This angry juror finds government guilty of wasting everyones time

I shouldn’t get so angry.It isn’t healthy.Last month, New York state summoned me to jury duty.I went, of course.

It’s the law, and my obligation. A jury may protect the innocent from government abuse: Ordinary citizens, not officials, decide if you are guilty.But doing our patriotic duty shouldn’t mean surrendering hours of our lives to bureaucratic indifference.Serving justice is important.Sitting around doing nothing isn’t.During my 50 years of consumer reporting, I’ve watched greedy capitalists constantly make improvements and find better ways to do things.They use computers, adjust hours, reduce wait times and so on.If they don’t, we consumers quickly switch to competitors who will.But government bureaucracies — courts, the DMV, the passport office — have no competitors.So they don’t try very hard.   Government can just operate by force.My summons arrived on paper, in the mail.Most businesses now communicate with customers instantly, by text or email.Airlines send boarding passes to our phones; doctors text reminders; restaurants send notifications when our table is ready. But government sends paper.We summoned jurors meekly arrive at the courthouse and wait.And wait.I’m old; it’s important that I hydrate.At least government provides a water cooler and a drinking fountain.Oh, damn, neither works.We sit another hour. Eventually, a bored clerk drones through long instructions on how fill out a form.Printed instructions would be better — a video would be much better.But this is government, and government bureaucracies have little incentive to innovate.  Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Please provide a valid email.By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Never miss a story.Finally, clerks choose 80 of us to be considered for a criminal trial.“Wait in the hall,” we’re told.We wait.Then they tell us, “Go across the street to an...