Hacker News Reader

Comment by DINKDINK | Hacker News Reader

Why would they have any incentive to contact you? From their perspective the problem is solved -- the material offending statist is out of sight, out of mind. You're the one who wants a different situation to exist. Governments aren't in the customer service business.

View on HN

"Governments aren't in the customer service business" - Errr actually that's exactly the business democratic governments are in. Not saying they don't fail regularly but when you are elected by the people for the people you'd better be prepared to provide customer service.

Except most people won't know about this or care. You get the government you deserve, which is to say, a shitty one.

Don't know why you're being downvoted. This is absolutely correct. Even more so for India than, say, the US (source: I'm Indian). Nobody but a tiny tiny fraction of the population cares that github is getting blocked. The opposition wouldn't even bother making it a big issue since the numbers are so insignificant. And even if they did, they don't really have a moral leg to stand on because all politicians and government officials, almost without exception (ok.. maybe with some rare exceptions) are eager to use censorship when it suites their purposes (usually under the pretext of national security... but even that figleaf is not always necessary).

Oh come on. Whenever the public actually demands something, the government's response is always batons, tear-gas and rubber bullets (and some torture thrown in for good measure, of course).

You call that customer service? Imagine McDonald's tasing you for complaining about not getting what you ordered.

-That's exactly how governments behave. As a recent example, China and HK declare that from now on, Hong Kong's electoral candidates will be chosen by the tyrants in Beijing. HK's citizens protest. HK's police forces brutalize the citizens.

I actually don't care at all, but sucks for developers in India who 1) want to use Snipt or 2) have already paid for it.

Edit: on item 2, I'll happily refund any Indian developers who've already paid for Snipt and want their money back, but my point is valid.

And of course, apathy is the other big problem with US attitudes about government.

You do realize that it's the Indian government at issue here, right?

I would argue that the indian government is doing this at the pressure from the united states government.

Zero evidence and sheer implausibility makes for a great conspiracy theory.

So why is India the only country to have taken this step?

Governments should be in the customer service business. Typically, they provide many services that, if they were provided by private companies, which they very well could be, would be customer service oriented. The concept that a government employees such as police are not working for the people is exactly what's wrong with the attitudes surrounding police in the United States. They are providing a service that we pay for as taxpayers, and theoretically, we are their employers, or customers.

You're not a customer because you're being forced to pay. You have no choice in the matter. If they provide really really bad service you still have to pay.

Sure, that's the situation in a monopoly. It's not that we're not in a customer role, just that we're poorly served customers of a monopoly where management doesn't seem to understand for whom they're working. If the whole system wasn't sondysfunctional, poor service would be addressed by our elected representatives, who are supposed to be properly planning government services for us.

Government services are by definition a monopoly because there is only one government in your country. It's a bit worse, though. If there's a monopoly on electricity I can just stop paying and get a generator. If there is a monopoly on air flights I could drive or take a boat. However, if I stop paying the government I go to prison.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com