Posted by
The New THOMA$ REPORT on Friday, May 16, 2008 8:30:54 AM
Does anybody wonder why first
class postal rates seem to go up every little whipstitch? There's a good reason
for that. It's all this government-protected monopoly has left to use to
"fleece America." They have serious competition everywhere else BUT
in first class mail. There is competition even in EXPRESS mail, and the private
companies predictably do it better. So the only place they can still control
absolutely, while raising prices unmercifully is the one place that is STILL a
monopoly: first class mail. They hope we won't realize that their main cost
outside of manpower, transportation, has gone down precipitously as we find new
and better ways to move mail and freight cheaper and faster. The Post Office
was invented when the ONLY way to move mail was horseback and their system
hasn't changed a whole lot since. So they hope to "make hay while the sun
shines" while we still quietly "pay up" to mail our letters
while doing more and more of our personal communicating by e-mail. E-mail is
something that is going to make the cost of first mail go DOWN in the future,
because it's hard for them to compete with instantaneous communication at no,
or VERY low cost with their "three to five day" delivery for almost
50 cents a letter. The only advantage they have there is when an enclosure that
cannot be sent as an attachment is required. The post office's time as any kind
of a monopoly is short, whether or not they believe it. If they keep raising
their first class rates as much, and as fast as they have been, one day soon
they'll be "out of business" while we merrily e-mail each other and
send packages by Fed Ex or UPS. Postal employees are like a "cult."
If you EVER worked in a post office, in ANY capacity, you're "their
friend." I once worked in a post office as a security officer employed by
a private security firm. But that makes no difference to ANY postal employee
who knows that. I'm treated the same way as a full-fledged postal retiree today
when I go into a post office. (Don Beaudreaux/Café Hayek)