Letters to the Editor
cabdriver
Published Letters: 405 Editor's Choice: 8
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Well, to reply to this off-topic thread spinoff...
[Read the article: How telecoms are attempting to buy amnesty from Congress]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Having had substantial experience as both an eBay buyer and seller, I'll field the Post Office question.
In my view, the U.S.Post Office fulfills the function of a "benchmark"- providing a common standard of delivery for all U.S. residents. Everyone in the USA pays the same amount for a first class mail stamp that can deliver their mail from coast to coast, or even from Key West to Hawaii. Everyone in the USA is served by a local post office in their local ZIP code, somewhere. As far as I know, all post offices are open a minimum of 5 days a week; many are open 6 days a week; some are open 7 days a week.
Privatize the postal services, and all of those standards and more become subject to "market conditions"- i.e., no requirement that a mail/parcel service have outlets or routes in "unprofitable" areas like rural countryside, or the wide open spaces of sparsely populated counties in Western states. Alternatively, it might conceivably cost more for residents of those areas to post letters. It's also possible that other types of "tiered" service would come into existence, to replace what was formerly a common standard of letter delivery. Like "Base rate A", which would provide mail delivery once weekly; "base rate B", for thrice weekly; "base rate C", for daily delivery.
Whoopee! More of that "consumer choice"- which in this case means the headache of having to research all of the options and experiment to see which one might provide some marginal advantage over another on a cost-benefit basis. Not as bad as the present medical insurance/health care scam, to be sure...but all I really want is what I have in the first place- to get my mail 5/6 days a week, and to be able to send a letter anywhere in the US for the same price! I already have that. I am not a dissatisfied customer.
In terms of postal security, the "free market competition" aspect that gets so lauded in theory would entail providing access to mailboxes and letter boxes to several different delivery services, that's presently only granted to one assigned postal carrier, with all sorts of potential complications in terms of increased risks of lost, misplaced, and stolen mail- unless the privatization entailed something like private companies bidding for local zone monopolies, an even bigger can of worms in terms of the logistics of mail delivery. Either way, the waste of resources inherent in the duplication of services would be massive.
I'll stop there, for now.
My own personal experience with the US post office is that their service is overwhelmingly first-rate. I've received and sent over 1000 packages with them in the past 10 years or so, with ZERO LOSSES. There was one close call, and some minor delays, fewer than five, I'd say. Often, their Priority Mail service was shockingly efficient. I've always been well-served by the counter personnel in the various locations I've patronized, even when I had special requests. I know that the rates for parcel service have gone up several times over the past few years- well, to be honest, they were giving us too much of a break! They've recently gone to zone delivery, like FedEx and UPS use, a move that makes good sense.
It's also important to note that the Post Office is NOT a monopoly, in terms of parcel service. Their rates ARE quite competitive with the private delivery services- and very often, the best option. Furthermore, USPS utilizes FEdEx as a contract carrier for much of their air freight delivery- a public-private partnership that works to the benefit of both of them, and to service consumers like myself.
For me, the US postal service is excellent, and the rates are reasonable. It would be whiny, spoiled pique for me to complain...yeah, there are sometimes lines at the post office. There are lines at the grocery store, too.
As for the oft-voiced complaint that the USPS "losing money every year"- well, find me the numbers on a per capita basis per taxpayer. Although I'm willing to be surprised or even shocked, my hunch is that the figure is chump change. What Americans receive in return is ample compensation- a high standard of letter delivery that's provided in common to all citizens for the same rate, as a mandated responsibility of the national government. Do without that at your peril. Once it's gone, it would be the devil to re-implement.
I've said it before, I'm sympathetic to some Libertarian proposals. Not this one, though. Privatizing the post office smacks of cloud-castle dogmatism that doesn't accord with my practical experience.
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Hilarious
[Read the article: How Rock Band saved my marriage]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Moreover, it sounds as if it's working. Therefore, I heartily endorse it. Hilarious + effective is a good combination.
You know, whatever gets you through the night...
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what do you know...
[Read the article: The Politico's John Harris admits now what he denied last year]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]the newest model from Troll, Inc.: the Godot-bot.
Nothing at all in the way of innovation- but that would ruin the entire project, anyway.
Nonetheless, when the Godot-bot is considered as a pilot project to engineer the vectors of rigidity, pomposity, leaden dogmatism, and humorless table-pounding, all bundled together into one faceless drone of auto-generating antagonisms...the early trials appear promising.
(Has anybody seen the con-founded thread?)