elites, etc.) take control, organize armies and food deliveries, and maintain their superior power, usually through some sort of force (think military, or police, or praetorian guard). Since the first state, leaders have controlled the state to their own advantage. They may claim they need to do so to organize production or for defense, but the fact is the leaders of states have benefited at the expense of the majority of people (the peons).

But it seems a bit Luddite to believe that we can live, in our current world, "independently," "free" of any government constraint. That Jeep Wrangler was, after all, driving on I-64, a 6-lane interstate paid for by the federal and state governments. We would not be able to travel 30 miles to have lunch with friends if we did not have paved roads--which are paid for by the government!

The genius of American politics in the past was the combination of a belief in small government, to avoid bureaucracy and high taxes, along with the belief that science and technical progress supported by the government could solve human and social problems. From the battles between the two approaches, or rather, compromises between the two, progress could be made. But in the past few decades, a Libertarian ethos has arisen that holds that all government programs are evil: they waste money, undermine people's freedom, and don't work to boot. The fact is, this is sometimes true, but not always. The trick is to know when to use government programs, and when they do not work. The assumption that all government programs are bad is an ideological position promoted by a few super-wealthy Americans like the Kochs and Mercers, and it has grown in influence over recent decades.

Now the US electorate is again debating healthcare: progressive Democrats are proposing "Medicare for All." How this will be funded is not clear, and this is making many centrist voters nervous, especially those who have good health insurance and who worry that it will be taken away and that they will be forced to go into a bureaucratic government-funded health system. And yet, it is incredible that there are still millions of Americans who have no health insurance.

Two days ago, I went to a "Gala" (a fundraiser) for a local charity called "Gateway to Hope." They support low-income women who have cancer by helping them maintain their insurance payments, or helping them pay their mortgage and food bills, so they can concentrate on their treatment. Fact: 36% of women with breast cancer cannot work. If they lose their job, they can lose their insurance! It is shocking that people who get cancer risk losing their job and their house, or that they have to scrimp on food while they are trying to recover from chemotherapy. So it is shocking that such a charity is actually necessary, in one of the richest countries in the world. Why does this charity have to solicit from private donors? Everyone should be contributing, through their taxes, to spread the burden evenly. One would think that everyone would receive this kind of support as a matter of course, but that is not the case.

Hong Kong has also long been governed by the principle of limited government, but Hong Kong has a good public health care system that is very inexpensive to the patient. It is true that there are long waits for some specialties (especially for psychiatric care--suicidal patients have to wait many months to see a psychiatrist), but patients with money can pay out of pocket or buy insurance to get private treatment. Emergency treatment is available to all; the registration fee is HK$100 (US$13). Hong Kong also has many NGOs providing social services, but their funding does not totally come from private sources; many receive all or nearly all their funds from the government. The government audits them and makes sure the money is well spent, but the services are provided in a less bureaucratic form by NGOs. Even many private schools in Hong Kong get significant portions of their funds from the government.

I find that when people in Taiwan, China and even Hong Kong find that there is something wrong in society, they expect the government to step in and address the problem. That is not true for many Americans; Reagan famously said that the nine most terrifying words are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." The odd thing is that in a democracy, "the government" should be "we, the people." It is a sign of how much more democratization we need in America that people still see the government as an oppressor, even though they supposedly elect it every election.

So a wheel cover claiming that public roads are a waste of taxpayers' money is not funny. I wish it was, that we could agree that it was absurd. But as long as extreme individualist libertarians proclaim their notions of very limited government, it is not a joke but an example of an anti-social and selfish ideology.

The AT&T Saga Continues

I have posted before about how AT&T keeps sending me bills for $0 to my old Hong Kong office address, and of my frustrating efforts to get them to stop (see here 11 years ago, and here 18 months ago). After my last post, I actually got a phone call from a supervisor in the southwest, and he seemed very competent and determined to solve the problem. You could say he reached out and touched me. But the problem persists!

