There’s an old joke that defines ambivalence as the feeling you have when you see your mother-in-law drive off a cliff in your new Cadillac. That’s how any sensible person would feel about the COVID-induced move to allow federal employees to work from home. Most of them still aren’t coming back to the office, which might be some of the best news yet for America. Given that many federal workers rival molasses for speed of work, how much work are they getting done at home? I say let them stay home. Paying federal bureaucrats not to work is a bargain for the taxpayer. As Milton Friedman liked to say, it’s a good thing that we don’t get all the government we pay for.

Anyway, here’s one measure of morning commuting into Washington DC on the Metro that tells the story: