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USPS forced to lower stamps by 2¢, starting Sunday.

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auntblabby
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09 Apr 2016, 10:47 pm

I can't help but suspect that mr. big business doesn't like big government and regulations for the same reason bank robbers and muggers don't like cops.



BaalChatzaf
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10 Apr 2016, 8:10 am

auntblabby wrote:
I can't help but suspect that mr. big business doesn't like big government and regulations for the same reason bank robbers and muggers don't like cops.


Actually most government regulation is lobbied for by business firms established in a market to keep competitors out.


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10 Apr 2016, 9:32 am

BaalChatzaf wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
why does the right wing dislike USPS?


Because it is a monopoly maintained at gun-point. All prior attempts for private delivery services for first class (sealed) mail have been quashed by Congress and the Courts. The people in rural areas have never paid the full costs of delivery of first class mail to their doorsteps or letter boxes. The USPS is a government subsidized firm that "equalizes" the price of first class mail at the expense of people living in concentrated easy-to-deliver-to areas and favoring people who live out in the boonies.

Fortunately e-mail which is not (thank God) run by the postal service has taken the sting out of the government monopoly on first class mail.

A monopoly controlled by a entity that has to answer to the people (Even though it's not perfect); which is more that can be said of private companies. No modern society can thrive without government, and if there is no government another one is created, generally a tyrannical dictatorship. Better to work with modern democracies and their inherent structure to prevent tyranny, even though imperfect, that leaving the way of power to private entity that don't have to answer to the people.



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11 Apr 2016, 1:47 pm

BaalChatzaf wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
I can't help but suspect that mr. big business doesn't like big government and regulations for the same reason bank robbers and muggers don't like cops.


Actually most government regulation is lobbied for by business firms established in a market to keep competitors out.

That's factually not true at all in the U.S.

Though it is probably true in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Saudi Arabia


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BaalChatzaf
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12 Apr 2016, 11:44 am

xenocity wrote:
BaalChatzaf wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
I can't help but suspect that mr. big business doesn't like big government and regulations for the same reason bank robbers and muggers don't like cops.


Actually most government regulation is lobbied for by business firms established in a market to keep competitors out.

That's factually not true at all in the U.S.

Though it is probably true in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Saudi Arabia


Very much true in the U.S.


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15 Apr 2016, 2:14 am

xenocity wrote:
Starting this Sunday the United States Postal Service (USPS) will see the price of it's stamps decrease by a 2¢.


LOL, who cares? I'm on a low disability income, but if I was walking down the street and saw two pennies on the sidewalk, I wouldn't even stop to pick them up.

It won't effect me anyway. I have a book of Forever Stamps that I bought almost 10 years ago. The book is still mostly full. Thats how many letters I mail. At my current usage, my supply of stamps will last the rest of my life. I will never buy another postage stamp, even if they lowered the price to 1¢.

I wish they would just shut down the entire postal service. I need mail delivery about as much as I need ice delivery.


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auntblabby
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15 Apr 2016, 2:18 am

I hope mail service lasts at least as long as i'm alive. it would be a major hardship if it were eliminated.



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15 Apr 2016, 2:39 am

auntblabby wrote:
I hope mail service lasts at least as long as i'm alive. it would be a major hardship if it were eliminated.


How so?


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auntblabby
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15 Apr 2016, 2:42 am

I pay my bills via USPS, if that option was gone i'd have to drive all over the place to pay bills. I live out in the sticks. I get magazine subscriptions via the mails, those would be PFFT! as well. no high speed internet out where I live.



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15 Apr 2016, 3:49 am

auntblabby wrote:
I pay my bills via USPS, if that option was gone i'd have to drive all over the place to pay bills. I live out in the sticks. I get magazine subscriptions via the mails, those would be PFFT! as well. no high speed internet out where I live.


Bills can be paid online, even with a dial-up connection. Mine are all paid automatically with direct debits, with me never having to do anything. You are wasting money on stamps and check blanks, if you use the mail to pay bills. To say nothing about risking you credit rating if the check is lost in the mail, or worse yet, stolen by identity thieves.

As for print magazines, they are at the end of the line. Digital magazine subscriptions, now outsell print subscriptions three to one. Digital magazines will take over, with or with out the USPS. Even if the USPS stays around, you will not be able to get print magazines much longer.


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auntblabby
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15 Apr 2016, 3:53 am

0regonGuy wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
I pay my bills via USPS, if that option was gone i'd have to drive all over the place to pay bills. I live out in the sticks. I get magazine subscriptions via the mails, those would be PFFT! as well. no high speed internet out where I live.


Bills can be paid online, even with a dial-up connection. Mine are all paid automatically with direct debits, with me never having to do anything. You are wasting money on stamps and check blanks, if you use the mail to pay bills. To say nothing about risking you credit rating if the check is lost in the mail, or worse yet, stolen by identity thieves.
As for print magazines, they are at the end of the line. Digital magazine subscriptions, now outsell print subscriptions three to one. Digital magazines will take over, with or with out the USPS. Even if the USPS stays around, you will not be able to get print magazines much longer.

the online magazines take forever to load on my puter. forget that. I will NOT do online banking, I don't trust it, I've heard too many horror stories. plus I can't remember all those damned ID codes/pictures and whatnot they use for authentication. easier just to deal with a real bank person. I live in a small town and it is all here. i'm an old man, it is to be expected that I do things the old-fashioned way. to each their own.



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15 Apr 2016, 4:16 pm

Edenthiel wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
why does the right wing dislike USPS?


A: Because it works.

Seriously, that it works so good (and it really does) indicates to them that it would be profitable if it were a corporation, so they want to privatize it. They've done everything they can to undermine it & run it into the red so that they can say, "a private company could do it faster, cheaper and more reliably".

They've forced it to fully fund all retirements out 75 years.

They've sold off all the best real estate, which means post offices and distribution centers in the middle of population areas - now they have to rely on ones on the outskirts to cover the same area.

Also, I think they just don't like an example that most people have contact with of government working as it should.

You've explained it well. The truth is no other entity has to bank 75 years of retirement. Remember, these monies include people who haven't even been born yet. They want to bankrupt the USPS to privatize it. Good luck with that...



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15 Apr 2016, 4:31 pm

I can't help but think that these right-wingers of today want to bring things back to the way they were not in the 1950s, not even to the 1890s but in fact to the feudal or medieval era where the wealthy held all the cards, of course they see themselves as those wealthy elect, to lord it over the rest of us. they'd go back to private messengers that of course only they could afford, the rest of us would have to just suffer in silence.



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15 Apr 2016, 7:21 pm

pcuser wrote:
Edenthiel wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
why does the right wing dislike USPS?


A: Because it works.

Seriously, that it works so good (and it really does) indicates to them that it would be profitable if it were a corporation, so they want to privatize it. They've done everything they can to undermine it & run it into the red so that they can say, "a private company could do it faster, cheaper and more reliably".

They've forced it to fully fund all retirements out 75 years.

They've sold off all the best real estate, which means post offices and distribution centers in the middle of population areas - now they have to rely on ones on the outskirts to cover the same area.

Also, I think they just don't like an example that most people have contact with of government working as it should.

You've explained it well. The truth is no other entity has to bank 75 years of retirement. Remember, these monies include people who haven't even been born yet. They want to bankrupt the USPS to privatize it. Good luck with that...


Private Carriers could deliver first class mass (sealed mail in envelope) for $0.25. The problem is only people living in dense areas could receive this benefit. The cost of private delivery to the Boonies would be higher. So the U.S.P.S charges everyone $0.50 for a first class delivery, twice as much as private carriers could. Private carriers could probably manage two deliveries a day. There was a time very long ago, when there were three deliveries a day made by the U.S. mail. And you say U.S.P.S. works????


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15 Apr 2016, 7:26 pm

BaalChatzaf wrote:
pcuser wrote:
Edenthiel wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
why does the right wing dislike USPS?


A: Because it works.

Seriously, that it works so good (and it really does) indicates to them that it would be profitable if it were a corporation, so they want to privatize it. They've done everything they can to undermine it & run it into the red so that they can say, "a private company could do it faster, cheaper and more reliably".

They've forced it to fully fund all retirements out 75 years.

They've sold off all the best real estate, which means post offices and distribution centers in the middle of population areas - now they have to rely on ones on the outskirts to cover the same area.

Also, I think they just don't like an example that most people have contact with of government working as it should.

You've explained it well. The truth is no other entity has to bank 75 years of retirement. Remember, these monies include people who haven't even been born yet. They want to bankrupt the USPS to privatize it. Good luck with that...


Private Carriers could deliver first class mass (sealed mail in envelope) for $0.25. The problem is only people living in dense areas could receive this benefit. The cost of private delivery to the Boonies would be higher. So the U.S.P.S charges everyone $0.50 for a first class delivery, twice as much as private carriers could. Private carriers could probably manage two deliveries a day. There was a time very long ago, when there were three deliveries a day made by the U.S. mail. And you say U.S.P.S. works????

You really think they would charge a quarter. You've drunk the Kool-Aid...



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15 Apr 2016, 8:47 pm

pcuser wrote:
BaalChatzaf wrote:
pcuser wrote:
Edenthiel wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
why does the right wing dislike USPS?


A: Because it works.

Seriously, that it works so good (and it really does) indicates to them that it would be profitable if it were a corporation, so they want to privatize it. They've done everything they can to undermine it & run it into the red so that they can say, "a private company could do it faster, cheaper and more reliably".

They've forced it to fully fund all retirements out 75 years.

They've sold off all the best real estate, which means post offices and distribution centers in the middle of population areas - now they have to rely on ones on the outskirts to cover the same area.

Also, I think they just don't like an example that most people have contact with of government working as it should.

You've explained it well. The truth is no other entity has to bank 75 years of retirement. Remember, these monies include people who haven't even been born yet. They want to bankrupt the USPS to privatize it. Good luck with that...


Private Carriers could deliver first class mass (sealed mail in envelope) for $0.25. The problem is only people living in dense areas could receive this benefit. The cost of private delivery to the Boonies would be higher. So the U.S.P.S charges everyone $0.50 for a first class delivery, twice as much as private carriers could. Private carriers could probably manage two deliveries a day. There was a time very long ago, when there were three deliveries a day made by the U.S. mail. And you say U.S.P.S. works????

You really think they would charge a quarter. You've drunk the Kool-Aid...


In this day, no private company would get into first class mail delivery at any price.

Image


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