 The bills never stopped coming. It has been well over a decade since I used an AT&T card. I've tried calling them, writing, sending back the bill. Nothing works.

And they are still spending US$1.15 every month to send me this phantom bill. People like to complain about government services like the DMV, but this is a private company, spending over $23 a year in just postage to send me a bill for $0.

The only thing that makes this comical is that I don't actually have to pay anything. It would be upsetting rather than annoying if they were actually billing me for something and I could not get them to stop. It is astonishing to me that a company could be so big that it cannot control something like this.

AT&T's new slogan in the early 2010's was "Rethink possible." I'm beginning to think impossible.

AT&T and Kafkaesque Bureaucracy

Almost ten years ago, I wrote a blog post about my difficulties in getting AT&T to stop sending me a bill for $0 (yes, zero dollars). Incredibly, AT&T is still sending the bills to my old office. I have occasionally tried to stop them, but each time I hit a dead end and gave up. Yesterday, one of the recent letters was forwarded to me, so I decided to make another effort to stop the bills. I ended up spending an hour and a half in chats with 4 different people, AND THE PROBLEM IS STILL NOT SOLVED!!!

I don't know what is crazier: that AT&T cannot stop wasting $1.15 per month to mail me a bill for $0, or that I wasted an hour and a half of my life trying to get them to stop.

A brief summary of the old story: in the old days (1980s and '90s), before Skype and before cell phones, we used to use a "calling card" to make phone calls from public phones. Instead of having to deposit a lot of change, we called a toll-free 800 number, then put in our card number and a PIN, and then dialed the number we wished to call. Every month, we got a bill in the mail, and paid by check. (I know, it sounds very archaic.) We had a Sprint card, and then for some reason we switched to AT&T. We did not use this card to call from Hong Kong, because long-distance charges from Hong Kong were always much cheaper than from the US. But when we were in the US, this was the only way for us to use public phones to call other US numbers.

Once cell phones were available, in about 2004, we got a "pay as you go" SIM card for our phone that allowed us to call and receive US calls. We had no monthly bill; we paid $1.00 per day that we used it, and $0.10 per minute. We paid in advance, and our calls charge were deducted from our account. It was great, and we kept that phone number until we moved back to the US. That plan was originally from a company called Cingular, which was later bought out by AT&T. But this SIM card never was linked to the calling card (this is an important detail for below).

Back to the present: I have called the 1-888 toll free number in the past and know that the first step is that one has to input one's phone number or 16-digit number that I don't have, so I tried by going to the www.att.com/customerservice website, as directed by the bill. Very soon, a chat window appeared, so I decided to reply to Laura, and tell her I'm trying to stop the $0 bills. She transfers me to the billing department, where I speak to Charles. (I'm using their "real" names because it seems they are all in the Philippines and are not using their real names anyway. AT&T has a nifty feature where I was able to get a transcript of my chats.)

Charles asks me all sorts of questions, I repeat what I'm trying to do, I wait for a while, then he asks me for my phone number in case we get disconnected. I think, how nice, so I give it to him.

Charles : Thank you.

Charles : Do you have wireless services?

Me : Yes

Charles : Thanks for confirming.

Charles : Let me connect you to our wireless department to check this for you.

Annabelle : Hello! My name is Annabelle. I hope you are having a great day! How may I help you today?

So, when he asks if I have wireless services, I do not understand that he means "Are you getting wireless services from AT&T?" In fact, I am not. But basically, he did not know what to do, so he dumped me onto Annabelle! And I told her so.

Me : Can you read the chat history or should I start over?

Annabelle : Please allow me to review the items you raised to save time.

Me : Frankly, I think Charles just dumped my case on to you, as it has nothing to do with wireless...

Annabelle : Yes.

Annabelle : You are not in the US right now, correct?

As you can see, I had to start over, explaining that I am indeed in the USA....
She then tells me to call a phone number for the GoPhone department, even though I assure her it has nothing to do with phones.

Annabelle : As I check one of our specialist this is being handled by our GoPhone department, so you may directly contact them so that you can be further assisted with this, okay?

