Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Thinking about the U. S. Postal Service

There was no mail delivery in my neighborhood yesterday.  Postage has gone up, and service has gone down.  I had two items out for pick-up, but they weren't picked up.  I took them to the drop box, but it was after the last pick-up time, so I'm sure they didn't get into the mix.  Yet the postal officials can't figure out why they're not making money and why people complain.  

I'm beginning to think my conservative friends are right.  Do we want to turn health care over to the people who run the post office?  And the IRS?  Not to mention Homeland Security?  We're doomed.

7 comments:

Dan said...

Okay, this is a personal thing, but I think that here in the god-given U S of A some of us (ahem!) don't appreciate the miracle of Postage. I mean, you can stamp someything, drop it in the box and be fairly sure it'll get there. And there are many countries where that just don't happen.

So next time you use a stamp or a mailbox, or even an envelope, just take a minute and thank whatever powers that be....

Unknown said...

In general I'm a big fan of the P. O. In my years of eBay dealing, for example only a couple of lost packages out of hundreds. But why no mail delivery? I can't figure that one out.

Todd Mason said...

Well, fwiw, the Postal Service is its own corporation, albeit one that is creature of the Feds. I suspect your mail carrier called out sick at the last minute, or was detained or otherwise messed over during duty yesterday, Bill...give the local PO a call. Meanwhile, you prefer the kind of genius who has been running GM or AIG in charge of your health care? Of course, in the post-Reagan era particularly, the difference between the CEO geniuses and the federal regulators and overseeing bureaucrats is ever slighter.

Todd Mason said...

We have some of the least expensive mail of the reasonably reliable services in the world. But there is Always room for improvement, not least in international mail expense for printed matter these days.

Richard R said...

There was mail delivery here (Orange County, CA) yesterday, I got a bill, 2 magazines, a bunch of junk mail (even though I've signed up for the stop junk mail service).

I have no problems with the P.O., certainly less expensive than any other way of sending a letter or package. I just wish they wouldn't keep delivering some of my mail to the neighbor with the same street number on the next street over. Fortunately, he is nice enough to walk the stuff over.

Cap'n Bob said...

Newman!

Anonymous said...

You know how the government says GM will pretty much run GM while We The People own 3/5 of it? (BTW, I want either a free Volt or a free Camaro. I'm a stockholder, now, dammit!)

It would be nice if the government had thought of that with the Postal Service. It's a government agency, but it's not.

It works, but because it's not a real company, FedEx and UPS get a say in its rates and services.

That's sorta like asking Ford and Toyota to manage Chrysler's bankruptcy. (Bill Ford: OK, Mr. Toyoda, we'll take Dodge trucks and you guys take Jeep. We'll take the Chrysler brand and sell it to whoever bought Saturn.)