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Compliance
By John | October 29, 2009
Yesterday I went to the bank and requested that a bank wire be sent to an account at another bank. Thinking the wire would be sent without delay, I was out of town for the rest of the day. When I returned at 10 p.m. last night, I found two voice mails from the bank. They had not sent the wire. Why? Because they had failed to copy the driver’s license they had been given at the time the wire was requested.
Now this seems like a trivial reason. There was plenty of money in the account. The wire instructions were complete and routine. The bank teller had seen the driver’s license, she had just failed to copy it, per bank policy.
What would you do in this instance? I would send the wire as instructed and ask the customer to come in so I could complete my file later. After all, who am I serving, the customer, or the file?
Well in this instance, the bank was clearly not giving priority to serving the customer. Why? When I pointed out to the branch manager that his bank had been faced with a clear decision to either serve the interests of the customer or comply with a government requirement, he admitted he had chosen government compliance over customer service.
Now, in this case, just money was involved. Banks deal in money. The Federal Government has all but nationalized the banks. Banks are afraid of the government bureaucrats – more afraid of offending a bank regulator than of losing a customer.
But what if more than money was involved? What if my life were at stake? What if I was not dealing with a bank, but with a hospital or a doctor? Would it really make any difference in that choice to serve the customer or the government? I don’t think so. The employee defers to the boss. The bank manager defers to the government bank regulator. With nationalized health care, the doctor defers to Big Brother in Washington. He gets paid by the government. He is licensed by the government. He is controlled by the government.
I was amazed the other day to watch a debate on TV regarding health care. One speaker was pointing out the danger of government takeover of health care. The other was asking, “What’s wrong with that?”
As my bank experience illustrates to me, there is a lot wrong with that. In the private sector, you are a customer or a patient. You are to be served by the institution you are visiting. In the public sector, you are not important. You have lost control. The institution will either properly serve the government, or it will go out of existence. It is institutional suicide to give priority to serving the customer or patient.
It is appalling to me to observe the compliant attitude toward this massive government power grab. I can’t believe this trend would have been possible a generation or two ago. The government education system has changed a lot since I was in school. Compliance is in. Independent thinking is out.
Freedom is no longer valued. Government advances. Freedom retreats.
Topics: Government Excesses | 3 Comments »
November 28th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Thank you! You often write very interesting articles. You improved my mood.
December 17th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I really like your blog and i respect your work. I’ll be a frequent visitor.
December 28th, 2009 at 1:25 am
I do know this was a very interesting post thanks for writing it!