Mike Reviews Government Services

I decided to apply for a job for a nearby school district. This required me to submit a bunch of stuff for background checks and what not.

Now, some of it is through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Naturally, they have to make things confusing... they tell you that you need the forms for Act 34, 151, and 114, but of course they don't actually make forms that say Act 34, 151, or 114. And of course they want you to pay to file the forms, but they don't want cash, credit, or checks. Money orders only. Yeesh. I also had to get fingerprinted, which costs $40, and mostly involves standing in a long line because there's only one fingerprint scanning machine in all of Westmoreland County. Oh, and suppose I don't get the job, and a year from now I want to apply for another job in a school district? I gotta do it ALL over again. The background checks I don't mind as much, since they're not to expensive and I guess people could commit a crime during the year after they applied. But fingerprints aren't supposed to change.

Which reminds me... my wife is from Beijing. She applied for a greencard awhile back, which was expensive and involved fingerprinting. Now she's applying to be a naturalized citizen, which is again expensive and also requires fingerprinting. But they can't use the ones she just did for her greencard. She had to go and do them again. Our tax dollars at work...

And of course, there's always the DMV, right? It doesn't matter if you have an appointment or if you're just walking, you're going to wait in line and fill out expensive paperwork.

What are we paying taxes for if every time we file a damn form with the government we have to pay between $25 and $1000 dollars?

Why anyone would want government-provided healthcare is beyond me. It's guaranteed to suck.

Final Score: C-