how government wastes money

542 Limebike Images, Stock Photos, and Vectors | Shutterstock

A few years ago–say, circa 2017–we had these lime-green bicycles parked all over town. And now there aren’t any: haven’t seen one in years.

It was supposed to be “carbon-neutral travel.” Save The Planet. Don’t drive your car–rent a lime bike instead. They had these little meters attached to them so they could charge you for it. I think you put a quarter in the meter, to get started, and later they would bill you electronically. And people left them parked everywhere but up a tree.

What happened to them? Where did they go?

Well, I don’t know. All I could find out was that they were sort of a bust in Seattle and in 2019 Seattle abandoned the program because it kept losing money, never turned a profit. And so the bikes were replaced in Seattle and elsewhere by electric scooters. Those, too, were supposed to Save The Planet. But I haven’t seen any of those scooters around here.

Not much fun when it’s raining, though, is it? It rains a lot in Seattle. You’d think someone might have remembered that before they bought the bikes.

(Thanks to Susan for the news post)

Have you ever wondered whether people in government take lots and lots of drugs, and that’s why they do the things they do?

This PR campaign from South Dakota will hardly reassure you.

“Meth–We’re on it!’

Once upon a time, Celtic warriors used to gather when they heard the “slogan.” When you heard it, you dropped what you were doing and hurried to the mustering-place. You had to hurry, because the last man who showed up was put to death.

So a slogan is a kind of rallying cry. This, of course, was the intention of the wordsmiths in South Dakota who wished to rally the public against an “epidemic” of methamphetamine–“meth”–abuse. For around half a million dollars, this is what they came up with: “Meth–We’re on it!”

What–the whole state of South Dakota? By “on it,” they meant “dealing with the problem.” Not “addicted to this drug.” But good intentions didn’t save South Dakota’s government officials from being laughed at from sea to shining sea.

Half a million bucks. Heck, for a mere $50,000 I could’ve given ’em, “We’re junkies, dude!” Gov. Kristi Noem says the backlash over the zany slogan has been a good thing, ’cause it “brings awareness.” They trotted it out in November and it has gone down in history with equally confusing slogans. Like that one about Coca-Cola bringing your ancestors back from the dead. People in Southeast Asia found that rather unnerving.

Or how about this one? “You’re in good hands, with government!”

We need a laugh track here.