Renewing my Passport

Let me give you a sense of what is involved in renewing your passport, if you have never done it before:

I was instructed to renew my passport at the local post office. I went to the local post office and was told no post offices in town renew passports. I was told to go to the county courthouse instead. I went to the county courthouse and got the form to renew my passport. There I was told to go to Kinko's to get passport photos. I went to Kinko's and got two passport photos (for an outrageous $12.95). I was told that the best way to pay the passport renewal fee was with a money order. So I went to a different post office and got the money order. But the clerk did not give me a chance to send my package. So I went back to the original post office, as I had to be around there to meet a friend for lunch. I sent off everything to renew my passport... finally!

I see now why it is not surprising that people generally think that government is inefficient: To do something as simple as renew your passport, you must run around half the town! (It is also hard to understand how the government can run such massive deficits considering how expensive it is too!)