When you are over 15 years old, it is that time of your life: the time to get your own driver's license. I have been planning to obtain my drive's license, but my age requirement and my lack of dedication prohibited me from getting probably the most important factor in my life. Now, regretting my decision to procrastinate, I have decided to get a permit before I go to the college. With my vision, I have decided to go to Department of Motor Vehicles or commonly known as DMV in order to start my journey to dominate the road. When I arrived in front of the DMV building, I was determined to pass the written exam right away and visioned myself having my own driver's license, until I saw the huge line with approximately 40 people. I was there on July 1, which was right before the Independence Day weekend. I thought there would be fewer people since I hypothesized that many people would have left the town by now, but I was wrong.
As I waited and waited for my turn, I saw that there was another line as huge as the line that I was in. I asked a man before me what the other line is and he simply told me that it is for the people who reserved their spot or simply had an appointment so that they can clear their issues easily and quickly. I was devastated by the fact that there were so many people and by the fact that I had to wait for more than an hour. Finally, after waiting for a painful and boring time period of two hours, I finally was able to speak to one of the workers in DMV, but they simply gave me a ticket and told me to wait. They even told me that I might not even be able to take the written exam even though it was only 3:00 p.m. and DMV closes at 5:00 p.m. I was frustrated and angered by the attitude that the DMV personnel had and even at the ridiculous waiting time that they have required from me. The workers were simply not productive, their speed of working was slow and they even talked with each other, enjoying their work although there were more than 100 people waiting to clear their issues. Eventually, I couldn't get anything done and returned home mad and frustrated. This experience led me to write this article regarding possible solutions for this critical problem.
As I researched regarding different departments in the United States, I have noticed the fundamental error within the each major departments: the location of each building. I have noticed that some key departments are limited in numbers, such as Department of Motor Vehicle, social security administration, Superior Court, etc. For example, there is only one department of motor vehicles close to the City of San Ramon and it even takes care of such cities as Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, Danville. This aggregation of cities on one DMV causes an overcrowding within the each department. This eventually causes the elongation of lines and waiting time like the experience that I have gone through at the DMV. This overcrowding causes the lack of efficiency within the department itself, giving the workers overload of works and eventually reducing their productivity. Another problem is that government employees have a lesser risk of replacement or forced resignation in comparison to the employees in a company. They simply receive more incentives such as insurance and higher income than the general workers outside of the government facilities. This flexibility allows further lack in productivity since workers can take advantage of this situation. This allows them to yield greater power within the DMV by doing what they enjoy and rather they would not care about the efficiency within their work.
By addressing following problems, it is a fact that there must be a change within the systems of the organization of the key departments in order to maximize efficiency and even maximize the tax that American citizens pay. Rather than placing single department within the radius of four or five cities, the state and the national institutions must devolve more power to the community such as town or city. Individual cities must have a sense of control or take the position of key departments such as social security administration or department of a motor vehicle to maximize their efficiency. Another way is to expand the number of the department if state and national institutions that do not desire to devolve power to the community. They must establish key departments in each city in order to reduce the overcrowding effect and even the lack of productivity within the aggregated government organizations.
Also, regarding the abuse of their advantage within the government employees, the U.S. government must mandate a law that requires the citizens to evaluate the individual employees and rate on them. This will allow more motivation within the government employees and even maximize the productivity and efficiency. In order to make the evaluation by people effective, the establishment of the new department that checks on the other departments through the evaluation of the people must be established to carry out the desires and opinions of people.
Through my experience from DMV, I have realized how the United States is never a fully democratic country. Even though the United States can look democratic on the global side, it is not likely in the small communities. People and government must realize that community is what is most closer to us, not the state, and not the federal government. If America wants to be a truly democratic country, the only way is to incorporate people's voice and desire in their policies and ease the hardships and tensions in the lives of people.
