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Kodak and the Post Office (Thomas Sowell)
Creators Syndicate ^ | January 10, 2012 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 01/09/2012 11:41:58 AM PST by jazusamo

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1 posted on 01/09/2012 11:42:04 AM PST by jazusamo
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To: jazusamo

I need to hurry up and start stockpiling 35mm film. Plenty of small shops catering to professional film afficianodos can still develope it even if big box retail development disappears.


2 posted on 01/09/2012 11:46:11 AM PST by MachIV
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To: jazusamo
We cannot preserve everything that was once useful.

The brilliant man who should have been our first black president writes the simple truth again.

3 posted on 01/09/2012 11:47:04 AM PST by Albion Wilde (A land of hyper-legalisms is not the same as a land of law. --Mark Steyn)
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To: abigail2; Amalie; American Quilter; arthurus; awelliott; Bahbah; bamahead; Battle Axe; ...
*PING*
Thomas Sowell

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Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to or removed from the Thomas Sowell ping list…

4 posted on 01/09/2012 11:47:27 AM PST by jazusamo (If you don't like growing older, don't worry. You may not be growing older much longer: T. Sowell)
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To: jazusamo

Kodak failed to adapt to a changing technology and will soon be gone.

The USPS also failed to adapt to a changing technology and should also go away as their services are obsolete.

Pass a constitutional amendment and Abolish the USPS!


5 posted on 01/09/2012 11:47:42 AM PST by trumandogz (Rick Perry Scored 10% on the Iowa Test.)
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To: Albion Wilde
The brilliant man who should have been our first black president writes the simple truth again.

Amen!

6 posted on 01/09/2012 11:50:00 AM PST by jazusamo (If you don't like growing older, don't worry. You may not be growing older much longer: T. Sowell)
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Please bump the Freepathon or click above and donate or become a monthly donor!

7 posted on 01/09/2012 11:51:00 AM PST by jazusamo (If you don't like growing older, don't worry. You may not be growing older much longer: T. Sowell)
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To: jazusamo

Who said UPS or Fed EX is cheap(er)? UPS has just raised their prices by 5% and adds a fuel sur chorge on top of that.

Isn’t the post office established by the Constitution? That’s why we have it and why we should continue it. Now let’s take a look at their retirement plan. That’s the problem.


8 posted on 01/09/2012 11:56:05 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: trumandogz

Kodak actually invented digital photographic technology. The Eikonix Digitizer was developed in the mid 1980’s. It was Photoshop’s father. And the ATEX Messaging system was early e-mail. I know. I was there.


9 posted on 01/09/2012 11:56:16 AM PST by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: MachIV

The author needs to check the cost to have UPS/FedX deliver a 1oz letter to an address across the street.


10 posted on 01/09/2012 12:02:03 PM PST by M. Dodge Thomas
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To: jazusamo

The lesson in the Kodak case is that at least twenty years ago senior management at Kodak was talking about “digital” being the future. Ironically, they began the transition then when most people had no idea what the concept of “digital” meant. They currently possess patents on several thousand “digital” inventions they are currently trying to market just to stay afloat. The culture that drove them to the brink of bankruptcy was the belief that they could not possibly fail. They were too fat then and too slow to make the hard cuts when they were necessary.


11 posted on 01/09/2012 12:03:15 PM PST by immadashell
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To: massgopguy

And then they failed to carry the technology through to the consumer digital camera stage or digital storage stage.


12 posted on 01/09/2012 12:04:26 PM PST by trumandogz (Rick Perry Scored 10% on the Iowa Test.)
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To: jazusamo

Who endoreses Newt


13 posted on 01/09/2012 12:05:44 PM PST by nikos1121
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To: massgopguy
Kodak actually invented digital photographic technology.

Absolutely right. But the company became dominated by business-school dopes whose only background was in marketing. They kept offering new formats for which there was no need, like Instamatic, Disk, and APS, and cranked out junky cameras instead of the serious pro gear they once made.

The fate of Kodak reminds me of the near-death experience at Apple when visionary perfectionist Steve Jobs was replaced by a dope from Pepsi.

14 posted on 01/09/2012 12:08:41 PM PST by hellbender
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To: nikos1121
Who endoreses Newt

Yes, Dr. Sowell does.

15 posted on 01/09/2012 12:09:05 PM PST by jazusamo (If you don't like growing older, don't worry. You may not be growing older much longer: T. Sowell)
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To: trumandogz

They could always become pony express riders.

Pray for America


16 posted on 01/09/2012 12:10:34 PM PST by bray (Ride Santorum back to Sanity)
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To: jazusamo

If they develop solar powered devices and get a government loan, the sky is the limit.


17 posted on 01/09/2012 12:10:44 PM PST by Mark (Don't argue with my posts. I typed while under sniper fire..)
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To: jazusamo
The post office is a classic example. Post offices were once even more important than Eastman Kodak, and for a longer time, as the mail provided vital communications linking people and organizations across thousands of miles...

The difference is that, although the Postal Service is technically a private business, its income doesn't cover all its costs — and taxpayers are on the hook for the difference.

I am as great an admirer of Dr Sowell as anyone else, and I agree that he, or one of many exceptional men should have been our first Black president. That special label has been stained irretrievably.

But I am surprised that prof. Sowell is unaware that the U.S. Postal Service was intended as a political privilege since its inception, cost no object. That includes franking propaganda as well as eternal reelection campaigns. That other "deserving" non-government entities jumped on the freebie wagon is no great surprise, such that the "constituency" is now gigantic.

Bottom line, its original purpose of essential communications for a huge new dynamic expanding country is even more obsolete than its contemporary, the buggy whip.

The history of the USPS is open for all to become informed. Just buy and read this small book...

The USPS is not the biggest drain on the US treasury, but a significant and unnecessary one.
It should be abolished.

Imagine a world without junk mail. Imagine the magnitude of the reduced waste.

18 posted on 01/09/2012 12:14:56 PM PST by Publius6961 (My world was lovely, until it was taken over by parasites.)
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To: jazusamo

Thanks to “media mail”, I was able to send all my record albums from Seattle to Kentucky via the USPS. Other than that, they seem kind of expensive.

I also can not remember the last time I use the USPS to send something in letter form.

Meanwhile, when we lived in Seattle we would collect our mail just once a week. We’d get a one foot pile of junk mail and MAYBE something in it we needed. In rural Kentucky we get no junk mail, which means we often check our mailbox weekly to find an empty mailbox.

A friend of mine, who is a letter carrier for the USPS, told me back in 1997 that if it were not for junk mail he wouldn’t have a job. I wonder if he still has a job with the USPS.


19 posted on 01/09/2012 12:15:32 PM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: M. Dodge Thomas
The author needs to check the cost to have UPS/FedX deliver a 1oz letter to an address across the street.

And some readers need to check the actual cost of the UPS delivering the exact same 1 oz letter; or the 8oz bundle of junk mail which goes directly into land fill.

The cost of placing that letter in the mailbox by the sender, is exactly zero.

Let's not get silly.

20 posted on 01/09/2012 12:19:59 PM PST by Publius6961 (My world was lovely, until it was taken over by parasites.)
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