Your tax dollars at work!
Sunday, July 31st, 2011 09:04 amIn a fit of curiosity this morning, I decided to check out the Social Security Administration's webpage to their benefits estimator. I'm a few decades away from being eligible, but I like to see what their truly terrible estimates are so I can better plan retirement on my end. I went in, filled in my information, and clicked a button.
Only to be taken to a page informing me that the tool I was trying to use was only open from 8am to 10pm on Sundays.
That's right people. The SSA's estimator - which ultimately is just a formula that is run by a computer somewhere - has hours.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
miome, who happened to glance over at my screen when I got to that point, was floored. "Isn't the purpose of having a website to allow people to get information whenever they want?" Well, yes, but this is the government. We can't have people just running around willy-nilly with accurate information whenever they want it. Think of the children!
This, of course, led to speculation as to why they felt the need to put hours on this tool. They had to wait for someone to come in to turn the computer on. The government was paying an employee to calculate the number behind the scenes. The trained monkey was required, by law, to have a 8 hour banana break.
The monkey, of course, is my personal favorite. :D
Only to be taken to a page informing me that the tool I was trying to use was only open from 8am to 10pm on Sundays.
That's right people. The SSA's estimator - which ultimately is just a formula that is run by a computer somewhere - has hours.
miome, who happened to glance over at my screen when I got to that point, was floored. "Isn't the purpose of having a website to allow people to get information whenever they want?" Well, yes, but this is the government. We can't have people just running around willy-nilly with accurate information whenever they want it. Think of the children!This, of course, led to speculation as to why they felt the need to put hours on this tool. They had to wait for someone to come in to turn the computer on. The government was paying an employee to calculate the number behind the scenes. The trained monkey was required, by law, to have a 8 hour banana break.
The monkey, of course, is my personal favorite. :D
