What we talk about when we talk about a return to normal

Matthew Yglesias reports:

Everyone is sick of arguing about schools, so consider that Social Security Administration offices are now scheduled to reopen on March 30 after two years of closure. Their closure has been extremely inconvenient for elderly and disabled people who have difficulty or discomfort accessing services they need over the internet. If leftists want to understand why a lot of people are suspicious of socialist politics, they should pay attention to this example. Having a service provided by the public rather than private sector doesn’t necessarily make it better.

There's more:

Now as it happens, some things can only be done by the public sector. But because the public sector isn’t directly accountable to customers in the same way, it’s only through political demand for quality operations that they can occur. And it’s those who most need services who most suffer from mitigation policies that heavily center public sector closures.

Interesting.