@okie,
okie wrote:
Debra Law wrote:
okie wrote:I realize junk mail pays a huge portion of the budget, but taxpayers should not have to prop up an institution to deliver junk mail.
Okie! You have it all backwards! Use some common sense!
The USPS offers a bulk rate to commercial business and commercial business takes advantage of the ability to conduct mass marketing at an affordable rate. In order to qualify for bulk rates, the mail must be bar coded and pre-sorted. That saves a ton of work. The bulk mail payments that private businesses make to the USPS help to SUBSIDIZE the mail processing/delivery costs incurred by individual mailers like YOU.
If the USPS was deprived of the enormous profits from bulk-rate mail, the cost of postage would dramatically increase for YOU.
If private businesses around the country did not find it profitable to engage in bulk mailing activities, they wouldn't do it.
Bulk mailing is good for the business and good for the economy!!!!!!
okie wrote:Maybe, but I only ask them to actually pay for the junk they are sending.
You didn't read what I wrote, okie. Bulk mailers are in fact paying for the service.
The USPS is making an enormous profit on bulk mail. One man's junk is another man's treasure.
I thought conservatives were in favor of the free market. Why do you want to deprive millions of businesses of the means to survive? Why do you want to put millions of people out of work? Why do you want to cripple the economy?
Quote:I am not privy to the accounting of the postal service, but I have considered what you say about bar coding, etc. a long time ago. I think you can bulk mail something for less than half of a first class letter.
What difference does it make to YOU what the USPS charges for bulk mailings in comparison to your lonely birthday card to Aunt Tilly? The USPS doesn't make any money on that lonely card in an of itself, but it makes tons of money by giving businesses a volume discount. The USPS provides a valuable and affordable service BECAUSE it deals in VOLUME.
The next time you visit your local supermarket, check the prices on purchasing individual grocery items in comparison to purchasing in volume. Are you going to buy that single porkchop or are you going to buy that family value pack? Are you going to buy a couple of potatoes or are you going to buy that 20 lb. bag? You're going to pay less if you buy in volume.
In order to take advantage of the volume discount, mass mailers presort their voluminous mailings. Presorted mail floats through the system with very little handling. The system works to everyone's benefit--including your benefit because you're only paying 44 cents to mail your card instead of the
many dollars it would otherwise cost if the USPS had to rely on individual mailers alone to survive.
Quote:Fine, I believe it when they claim it costs less to send, but does it cost less than half to send and deliver, I doubt it and I doubt it very seriously. It costs alot of money for the destination post office to sort the mail for each route and then for the delivery person in their little buggy or that person walking down the street to carry all that junk mail, plus it is time consuming for them to sort the stuff for delivery to each address. Bar coding and all that jazz may help them ship the stuff from the point of origin much more efficiently, but to both send and deliver to each address, you are not going to easily convince me that it can be done for less than half the amount of a first class stamp.
This just shows that you don't know what you're talking about. Bulk mail is presorted in bundles right down the box section or carrier route. Each bundle in the carrier route is presorted by street and house/apt. number. It's very easy mail to process.
You simply don't understand a business model that is based on volume. Sam Walton is very disappointed in you, okie.
Quote:It is my theory that the Postal Service has priced their postage for bulk mailings very close to their cost, or slightly under cost, merely to maintain their volume, so that they can justify and maintain their reason for existing as the huge bureaucracy that they are.
Wow. Let's apply your business theory: It is my theory that Wal Mart has priced their "junk" (merchandise, goods, wares) for distribution to every Wal Mart store in the United States at very close to its cost merely to maintain its volume so that Wal Mart can justify and maintain its reason for existing as a huge corporation. And a lot of its voluminous "junk" is shipped all the way from China!
Quote:Face it, this is 2009, and we have found much more cost effective ways of sending information, and it isn't the postal service, especially if the postal service charged the full cost of delivering all that junk.
According to okie, Sam Walton is stupid! Face it, this is 2009 and there must be a much more cost effective ways of getting cheap merchandise other than shopping at Wal Mart especially if Wal Mart (et al.) charged the full cost of delivering all that "junk" to every store it operates throughout this entire country!
Quote:I would actually not mind seeing postage rates increase to the point of pricing alot of the junk mail out of existence. We would possibly have a postal service that processed a far smaller amount of mail, a smaller bureaucracy, and alot less employees. The end result could be higher postage rates, but more efficient and better service. I would also like to see serious consideration of delivery of first class mail opened up to competition. This could potentially keep the cost competitive, and the service better.
Your logic is amazing okie. I wonder why Sam Walton didn't use that rationale when he formulated his business model. I would like to see the price of "junk" at Wal Mart increase to the point of pricing alot of the "junk" out of existence. This would make Wal Mart a smaller corporation with smaller amounts of "junk," and LESS employees. According to okie, the end result would be higher merchandise prices, but a more efficient and better Wal Mart.
Gee okie . . . you're a business genius. If only you were advising Obama right now, you could stimulate the economy through your superior business model that consists of eliminating volume sales, creating smaller businesses with fewer employees, and resulting in higher prices for the (now unemployed and broke) consumer. . . .
