The Government At Work

I often wonder how government gets the rap of being as backwards as it is (not that I disagree, mind you).  Well now I know.  We are currently in the process of updating Kris’s dad’s paperwork for all of his benefits.  We got the letter a week ago saying if they didn’t have updated forms by the end of the week, he would lose the benefits that he does receive.  So after doing a lot of scrambling to get all the right forms and make sure they are filled out properly (at least as far as I can tell) we find out that we cannot just scan and email it.  We either have to submit the paperwork manually thru the mail, or it has to be faxed.  Faxed???!!!  Who still uses a fax machine anymore?  Fax machines are like the VHS player of communication.  They went obsolete a decade ago.  I remember one of the Back To The Future movies (I think it was II) that had a scene where Marty was fired by fax in the year 2015, so they were obviously around in the mid 80’s.  And I remember having to fax things at my first job back in 1997, but that was also when email and the internet were pretty much still in its infancy.  But now?

So in order to make sure that the stupid government agency has his paperwork, we went out this weekend and bought a new scanner/printer that also has a fax machine.  We sort of needed a new one anyway, but it is still the fact that we actually needed to buy a new one that had a fax feature really sort of rubs me the wrong way.  Isn’t government the best?!