Went to see UPS guy this morning because Chris ended up boarding a plane without a necessary medication (irritating mix-up) which I then needed to overnight to his super-seekrit temporary work location (yes he still needs to write a post).
Now I work in a bank and I had the extreme fortune (i.e. lowest seniority) of being scheduled to work the last open day before Labor Day and the first open day after Labor Day. All the people who were smart enough to avoid the bank on Tuesday came in Saturday. Everyone else came in today.
North Idaho, particularly north of the Coeur D'Alene area, is a sparsely populated place yet bank of my employ has 3 different branches in the area. We end up seeing the same people day in and day out because that's our customer base and they don't like driving very far to bank. Or really, do anything.
Everyone sees everyone else all the damn time. It's like a small town spread across a bunch of townships and CDPs.
After a certain amount of times taking care of the same person, not only do you stop checking their id (because we know them after all) it's actually a bank policy. You know them personally, under id you get to choose "known" and you get to greet them by name and make their life easier.
So today, while overnighting said necessary medication, the UPS guy goes through all of the hoops and asks for payment. I swipe my card, and somewhere between the swipe and the signature the screen says something like "show identification". I don't know exactly what it says, because in a split second it's gone.
"UPS wants me to get id from everyone," he says, "but it's a small town and I know everyone and it's just a big hassle. And some people get outright offended."
Every merchant in the area feels the same way.
This is why big government policies and procedures fail. The business climate in DC or NY is not the business climate in North Idaho. Just like when you hear a shotgun in downtown LA the police get called but if you hear one in North Idaho you just assume someone's hunting (fairly safe assumption).
Rifle rack in the back of a teenager's truck? Either its a dangerous situation or they're going hunting this weekend. All depends on where you are.
One-size-fits-all policies don't work in this country, and the more they get shoved down the throats of everyone outside of DC the more discontent in flyover country grows.
It's a good thing for DC that us rural folk aren't near as violent as they'd like to pretend we are...
BTW, unemployment may be up here, but the cash economy is still going strong. Something about avoiding all of those taxes...
Mel
