Posted on 06/26/2009 2:26:55 AM PDT by Cindy
SNIPPET: "Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Sally Pipes, the president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute and author of "The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care" (Pacific Research Institute , 2008)."
SNIPPET: "The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has priced the health care plan introduced by Senator Ted Kennedy at $1 trillion over 10 years. It will probably be a lot more expensive than that and their will still be 17 million uninsured. We will all face increased taxes and rationed care."
SNIPPET: "Pipes: We all know that the government is not efficient at providing any service whether it is the Post Office, the DMV, or repairing a broken escalator at an airport."
SNIPPET: "FP: What lessons did HillaryCare teach us?
Pipes: When the American people realized what HillaryCare was going to do to their health care and the doctor-patient relationship, they stood up and said “No.” A very effective educational campaign was launched by the key players: insurance providers, doctors, and patients. The public understood that they did not want to have government control their health care."
(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...
What lessons did HillaryCare teach us? Obama pimps sama old program any bill with the name Kennedy or Obama on is useless trash,if you think the HMO program sucks Onama’s healthcare program sucks more.
I think the writer of that piece needs to use DIFFERENT government agencies to get the point across.
Let's use the Department of Defense for example.
They are so inefficient that when they conquer a country they don't even loot the best stuff, like oil fields and uranium mines. Instead, we end up paying more and more for less and less.
Then, there's FAA. You'd think they'd care about air traffic control much more than they do, but even today they leave it up to the pilots to actually land the planes. What a waste.
Both DOD and the DOT could show much greater efficiency and effectiveness.
0bamacare is just the next step on the road to a marxist state.
We can stop it if we, as a country, want to stop it.
This legislative agenda is unsustainable. It is morally bankrupt, and fiscally irresponsible in the extreme.
How do you mail a package to someone over the Internet? How do you get a car inspected over the Internet?
If the post office and the department of motor vehicles do such a "fine job" -- with or without customers, apparently -- why do they require government subsidies, and why are they granted special status as monopolies by the government?
Why are they afraid of competition from the private sector?
I think the writer of that piece needs to use DIFFERENT government agencies to get the point across.
All government agencies are pure bureaucracies, existing apart from market forces, which is why they forever need subsidies from the private sector (because, you see, only in the private sector is real wealth created; government just takes the wealth and shifts it around). Any agency that "regulates" wealth creation or wealth exchange in the private sector should be abolished. Any agency whose purpose is defense of the market system through the threat or the application of force, should be retained.
Where have you been all these years?
It's an interesting phenomenon I'll tell you that Fur Shur.
That's not it at all with him. He just wnats to look in your ass, everybody's ass in fact. He's a pervert and this is the ultimate coup for that kind of pervert ~ the ultimate violation of everyone's physical integrity.
“USPS operates within its revenues for services.”
Wrong.
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/oh-no-us-postal-service-broke-too
“’We face the real possibility of reducing deliveries, cutting staff, or a number other options that would degrade postal service and likely damage customer satisfaction. I fear that dissatisfaction could lead to less use of the Postal Service and drive revenues down even further.’
[United States Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI)]
Neither rain nor sleet nor snow slows the United States Postal Service down, but a rising deficit may do the trick.
It is not as though people have stopped using the Post Office, but in 2008, the USPS has reported a net loss of $2.3 billion due to a drop of more than 9 billion items from the prior year.
It might be a sign of the times, but the USPS still serves a large segment of society to stay connect with each other in the form of a handwritten note, or a card, or a letter, or a package.
According to the Postmaster General, Mr. John E. Potter’s testimony on Wednesday, Jan. 28 to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee, the deficit could be as high as $6 billion for the current fiscal year. He did not ask for a bail-out or financial assistance, but instead, he requested for a Congressional approval of a decrease in mail delivery by one day per week.
Congress had mandated a 6-day mail delivery schedule since 1983.”
______________________________________________________
So much for US Snail’s ability to “operate within its revenues.” It runs at a loss and YOU subsidize it.
How about the DMV?
Lots online, especially the Virginia DMV, which was rife with fraud — managers and employees handing out IDs and licenses to illegal aliens in return for perks such as (get this) free donuts and discount car repairs. To combat this, ID production will be centralized in Danville by mid-2009 (about now) and the DMV also started a “Zero Fraud Hotline.” That’ll work. It’s also instituting a “Real ID” program, requiring multiple documents (birth certificates, et al.) to get a license. Because of all the added paperwork, Virginia DMV claims it is “phasing in” a new computer system — provided by the private sector, of course, since any computer company run by the government would have software 10 years out date and hardware 15 years out date — that will jack up the cost of getting a license and increase wait times to receive it (since there is now an additional delay in authenticating the customer’s paperwork).
The Virginia DMV site admits that it “has more daily face-to-face contact with Virginia’s citizens than any other state agency.” This strongly suggests that most people are not doing their DMV business over the Internet.
