Obama's Postal Service plan would cut Saturday mail

I’m not saying there oughta be a law.

I’m saying they oughta repeal the law - the one that enables the post office in it’s current form.

And a big reason is that it has turned overwhelmingly (except perhaps at Christmas) into a compulsive advertising delivery system. That it benefits some businesses is as irrelevant to me as if it benefitted the environment, small animals, children or red-headed lesbians.

I don’t think that’s free enterprise, I think it’s yet another example of government screwing up one of its functions. Except with this particular function, there are multiple private organizations already in place who could take over immediately and who already do a better, more efficient job. Those are the examples of free enterprise.

If a business can’t survive without junk-mail advertising, then, like a business that can’t survive without email spam, perhaps it shouldn’t exist.

I’ve been involved in bulk emailings. Not to blast the stuff to everyone in a geographical area, but to a large customer base. There’s a price break on the individual pieces but, you’re right, it costs a lot of money to send a lot of mail. Know why? Because 90-something % of your recipients don’t want it - even when you send it to your own customers. Somehow, because it’s “advertising” that kind of waste and customer annoyance is magically worth it because it’s too hard to spend those resources providing a better product at a better price.

But I know you won’t agree. I’ve had this same discussion with at least three separate CEOs and Marketing Mangers. That all three of those companies eventually failed after multiple magical bulk mailing campaigns is probably coincidence - I’m just whining because I don’t like paper.

If a business can’t survive without junk-mail advertising, then, like a business that can’t survive without email spam, perhaps it shouldn’t exist.

Okay, I forgot to point something out here. I want to know how many businesses you frequent that YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF BEFORE? how exactly do you propose a local startup gets a coupon into YOUR hands so maybe, just maybe, you might go down there and sample their wares? I know you don't think they oughta advertise, you've said it multiple ways.

Seriously, what are you doing on this forum?

Sigh.

Hypocrite, communist, democrat. Does the phrase “ad hominem” mean anything to you?

I never said businesses shouldn’t advertise. I have nothing against advertising per se, I only have a problem when it invades my home unwanted.

Have you ever heard of any of the following:

Word of mouth?
Angie’s list?
Newspapers?
Television?
Billboards?
Magazines?
Posted bills?
Radio?
Telephone directories?
Business signage?
The Internet?

All of the above are either voluntary, or exist on private property that voluntarily agrees to post the message. None of them come into my home thanks to the government without my consent.

There are plenty of methods to advertise without invading my home via government-sponsored force feeding. It doesn’t make me any of your slurs du jour because I don’t want a particular type that exists PURELY because the post office is a government-sponsored agency who can play fast and loose with costs and prices, something that I’m sure ol’ Ben Franklin didn’t envision when he came up with the idea, and something that the free market alternatives don’t support - gee, I wonder why?

Bulk mail rates didn’t even exist until the late 1920’s. “Direct Marketing” wasn’t a phrase until the late 1960s’s. Junk mail is a recent phenomenon that exists only because the USPS created it. The amount of junk mail is now over 40% of the USPS’s business and rising.

Yet another example of the government subsidizing something, and getting more of it. Real conservative idea there.

Here’s a crazy idea. I, as a consumer, know what I want. I am able to locate and patronize businesses that I need. It’s really not that hard. I can avail myself of any of the above advertising mechanisms just fine.

Voluntarily.

The free market is alive and well without the government providing yet another advertising avenue with prices some government reguatory agency pulls out of their arse.

I’m still amazed that you totally ignore the government-sponsored aspect of USPS, while calling me a Democrat, Communist, etc. Where do you think the price of a stamp comes from, which is then discounted for bulk mail rates? It isn’t the market. It’s the government. A bunch of bureaucrats make that decision and the whole system would fall apart if they were a real business.

You have stated that the USPS is "government sponsored". That is incorrect.

I don't think you are a hypocrite, or a communist, or a democrat.

I do think it is amusing that you take 30 seconds to two minutes per day to sort through your mail, and yet you still manage to:
1) accidentally throw away correspondence you want, and
2) not to read any of those advertisements, or
3) still seem to get "fooled" into reading those letters that cleverly (/s) look like checks.

A few suggestions and comments:

If so very few organizations are sending you meaningful correspondence you should easily be able to identify and cull out their letters considering all of the time you spend each day. Pull those out and throw away the rest. It should save you loads of time.

Please apprehend that all of those letters that are expensive to prepare and mail would not be sent out if it were not positively impacting the bottom lines of all of those companies.

I like the idea that there are many companies ready and willing to take over a privatized USPS. In order to save you time I have listed them for you here:_________

I don't believe you change the channel of your television or radio every time there is a commercial; you are representing it that way so you can make the argument that one is voluntary and the other is not. Or were you truly interested in learning about feminine hygiene products? Or perhaps the benefits of palmetto. What? You say you have never heard of those products? Well, of course you haven't!

Tell you what - ONLY collect the mail if you were on the way by your mailbox anyway. Don't look at it!! Place it into a container next to your chair (right by your remote). When you are "voluntarily" watching a program and a commercial comes on, reach down and grab a handful. Sort until the commercials are over. I will wager that you get to the end of the mail long before you get to the end of those voluntary commercials. And it will open up a whole new complaint area - The FCC! (They do operate on tax dollars, BTW)

We could go back and forth on this but if you don't get it this time, I have found that it is a waste of time to... well, you know.

I have said all I have to say about junk mail.

You have stated that the USPS is "government sponsored". That is incorrect.

Please enlighten me as to what the proper terminology is for an organization created by the Constitution - a document that defines the Federal government, that is run by the federal government, and whose prices are set by the government.

I like the idea that there are many companies ready and willing to take over a privatized USPS. In order to save you time I have listed them for you here:_________

This would have some semblance of meaning if the post office wasn't a legal monopoly. Funny, in package delivery, where businesses are allowed to compete, there are two major national competitors, and all sorts of regional and local competitors.

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