Annabelle : I can provide you their direct contact information.

Me : But this has nothing to do with our GoPhone account. It was for a calling card.

Annabelle : Yes, they are the one who handles calling cards as well.

Me : OK, how do I contact them?

Annabelle : Let me provide you their direct contact information.

Annabelle : It is 1-800-901-9878.

Annabelle : Just contact them directly so that the bill will be stopped from sending you.

Me : OK, I'll try

As I feared, the number was of no use; I do not have the numbers they want for me to move forward with the call. The voicemail just hung up on me.

I was livid. Fortunately, an AT&T survey popped up, so I gave them all zeros.

To my surprise, another window popped up, saying they were going to upgrade the case, asking if I was willing. So, of course I agreed. Now I was talking to Medwin B. Interestingly also was very confused about calling cards; I had to describe the whole process to him, and explain that it was not a prepaid calling card.

Medwin B : Joseph, is the calling card re-loadable once you already consumed the minutes do you get a chance to reload it?

Medwin B : Or is it disposable calling card?

Me : No; we got a bill. It is not disposable either.

Me : We are talking about a product that is dead for more than 10 years. I've been trying to stop these bills for $0 for over 10 years

Medwin B : Do you still have the phone number associated with that account?

Me : It was not associated with an account because we lived in Hong Kong at the time.

Me : Sorry, I mean it was not associated with a phone number because....

Me : We got bills in the mail, based on usage, and paid by check. The bills just keep coming, charging $0, even though we have not been using it for over 10 years.

Medwin B : I appreciate all the information and I am digging deeper here to help you. May I know how do you place a call using that calling card?

Me : :) I feel really old, talking about ancient technology. I called an AT&T 800 number, keyed in the code on the card plus a PIN, then the desired phone number.

Then he asked if I could send him a scan of the bill, and I said I could. Here is his text:

Medwin B : You can scan it and send an email to including your request to Foundation@att.com.

Medwin B : Or you can also call 800-591-9663 .

Medwin B : That is the best option I am seeing here after digging deeper to my resources here.

I did both. To my great frustration, it turns out both the email address and the phone number are for AT&T's charitable foundation. I got an auto reply email that began:

Thank you for contacting the AT&T Foundation.  Our funding priority is our Aspire Program.  We are committed to supporting organizations implementing verifiable, evidenced-based interventions focused on improving high school retention rates and preparing students – especially those most at-risk – for college or career. 

He, like Annabelle, and Charles, just dumped me. My case was probably lowering their performance on their metrics. I'm insulted that they pushed me off so easily; I feel like a fool for falling for what is obviously not relevant. What is annoying is that AT&T has all sorts of features, like the survey and the chat function, and the record of the chat, that are designed to provide good service, but they don't have PEOPLE who can navigate their system properly to solve a problem.

I am not entirely altruistic in trying to get AT&T to stop, so they save the wasted postage; in the back of my mind, I'm worried AT&T will start charging me for my non-existent card, and then I'll have bill collectors chasing me. I'm totally at a loss as to how to stop this. It is a both funny and frightening example of Kafkaesque bureaucracy.

I wonder if I switched my cell phone plan to AT&T whether they would be able to resolve this. I don't dare try.

"We'll Charge Whatever We Can Get Away With"

PCCW (our telephone company) has told me they cannot tell me what it costs to call Korea because "it depends."  I can't tell if they want to know my phone number or  the number I'm trying to call in Korea, but either way, it is surprising that there is not a simple answer to my request.  Here is my message to them:
I am amazed that you do not seem to have any information online on what the cost per minute is for calling on 0060.  I'm trying to find the cost to call Korea, and get to the following "dead end".  Perhaps I've missed the webpage, but I've been looking for it for 5 minutes unsuccessfully. Please let me know where the page of charges is, and I hope you can make it easier to find.

http://www.pccw.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=PCCW/PCCWHK/ProductsServices/ProductContent&cid=1007415912878&sectionid=4&pagelang=eng
And here is their reply:
Dear Mr. Bosco,

Thank you for emailing PCCW.

