As I’m thinking about real estate transactions, lawsuits, DMV forms, and other processes which interact with the government, I wonder if we don’t need a law to require the government to automate over the next 5-10 years.

For example, what if we passed legislation requiring key government agencies to move all paperwork online over within a 5 year period?

We could get to a world where:
* You never have to stand in line at the DMV
* Commissions on real estate transactions drop by 75%
* Taxes can be done in 1/4th the amount of time online
* Property taxes paid online
* Building permits applied for online
* No need to go to the courthouse to get married
* Lawsuits can be filed, responded to, and conducted online, decreasing legal fees by 50%.
* Voting is done online and more frequently, allowing voters to have a much more interactive relationship with their government

Obviously, some services need to be done in person, and that will probably never fully change. But for many of our undisputed processes, lets take advantage of the technology we already have!

Our current legislators pass laws which increase our costs. How about laws to make programs which save us time and decrease our costs over the long haul?

Screw stem-cell research. I don’t want to wait in line at the DMV!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 29th, 2005 at 10:07 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.