The worst part about monopolies is if you don’t like their service you have no alternatives. When it comes to monopolies the state is the biggest one of them all and it shows. For example, the state has declared a monopoly for itself in gang-style protection schemes. That is to say if you don’t want to be roughed up, kidnapped, or have your business stolen from you you only have one protection racket you can pay off, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Since the IRS has no competition it can demand you pay it off under the penalty of having armed thugs sent to kidnap you and still refuse to answer any of the questions you have about its overly complicated extortion structure:
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Tuesday that service at his agency has gotten so bad that they are ignoring more than 60 percent of taxpayers’ phone calls during this tax season.
Speaking at the National Press Club, Mr. Koskinen pleaded with more money, saying a budget boost would help them staff their overwhelmed customer service lines. He also said it would help reverse staffing cuts in their compliance division, where he said the government will lose $2 billion this year in money it would otherwise have been able to collect if it had better staffing.
Just because the IRS refuses to take your call doesn’t mean your exempted from or receive an automatic delay for paying your extortion bill. And since the IRS has no competition it has no motivation whatsoever to improve its service. After all, if you don’t pay you’re still going to rot in a cage and your assets will be stolen from you.