>From your message, we understand that you would like to obtain the calling rates from Hong Kong to Korea for our IDD 0060 service.

As there are many ongoing IDD 0060 promotions offering to different customers from time to time. Therefore, in order to retrieve the most accurate calling rate information for our customer, please be invited to contact directly our 24 hours IDD Customer Service hotline at 10013, whereby our representatives will be most happy to provide your requested information after checking with your account record.

Alternatively, you may provide us with the following information in coming email, so that we may further check with our record and reply you shortly:

- Concerned Telephone Number
- Account Registered Full Name

Should you have any further enquiries, please feel free to e-mail us again.

Yours sincerely,

[NAME] Wong
Customer Service Executive
PCCW Email Team 
I especially like the extra ">" at the start of the message, suggesting they are not much better than I am at using email.  The part I've highlighted in red means that they are charging different customers different prices, and so they need to check "who I am" to see how much I have to pay.  No wonder there is no webpage providing the information (though with bit of programming, they could do that, but it would make their practice of charging different prices for different customers more obvious.)  Since we do not have different long distance "packages" like in the US, I have to wonder how they decide how much to charge me. Dealing with monopolies is like tilting at windmills.

Irrational bureaucracy

I can’t stop AT&T from sending me bills for $0 that cost them $0.90 to mail to me. And I’m not even an AT&T customer.

Here is how this happened. Before the days of cell phones (AKA mobile phones), we needed to use calling cards to make long distance phone calls. We had an AT&T card, as well as a Sprint card, but once AT&T gave us a cheap plan call the “Military Plan,” we only used the AT&T card, and the Sprint card expired.

Then we got a small SIM card (a computer chip) that we put in our Hong Kong phone, and voila, we could use our cell phones in the US. It is a “Pay As You Go plan” that does not have monthly charges; you just pay for each call at $0.10 per minute. It used to be Cingular, but not that is, coincidentally, part of AT&T. So, for about two years, from 2004-2006, we did not use the AT&T calling card.

Then, I once needed to use the calling card to call the US from Europe, and I discovered the card did not work. I tried to call AT&T to find out what the problem was, but got the “helpline” runaround, so gave up in frustration.

Months later, I tried again, and this time I spoke to a person (how thrilling!). I told her my card did not work, and wondered why. When I mentioned that I was not in the military, but that I had been put on the “Military Plan” because it was the best plan for our family (and this was well before 9-11, after which the military became more prominent and were viewed as “heroes” apart from ordinary people like us), she said that I was not eligible for the Military Plan, and that she would terminate my card. I had expected her to suggest some other plan, or some other solution, but no, she just said goodbye and hung up! OK, I figured it was not a big deal, as we really don’t need a calling card anyway.

But the bills kept coming. Every month, I get a bill for the monthly “Military Plan” charge of $1. The line below the charge says “Other charges and credits” and it shows a credit of $1, canceling out the charges. After all the detailed instructions on how to pay, the bill says in bold: “Do Not Pay.”

I went to an AT&T store in Indiana to try to get the bills stopped. The very nice woman behind the desk told me that while I could pay my AT&T bill there, they were not really the same company: they were AT&T Mobile, and my bill was from another company that happened to have the same name of AT&T. I pretended I understood.

Originally, this bill was automatically paid by my credit card (which was in turn automatically paid by my bank). Since I wanted to make sure I was not being charged anything, and would not be charged in the future, I called the credit card company to make sure AT&T does not have the authority to charge me anything anymore. Credit card companies are worried about fraud, so I find that they are a lot more responsive than phone companies. They told me that AT&T has long not been on my list of authorized auto-payers.

So there we are. AT&T still thinks I’m their customer. They send me a monthly bill, at the cost of $0.90 per month, and at the bottom it tells me “Do Not Pay.” Despite numerous attempts to get off their mailing list, they still spend money sending me a useless bill.

Do you think we should sell our AT&T stock?