Milton Friedman once said that he was rather satisfied with the level of education he received in public school (this would be in the 1930s); but he came out against government involvement in education anyway: he believed that just because government “educates” children, it doesn’t follow that it ought to do so. What’s true for education is true for the DMV. There’s nothing it does that private enterprise — which provided the DMV with its Internet and its “Queue Management System” (software for getting people to tolerate waiting in long lines) — couldn’t do better, faster, and cheaper.
Ordinarily the new rates will raise more than enough to cover the deficit for several years.
That way USPS has rate stability over 4 or 5 years unless something disastrous happens.
So, yes, USPS operates within its revenues ~ those revenues being a combination of postage, fees, proceeds of sales of property, loans, etc.
Did you imagine you'd discovered something new about USPS that I wouldn't know?
BTW, I can't imagine that Senator Akaka knows anything at all about postal operations ~ the man's nearly incoherent anyway.
They were terrible. Several Hispanics had gotten in charge of the place and were hiring their friends. For the most part you couldn't do business there without a translator.
My youngest son went to get his first driver's license there and ended up getting three licenses within one month.
It was good to see those people go to prison.
You REALLY are knowledgeable about the important bureaucratic minutiae of the United States Snail Mail! Impressive. I'll bet you worked for US Snail, not as a mere clerk or carrier, but as a select member of that self-important "elite" at Snail Headquarters who "make big decisions."
The US Snail "elites" -- like all bureaucratic tax-supported elites who make their living with no relation to the real market -- are intellectually lazier than the clerks and the carriers; for the latter know very well that when your costs exceed your profits, you do not "operate within your revenues" by acquiring a new credit card (you wrote: "what they do is BORROW MONEY") and paying your bills with it. As for begging your superiors to raise rates in order to cover "costs", your major cost -- as in most businesses -- is wages, and your wages are not determined by the simple supply of labor and the simple demand for it, but set by unions and government at a rate that is above what they would get on a free market.
Regarding the notion of "rate stability": No one needs or wants a US Computer Hardware and Software Service to ensure that there is "rate stability" in the field of computers. Unregulated competition drove down prices to a fraction of what they were 20 years ago, as well as vastly improved quality. Unregulated competition also created an entire industry that now hires millions of people at higher wages than they could have gotten in that industry 20 years ago...and all without a "Union of Software Engineers." You self-appointed "elites" just don't get it: what we consumers want is NOT "rate stability"; what we want is DECLINING rates + INCREASING quality. The computer industry has given these to us; the baked goods industry has given these to us (there is no government bureau overseeing bread production; instead, the market has given us 40 different kinds of bread, from the ultra-inexpensive to the extremely pricey); the shoe production industry has given these to us (everything from pricey running shoes and formal wingtips to cheap plastic); the consumer electronics industry has given these to us...only government-run enterprises like USPS, DMV, public education, and public transportation are concerned with staying where they are by means of "rate stability."
US Snail is a political monopoly, granted sole right to deliver first-class mail. Like all government-granted monopolies, its own prices and wages are mandated by government and unions, and the resulting shortage in supply, combined with increase in demand (by means of offering a subsidized, artificially low price for its services) causes rationing of postal services. The rationing takes the form of waiting in long lines for simple services, laziness on the part of the great majority of its employees, inability to create innovations internally, slowness to incorporate innovations generated externally, and the general attitude that we all feel in the post office or the DMV that their personnel consider us customers to be a burden and a nuisance, rather than the lifeblood of their livelihood.
What US Snail needs is not "rate stability", but unregulated competition.
At the same time by aggregating payments over time the USPS meets the legal requirement that it operate without making a profit.
Take up that argument with the general public, not me, or as we used to tell folks over the phone (but never in writing) take the issue to your Congresscritter ~ we just work here. (although I'm long retired, it hasn't changed much).
To distinguish between profit and loss is silly only to government bureaucrats who have never had to earn a living in the real economy of the private sector.
At the same time by aggregating payments over time the USPS meets the legal requirement that it operate without making a profit.
No surprise there. However, we were not discussing law; we were discussing economics and politics. Political monopolies like US Snail can always operate without making a profit because they are taxpayer subsidized.
Go find out what the subsidy is and get back to me. Call PMG Potter and let him know about it too. He could use the money.
“BTW, USPS’ monopoly, though seemingly granted by the Postal Monopoly Act, really arises out of action of the United States Constitution wherein Congress is given sole authority to establish post offices and post roads.”
Wrong. I have the US Constitution in front of me. Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 7: “The Congress shall have power to establish post offices and post roads.” I don’t see anything in that clause — or anywhere else in the Constitution — granting to Congress exclusive or sole authority to do so; nor do I see anything in the Constitution denying to states or individuals the right to establish post offices and post roads.
