> One can request a passport and receive it the next day from a machine without ever seeing a real person for more than 5 seconds…
This seems more like properly functioning government than advanced digitalization. I have no idea what takes the US State Department 6 weeks.
In fact, I'd guess the internal processes to issue a single passport are quite fast and that there would be no issue with achieving turnaround less than a week. The issue seems to be that the US Government regards any government function that takes less than a week to be "wasteful" or "overfunded" and reduces resources accordingly. Slowest wheel gets the grease, so to speak. It doesn't pay to be fast -- literally.
This seems more like properly functioning government than advanced digitalization. I have no idea what takes the US State Department 6 weeks.
In fact, I'd guess the internal processes to issue a single passport are quite fast and that there would be no issue with achieving turnaround less than a week. The issue seems to be that the US Government regards any government function that takes less than a week to be "wasteful" or "overfunded" and reduces resources accordingly. Slowest wheel gets the grease, so to speak. It doesn't pay to be fast -- literally.