Posted on 05/16/2012 2:56:05 PM PDT by Syncro
Way back at the start of my career I designed a device for the old Post Office Department that when installed replaced exactly one employee.
So, I convinced management that we should buy 24 of them and see if it replaced 24 people. The POD had little money for these experiments, Congress having refused to approve repair parts for most of a decade. Trucks were falling apart. Overhead conveyors lie on the floors due to a shortage of bolts to put them back together. And so on, but somewhere somehow somebody found some money and I bought 24 more devices to replace 24 people.
Again, the trick worked and we actually shut down a distribution unit of 24 workers and 1 supervisor at the BWI airport.
One device = One employee.
Within a short time your government decided I was better placed toting a rifle in the US Army Infantry, so it was a good two years before I got back to the project and by that time they'd bought THOUSANDS OF THE THINGS, and there'd even been some modifications to make them ever more practical and aids to efficiency.
Over the years hundreds of thousands of these devices were purchased by the successor agency, USPS, and again, every device on hand eliminated the need for an additional employee. Mail volumes were skyrocketing and from the 35 billion pieces normal in the late 1960s the business blossomed to over 200 billion pieces in the early 2000s.
Employment increased very little over that period of time ~ and much of that productivity was a direct result of that device I designed.
Not too long ago I added up the workyears my design had saved USPS, and thereby the mailing public who pay postage.
It exceeded $1 trillion.
That is real money that the companies who mail could plough back into their own capital structure or distribute as dividends to their investors. They could pay higher raises to attract better employees. They could purchase advanced computer systems to run mailing lists and direct printing processes.
I paid my way. I also paid yours.
And when MO left the position, it was eliminated.
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