What gave USPS the sole right to deliver first class mail was the Postal Act of 1845 - the “private express statutes” — that explicitly prohibited private companies from carrying letters. . . the operative word, “letters”, being anything the USPS decided to define as such. Here’s a Cato Institute paper on this:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj5n1/cj5n1-8.pdf
Several attempts in the past have been made to compete directly with US Post Office in the delivery of first class mail. An interesting one was made by the 19th century libertarian and abolitionist Lysander Spooner. That story is here:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/271139
When USPS waived its monopoly on “urgent delivery”, the door was opened for competition in that area from private companies like FedEx and UPS. As for 1st class mail delivery, it is technically possible to send a 1st class letter via FedEx or UPS, but they are LEGALLY REQUIRED to charge a certain minimum price that is higher than it ordinarly would be — a price that makes such deliveries uncompetitive with the subsidized price provided by USPS.
“Go find out what the subsidy is and get back to me. Call PMG Potter and let him know about it too. He could use the money.”
OK. Does he actually show up to an office to do work? Or is there a “CLOSED” sign on his desk, as there is in front of most clerks’ windows in a post office, just at the time when the wait line is the longest? Besides, I just read on FOX that Potter’s annual salary increased from 186K to 235K, plus he received a $135K “performance bonus”, despite the fact that USPS lost $2.8 billion last year. Doesn’t seem as if he personally needs any subsidies.
Here’s a detailed study of US Snail by the Cato Institute, a libertarian thinktank:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj27n3/cj27n3-10.pdf
And one interesting passage among many:
“Costs of the Postal Monopoly
The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 requires the Postal Service to be self-financing, which means that it must break even over time and receive no regular cash subsidies. Compared to private express companies, however, the Postal Service receives many subsidies from the government. It pays no federal, state, or local taxes on its income, sales, purchases, or property. Unlike private companies, it is immune from most forms of regulation, such as antitrust, motor vehicle registration, parking tickets, zoning, and land use restrictions. It is also able to borrow money at the lowest possible rate through the U.S. Treasury.
Moreover, private companies that compete with the Postal Service in package delivery are hindered by the fact that mailboxes by law are the private resource of the Postal Service. Understandably, private companies facing competition from the Postal Service maintain that they are at a great disadvantage.”
I also found the following quite interesting from the same study:
“The Postal Service is hampered by several serious problems. First, is the inability of the Postal Service to attract highly qualified management. This is largely because of a salary cap on postal executive salaries that is tied to the federal executive schedule. The Postal Service contends that this cap constrains its ability to provide compensation that is comparable to that in the private sector for managerial, executive, and officer-level positions, thus making it more difficult for the Postal Service to retain and recruit key talent who has the interest and ability to help it become a successful business.”
Thought you’d be interested, since you blamed USPS’s problems in another thread on “initial level” employees, rather than on management.
And here are a few more insights from Cato regarding five major problems with USPS:
“Third, the Postal Service also suffers from rising labor costs. Currently, about 80 percent of the total cost of operating the Postal Service stems from labor costs. These costs are associated with about 735,000 full-time postal employees, more than 80 percent of that number being unionized. When management and labor cannot agree on a package of wages, benefits, and work rules, a binding decision is made by arbitration. The Postal Service maintains that arbitrators, who are not accountable, tend to simply split the difference, which promotes higher costs (President’s Commission on the U.S. Postal Service 2003).
Fourth, the Postal Service lacks two major incentives for cost containment: It has no profit motive and is unable to go bankrupt. Top management gets the same compensation whether or not costs are reduced. It also appears reluctant to confront postal unions with difficult issues relating to the reduction of costs by revising work rules that lead to greater output per worker or cutting postal jobs. In fact, management has a great disincentive to control labor costs. After each major contract is negotiated, management salaries rise by a percentage roughly equal to bargaining-unit increases, surely a major disincentive for tough bargaining. In the absence of growth in mail volume, substantial productivity increases will be required to offset cost due to rising wages.”
As the Cato study also points out, there is, unfortunately, no incentive to increase worker productivity. If a carrier enthusiastically finishes a route early, he is rewarded by being assigned another route to finish. No wonder workers in a post office are always sluggish: even to appear enthusiastic and productive will lead to more drudge work.
Regarding the allegation that USPS benefits from tax abatement, they are a large enough business that were the Constitution to be rewritten so they could be taxed, you'd have governments all over America falling down prostrate begging USPS to please come to their jurisdiction to do business, and here Mr. Mailman, no taxes!
That's what Michigan does with auto companies, what Tennessee does, what Ohio does, what Alabama does, what..... etc.
Let me say this about one more item ~ USPS does not benefit from any state revenue bonds ~ unlike the private sector!
One of the big differences between me and the former postal guys at CATO is that they were all "planners" and not a one of them was ever a "doer". I did real work and designed processes that were implemented. They mostly rehashed old numbers for a living.
One of their guys had a volume prediction factor that he'd run and reported for 30 years ~ one day I noticed that it had been wrong 99% of the time.
My own volume prediction system had, in contrast, always been correct, and I could run it backwards to predict volumes into the distant past.
I submitted my system as a beneficial employee suggestion. It didn't get accepted but they quit running his system. He then lost his job.
So, yeah CATO Institute, I know where you're coming from and YOU'RE WRONG, ALWAYS WRONG!
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