DMV and another reason to abolish the US Senate

Last week I had to pay $140 to change my driver’s license from New York to the Sperm Whale State (Connecticut’s state animal). My first issue is that it took a combined 2 ½ hours, over two days, to do 4 minutes of actual work (and the office wasn’t very busy, it was a Thursday and Friday morning). The first line only had four people in front of me and the entire purpose was to enter your basic information into a computer and check your IDs. On that note, I needed a passport and my NY Driver’s License; why isn’t my NY License good enough as I needed my passport to get that the first time. I also needed a utility bill with my name and new address on it. That’s nice, except I would create a fake one in about 10 minutes with a scanner and Photoshop. Nevertheless, it took people on average 15 minutes just to do this and this does not include the mandatory 5-10 minute break each employee must take after each person is served. Also, they didn’t have a number system, where you get there, take a number, sit and wait. I had to wait in a line, which I didn’t because I had Molly with me, but was lucky enough that the other people in line didn’t mind (but why should they have to stand either). By the time I got through this Molly had had enough and I was told I could come back the next day. The next day I came back and after waiting a while I had to show all my information again (although they had photocopies now on file). The next person checked my computer file and found two typos, and there are only five lines of information, but at least she found them. Then I had to sit again before my picture was takes. Ohhh, I forgot I had to pay $40 for an eye test, which took 30 seconds. So I was waiting and I was watching the picture-taker guy carefully. He would take a picture (10 seconds), hit a button on a computer (4 seconds), then chat with someone for five minutes and which time the ID would be printed and he would call a name, than he would wait 10 minutes before calling the next person. He could have taken everyone’s picture in 15 minutes and printed them all out in another 15 minutes and the room would be cleared, but no it had to take 20 minutes per person. Finally, I was done and what did I get? In reality I got nothing I didn’t already have. Why does each state have different licenses? The rules for driving are basically the same and even in places where they are different it could still be noted and enforced. For example, you can’t drive in NYC until you are 18, but they don’t have a separate New York license. There are talks of a national driver’s license, but congress keeps trying to make it an anti-terrorism card as opposed to a simplified license. Although the DMV is much, much better than it used to be, it is still horrible inefficient. Some offices have better system, while others are in the stone age. For example, around 8 years ago I got driver’s license updated in Albany; I was in and out in 20 minutes and that include them taking 6 digital pictures and letting me choose which one I liked. The government monopoly over the DMV system has lead to the classical economic problems of high prices and low quality.

Should the system be privatized, well I don’t think so; I just think there should be some accountability and added systems to improve capacity. Secondly, I think that there should be a federal driver’s license, but I realize that is a long shot, instead, states that have similar regulation should form regional driver’s license. There is no reason the tri-state area should have one set of rules. How will this get done? For the first 10 years all the money that is saved will become bonuses for DMV employees and government officials. Yes, I want to bribe them, it’s for the public good. Ok, I’ve written enough. Well, one last question, if there was no US Senate or Electoral College (both of which I am very much against) would state’s consider combining their governments? How much tax payer money would be saved by dismissing an entire bureaucracy?