The prisons of Greece  

Some local news: the Social Security Administration is under fire after allegations of gross mishandling here in Chicago:

In June, the Journal Sentinel reported on an audit that found hundreds of backlogged cases and two full boxes of unopened mail that was several months old, including requests for congressional inquiries and medical updates. The story was based on an internal e-mail obtained by the newspaper.

As a former employee of SSA here in the Chicago area, I have to say that this kind of thing is not uncommon. Files are often lost, and unopened mail can be left sitting for months at a time. I wouldn't say it's the norm, and there are a great many competent and conscientious employees, but this kind of stuff does happen - and more often than the occasional bureaucratic nightmare expose would have you believe.

I will say, however, that I don't think it's any worse than you'd find in the private sector, especially as companies get bigger. The watchers just watch harder when it comes to the government. In fact, I'm willing to bet that SSA stacks up favorably against private insurance companies of comparable size in terms of accuracy and processing speed.