Ferrari Mailing List: Re: OFF TOPIC - RE: Related to Business Banking

[Dennis Liu (BigHeadDennis]

You can buy your postage without any fee, directly from the Post Office.
Either buy stamps, or use the USPS free service for parcels, as Jeff
mentioned.
 
If you use a postage meter, you pay the postage meter company.
 
If you use a digital equivalent of a postage meter, you pay the digital
equivalent of a postage meter company.
 
The USPS does not offer either a postage meter or a digital equivalent of a
postage meter.  It has left that up to the free market.
 
So, bottom line, you're advocating that the GOVERNMENT should step in and
compete against private companies -- by undercutting their charges and
giving away stuff for free???
 
Again, to paraphrase SteveJ, are you a Communist?   Viva Cuba Libre!  You
want the government to take over a role being offered by private, free
market enterprises???
 
By your same philosophy, the government should cut out the middleman and
just nationalize gas stations and liquor stores.  Why have free enterprise
get their cut?  "Everyone" would be better off if the government just bought
all the gasoline wholesale and sell it directly to the PEOPLE.  And the same
with alcohol.  Let's see, what else can we nationalize?  Phone service?
Internet access?  Cable systems?
 
 
And don't forget the golden rule:
TANSTAAFL!  If the USPS went ahead and spent millions of dollars to come up
with the same software, infrastructure, etc. that Endicia and Stamps.com
did, but did NOT charge a fee for it, where do you think that money would
come from?  Money is fungible.  ALL users of the USPS would have to bear
those costs, instead of ONLY those users that use the service.  So you want
everyone who buys postage to subsidize Dr Stephen B. Spies' use of this
digital postal system, because you don't want to pay $99.95 (not $120) per
year?
 
 
 
Oh, the IRS gives you forms.  It doesn't give you Turbotax for free.
 
vty,
 
--Dennis
 
 

  _____  

From: BRIGANDBAR [at] aol.com [mailto:BRIGANDBAR [at] aol.com] 
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 2:02 PM
To: BigHeadDennis [at] earthlink.net
Cc: ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com
Subject: Re: OFF TOPIC - RE: [Ferrari] Related to Business Banking


In a message dated 12/4/2006 12:16:55 P.M. Central Standard Time,
BigHeadDennis [at] earthlink.net writes:

Or are you bitching about why the USPS doesn't offer this service to you
DIRECTLY, and avoid "the middleman" and their $10/month fees?

The USPS has been around for a thousand years.  It has to apply to congress
to get postal rates raised enough to cover their costs. 

Actually, the Office of Postmaster General in the Cabinet and the U.S. Post
Office have been around from the start of the nation, but recently (in
comparative terms) the U.S. Postal Service as a governmental corporation was
formed and yes it is a big bureaucracy but now with highly bonused
self-interested managers (not that this is entirely all bad, but many within
the Service think that it is). 
 
Yes, I am bitching about why they don't offer this service directly to me
(as a taxpayer) without the middleman (and additional costs and profits that
are derived from what is in reality an oligopoly position) and the damn
$10.00 fee. I don't need or want to do anything but purchase postage from a
U.S. governmental agency without paying a middleman for the privilege of
interacting with an agency that my tax dollars support. Should you have to
go through a middleman just to file for Social Security or Veterans'
Benefits? This is just a cooperative scam to cost small businesses an extra
$120.00/yr in tribute to someone who offers little or nothing of value and
who would probably cease to exist at all if postage was directly marketed to
the public at the same rates charged at the Post Office. Of course, then one
might argue that a bunch of postal would be laid off because folks used
electronic postage just as they use e-mail, etc. And, of course the
government would save the cost of(and employees required for) printing the
stamps, gasoline consumption would be down because folks wouldn't need to
leave their houses to buy the stamps, and things could just run smoothly.
 
Yes, I do resent being taxed again by an unnecessary industry created by a
favored few to interfere with our access to a government function. And,
incidentally, while I'll have to research the software issue, the IRS does
offer free downloads of virtually every form and publication it produces
without requiring me to pay tribute to the "special people"
 
Dr. Steve
 
 
 
1964 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III    1975 Pontiac GV Conv.
1980 MB 450SL                            1982 RR Corniche
1988 Rolls Royce Silver Spur         1994 F-350 Powerstroke 4x4          
1996 Bronco                                 2000 Lincoln Town Car
1995 Ferrari 348 Spyder                2004 Excursion
+ Audrey's 3x MB's
 
Dr. Stephen B. Spies, CES, CFI
Director, Forensic Sciences Laboratory
Explosives Engineering Technologies

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