One small example how "gov'ment" helps us everyday in so many ways.

[Peregrine Took]

Yesterday morning in rush hour traffic on a very busy downtown street a semi hit a manhole cover at a weird angle and flipped it out of its hole and broke it thus leaving a huge gaping hole on this busy thoroughfare.

Within minutes the Dept of Transportation had men out there to block off the hole, direct traffic around it and ordered a new cover to be delivered there ASAP thereby saving an accident and expediting people's trip to work.

That's the kind of thing that goes on all around us every day yet the "stupids" keep up with the hatred of government thing 24/7. Just today I heard a retired bird colonel (now a lawyer) bitch about how the gov was responsible for every ill in society yet I bet he won't turn down his military pension.

I'd like to see all gov't services just stop for 1 hour every day and see how things would crash and burn.

[rfranklin]

1. The uber wealthy just fly by in their helicopters...

they don't care about what happens to the "little people."

[Brickbat]

2. Oh, a private business could have handled it just as well.

A Road Monitor Technician would have found it as fast -- assuming, of course, his position wasn't cut because the company hadn't met shareholder expectations for the past two quarters (30 percent margins aren't too much to ask for, are they?). I guess if there wasn't a Road Monitor Technician, the Manhole Utilization Specialist would have been right on it, even though she was busy doing the newly-laid-off Road Monitor Technician's job as well. But maybe she would have hesitated to dispatch a Manhole Reintegration Team right away, because the department had put out a call for a 17 percent cut in costs in all departments, and her last evaluation had been kind of a down one, because her manager had been annoyed that she had asked for an extra week of maternity leave because of complications after her scheduled C-section.

So at the end of the quarter the bean-counters note that costs are down across the company by 18 percent, which means the scheduled bonuses for officers can go through as planned -- as long as the scheduled service invoice increases are moved up by a quarter. If customers complain, well, the complaints can go in the same circular file that the complaints about the unfixed manhole cover go. Because really, what other company are motorists going to hire?

So, you know, private business could have handled it just as well -- or at least, you know, better for fewer people, anyway.

[Drale]

3. Was that on the Kennedy in Chicago?

Cause I was wondering why there was such a backup, and I knew it had to do with a manhole cover.

[gateley]

4. Totally agree, but I want to just say DUers are so clever! The above three responses

had me laughing! Well, #2 had me nodding wryly because it was so right on. DUers, you make my day! Days. Every one of 'em! :headbang: