bank secrets

[kandrathe]

I don't see why not. OTOH, when I lived in Georgia, we had motor vehicle inspections (annually I think). The inspections were performed at state licensed gas stations and garages. It didn't take long to degenerate into a farce. Walk in, ask for 'inspection', pay $10 (or whatever), get sticker, leave. Often, the 'inspector' didn't even bother to look at the car (or even leave his booth). Here in Washington, we have emission test every other year. The test is conducted at a state owned facility by state employees. The tests are, in my experience, well run, relatively accurate, and through. State 1, free enterprise 0.

We used to have the emissions test here too. After a few years the number of failures reached virtually zero so they eventually stopped the testing. I'm sure that even the State system could degenerate into a farce.

My guess is that the state employees have nothing to gain by skipping the test. They get paid by the hour, not by the test; they're gonna be there all day anyway. If they fudge the test and get caught, it's probably their job at risk. The 'private' inspectors take a chunk out of the inspection fee. The faster they do the inspection, the more they make. The fastest way to do the job is to do no job at all. And since it represents a small (but easy) bit of income, it is no big deal if they lose their license.

That was the problem in Georgia. No one ever tried to keep the inspectors honest. By winnowing down the providers by axing the corrupt one and allowing a competitive market price the system may have become more effective. Georgia might have also offered a sizable reward for turning in bogus inspectors.

That's the rub with government systems and economic theories. They work very well on paper, but not nearly as well with people. If Everyman was Jefferson, we'd need no government at all. But, as Hamilton saw all too clearly (maybe because he actually spent some time in the trenches) most men are not Jefferson. Maybe, maybe not. I wonder how many inspectors it would have taken to fix Georgia's auto inspection fiasco (they finally just gave up and dropped it, IIRC).

It's more a matter of having to think about everything that might go wrong and having a reasonable answer, observing the system operate and correcting bugs as you discover them.

Not that I disagree with you. But I think that it isn't all as black and white as you sometimes present it. As always, the devil is in the details.

Yes, the devil and I are good friends in that regard. I make my living by designing systems (not just computing btw), and working out the details.:)