Have you ever noticed that Walmart never fails you? I don’t like Walmart, for a lot of reasons. But I know that every time I go into their stores, I’m going to find the toothbrush that I need, tee shirts with some ridiculous slogan, and a baseball bat.
Why does Walmart serve all my needs, every time? Is it because they love me? Is it because they are concerned about my welfare? No, it is because they want my money. If they don’t have what I want, I will go across the street to Target. And once I go to Target, I won’t go back to Walmart again until Target fails me. Walmart has a very strong incentive to always have the things I want.
This is the funny thing about human nature. Although the government claims to be there to help us, it has very little incentive to actually give us what we want. Meanwhile, we know full well that Walmart is not in business to help us. They are in business for their own personal gain. Yet, they struggle far more energetically to give us what we want than the government does. And Walmart pays it’s employees with money that we freely give, not with taxes that are taken from us with the threat of physical force.
Maybe it’s time that we stop putting our hope in presidents, or the federal government, or even the state and local governments. Maybe there really is something to this whole “free market” idea.
Benjamin Rosenbaum says
Thing is, it’s amazing how cultural this stuff is. Almost every time I’ve interacted with the United States government, especially in areas like taxation and immigration, the customer service has been so terrible as to make one beg for Wal-Mart. I mean, insanely terrible. So terrible that one gets hysterical giggles just using the words “customer service”. It’s more like Kafkaesque bureaucratic torture.
But the Swiss government’s customer service puts Wal-Mart to shame. I mean, shopping at Wal-Mart is not exactly fun. It’s gigantic, things are arranged to try to get you to buy more stuff by placing the stuff you want in inconvenient places, it’s hard to find people to help you, and the (famously underpaid) employees vary a lot in their level of customer service, helpfulness and perspicacity. It’s a mixed bag. If I know exactly what I want when I go to Wal-Mart, I can probably find it with some effort. But if I don’t know exactly what I need, asking the $9-an-hour employees is not a very effective strategy. While it’s certainly true that Wal-Mart is competing with Target and doesn’t want me to leave, Wal-Mart has more than one incentive here, and one gets the sense that their goal is to frustrate, exhaust, and bewilder me to where I will spend the most money (in a daze, shuffling through their aisles) but just BARELY under the line where I would actually leave, cross the endless parking lot to my inevitable car, and drive to a Target.
The Swiss government’s customer service, on the other hand, kick’s Wal-Mart’s ass, probably because Swiss government employees are not only well paid and highly trained but — this is the part you can’t reproduce cross-culturally — widely respected across all sectors of Swiss society.
One time, when I was not yet a naturalized Swiss citizen and on a year-to-year work visa, I realized to my horror that I had overstayed my visa for about 4 months. I had been working illegally in Switzerland for 4 months. I rushed to the town hall (which was, of course, down the street from my house, a distance not even worth biking, never mind getting in a hypothetical car) with visions of horror filling my head — deportation, imprisonment, days of waiting in line, endless forms misfiled, meaningless hours of argument — based on my experience with the US immigration authorities.
There was no line. A very well-informed lady at the info desk asked my surname, and, as it began with R, directed me to door #3. I opened door #3 and, in a panic, explained my situation, proferring my expired work visa.
Swiss civil servant: Do you still work at the same place?
Me: Yes.
Swiss civil servant: Okay, well, leave that here and we’ll mail you a new one.
Every single one of my experiences with Swiss government has been like this. When I first lived here and didn’t know how to do my taxes, I tried to get lawyers and accountants to help me. They were very pricey and unhelpful. Eventually I went down to the town hall. The tax fellas (again, no line) invited me in, rolled up their sleeves, and with a great deal of enthusiasm and jollity, filled out my taxes with me.
Just this week I brought in a form to prove that I had become a freelancer. I was a little concerned that they might not believe me as all my clients are in America, so I printed out all the documents mentioned on the (very simple, well-laid-out) form. This time I did wait like 10 minutes, I have to admit. The nice lady praised me profusely for having done so much work, took my forms and sent me on my way cheerfully. Like everything, it’ll come in the mail.
When we seek systematic explanations for social phenomena, invoking grand ideas like the Free Market and Government, we often blur a lot of specifics together, and in particular we tend to miss cultural specificity. Sometimes things just work different in different places.
Stephen says
I am not a proponent of exporting my (or anyone else’s) socio-economic ideas to the rest of the world. I am very happy to acknowledge and celebrate other countries and cultures that operate well with the systems that they have.
I absolutely agree with your assessment that there is a significant cultural element to this discussion, so please note that I am writing from a US perspective, and addressing a US audience.
I have experience the same friendly, competent civil service in getting work visas and other bureaucratic matters in Germany and Austria. But professionalism and courtesy are far more the norm in those countries. The cultures have developed differently.
You have noted that US bureaucracy is a disaster, and that Swiss bueaucracy is better than US Walmart. You didn’t say so, but I think it was implicit that US Walmart is better than US bureaucracy – at least it’s a mixed bag rather than a complete disaster. So that much is consistent with my argument.
You didn’t mention shopping at Aldi in Switzerland. I can say that Aldi in Germany is generally better than Walmart in the US. The employees there may not be quit as professional as the civil servants, but that can be explained by many other factors. I am not at all afraid to concede that the basic economics outlined in my article are not the only factors that lead to good service.
While I am in the US, I will argue for capitalism over socialism, privatization over nationalization for this country. This culture does not lean toward politeness or courtesy, and requires greed as initiative and law as discipline to make it work well.