Machines should work. Humans should THINK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRg_1j-iWFU
What a dilemma.
I think I’m gonna cry < /s>
So, Amazon is making the USPS profitable, and this clown has a problem with that?
Amazon had a nice programmable one for about $40, including MA tax (new as of November) and zero shipping (due to Prime membership).
But I nevertheless shopped around, Amazon having recently caved to the MA DOR over the sales tax thing. Best I could do (no sales tax, but shipping extra) was only a few pennies less than Amazon Prime, so I gave the sale to Bezos, having learned that Prime shipping delivers as expected.
Just one report from the field. YMMV.
Cool — delivery on Sunday! Me likes!
It’s a good thing. I’d think most people who ordered an item the week before would much rather have it delivered on Sunday, when they’re home, than having it sit in a warehouse over the weekend.
Machines should work. Humans should THINK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRg_1j-iWFU
He’s obviously envious that the private sector can innovate, execute and serve its customers......
Pretty funny Amazon carries Brad Stone’s book referenced in the article as: “In Brad Stone’s recent book on Amazon, he makes it abundantly clear that, by and large, working for Amazon sucks.”
So even though he wrote a book that supposedly slams Amazon or his experience working there, Amazon is making money off his sales! *laughing*
Long story, short: for 15 or 16 years, my life's been tied to Amazon in a sort of, humorous and ironic faux death-match....I know more about them than Stone does, that's for certain.
And it's also for certain that he's full of sh!t.
I was in a position to know about Bezos' decision to move from selling books to selling "everything on line" before it was publicly announced.
In fact - in what will probably amount to the most epic "miss" of my life - I chuckled a little and scoffed at the idea.
Now, Amazon's moved into the neighborhood I've lived in since 91, and taken over everything. My building's home to scores of Amazon programmers and engineers. I'm an IT Director who started in programming so, talking shop with these guy's has been pretty sweet.
I haven't heard any of them say so much as one thing negative about their jobs: they resprect Bezos and "by and large" enjoy where they work and what they do.
Microsoft employees, on the other hand...
I agree with that part of it. There are a few people (some in this thread) who buy out of need. Others buy out of desire or envy or boredom. I can't proclaim innocence since I am typing this post on my 2012 macbook air instead of some old beater laptop. I also have Amazon prime.
But the strength of our economy will not come from consumption but from savings. Those buying parts for repair or long lasting needed items are not part of my critique. But Sunday delivery in big cities is probably going to be a new and unnecessary iphone.
“I don’t think this is what Ben Franklin had in mind.”
Well I think it’s exactly what he had in mind.
This really is the way the mind of the liberal rolls.
“a functional government”
There is no incentive for “functionality” in government.
The incentive is for empire building and increased budgets.
This is why the “government” should be limited to it’s Constitutionally authorized functions.
>>You could be lying in bed, listening to this and get interrupted by a knock on the door from your U.S. Postal Service Amazon sub-contractor. <<
I order a lot from Amazon, and never once has the package been delivered with a knock at the door, never once has it been an interruption.
If the package is small enough, the mail carrier puts it in the mail box, if not, they leave it on the front porch.
So, no, I don’t share this hyperventilating twits assessment of the situation.
a government service is being co-opted as part an Amazon marketing campaign.
__________________________________________________________
FedEx, UPS, and the USPS are already more business partners today than they are competitors. FedEx and UPS very much don’t want the responsibilities that they would be saddled with if the monopoly were lifted, the playing field were perfectly level and they were charged with providing universal service to all parts of the country, even in areas that may not be profitable. Not only do these courier services not want it, they couldn’t do it. From an economic and operational standpoint it seems they have each figured out how to share resources to get good value out of a set-up that makes sense for them. What they do, they do well. But they don’t do what the Postal Service does.
And if Mr. Postman injures his back lifting Amazon's Sunday packages, who pays his doctor bills?
And while Mr. Postman is delivering Amazon's stuff, whose truck is he driving?
And when Mr. Postman retires, who pays for his pension?
Sounds like a sweet deal for Amazon, not so sweet for taxpayers.
The author IS aware that the USPS is required by law to run itself like a business, right? Never mind.
One thing to think about...
Amazon _almost_ has an alternative currency system going with its “Amazon Bucks”.
You can buy almost anything THROUGH Amazon, if not ON Amazon. And with exchanges of Amazon Bucks, you have a alternative (read: competing) currency system.
It seems to me that this rant is calling for a return to the “Blue Laws” that were so prevelant a couple of generations past in some areas of our country. I’m certain that the entire Salon universe would rise up in horror over that idea, but that is the gist of it.
In my young adulthood, I saw an epic example of this law at work in South Carolina. A major local retailer, “Sam Solomon”, as a Jewish-devout retailer, wanted to close on THEIR day of rest, Saturday, and open on Sunday! I wish I had HL Mencken’s ability to describe the knots that the state and local governments went through to resist, it was most amusingly illogical!
Heaven forbid! Why, they might actually do it efficiently!? Gasp! And what!? Horror of horrors, the government might actually shrink by some small amount! Arrrrggghhh oh the (lost) bureaucracy!!!
But it is still unsettling.
You say unsettling, I say refreshing and long overdue.
Amazon’s obvious goal is to get more Amazon Prime signups.
Duh! Paging Capt. Obvious...
What Sunday deliveries by the USPS really mean is that a government service is being co-opted as part an Amazon marketing campaign. I don’t think this is what Ben Franklin had in mind.
I'm pretty sure Mr. Franklin wouldn't have been a fan of the utter monstrosity and intrusive giant the government has become. I'd guess he would applaud anything that took a chunk out of the beast, even a small one.