Thjis is right on the money.

the Post Office has any number of problems, and the only reasons it is still in existence despite providing a level of service and reliability that would drive a private entity out of business are its monopoly on mail delivery and the fact that, because it is government-run, it can lose an unlimited amount of money and remain both in business and in the competition.

There’s no evidence whatsoever to suggest that the Post Office’s existence in the package-delivery marketplace has had the effect of forcing FedEx and UPS to improve their service or to become more competitive.

We need to remember it.

“The Post Office is the one in trouble” — ROFL

The duality is the amazing thing — I really wish folks would realize the Presbo is a fairly smart guy — statements like that reveal that he actually has a handle on the problems, but is a slave to some ideology that is at odds with the job he has, at odds with the oath he took,

If we assume we’re stuck whit him in the drivers seat until Jan 2013, the better question might be: What steps can be taken to purge the shadow government? — the folks pulling his strings.

He and his policies are clearly wounded, but no legitimate force is going to alter the Political reality. The Congress and the courts are equally corrupt, but they are the figureheads — Let’s go after the Eminence Gris the ones truly calling the shots. These dark figures all have one true weakness, they are not entitled to the legal courtesies that the elected officials enjoy. When lights are turned up, and their evil is exposed, their influence can be eliminated.

Peisistratos, who became tyrant of Athens in the last days of its pre-democratic governance, led the hill faction, which was the poorest of the three due to its lack of arable land and access to coastal trade.

We have to fight, call all the blue dogs, I call my rep weekly, including my senators. Two weeks ago I called Ted kennedy’s office, once to voice my opposition to bill, then John Kerry’s, then my rep, Ed Markey, I was very angry that day, Kerry’s office wanted my zip code, no name, phone number, like most ask. I called Ted K’s office agin to tell them that I do not agree with him 99% of the time, man told me he knows we want to hear from him, whether we are for or against.

I called Kerry’s office later to leave VM to say he works for us, etc. I was still very angry after reading most relevant pages of billl. Last Friday I had five emails from Kerry, all about healthcare. The dems have been handed talking points, I never heard from him when he was running for president.

The only emails I have to read are Red State, Powerline and Heritage and I know pretty much of what is going on in USA.

So which is it, are they going to be self sufficient? If so, how will that be accomplished considering the success (or lack of) of other govt agencies at competing with private enterprise?

In spite of the restrictions on UPS & FedEx, they still are able to find holes in the lame Postal Service. Can FedEx find room to charge ~10 bucks when the postal service will deliver it for close to free? Yep. Pick up at business friendly times/terms (not those of govt workers), better trust, whatever. The Postal Service could drop it’s price to free and business folks would still pay less than a trip to McDonalds for the convenience.

But healthcare isn’t a small ticket item on the order of a Big Mac. As you know, the Federal Govt takes in a couple trillion of revenue a year. Will the govt, while it is aiming to kill off private competition, use my tax dollars to subsidize losses in its health care operations? Do I want the govt taking my money to subsidize its inefficiency? No. And what type of pricing/service will the govt provide once it has killed off private competition.

The next time you ask what you think is a rhetorical question with what you think has an obvious, simpleton answer, you should think through the possibilities more thoroughly.

The postal service has 2 types of products. Market dominant (first class and standard mail) product and competitive products (packages). They use the market dominant product to subsidize the competitive product and purposely lose money on packages knowing no one would use their service at all if they charged their actual cost. They can not compete with UPS and FE, even with a huge in place infrastructure because of their agreements with their unions.

Using this as a basis of thought for how they might run the “public option” would they just continue to cost shift until there were no other private options? Will unions take over all of health care?

Further, would they ultimately force the take over of all delivery systems (hospitals and doctors) by requiring service with no payment? The USPS will not allow anyone to do door to door delivery since they know ultimately they can not compete. Their legacy costs are killing them (guananteed pensions)

Imagine all medical delivery provided by the government run by SIEU thugs…

joe

And that a public option would have the same kind of problems.

But that’s just my interpretation, I may be wrong.

That’s pretty much what I meant here:

“USPS has frozen the private sector out of key markets. As a result, the private sector was forced to innovate and excel in a different market. While they both deliver mail, they both have different focal points.”

But that’s obviously not Obama’s focus. Just because USPS has domain over a part of postal delivery doesnt not explain why it hasn’s forced out private companies. They are not mutually exclusive. UPSP delivers packages as well. The point that liberals are trying to make is why hasn’t the UPSP forced UPS out its own market.

I don’t know if I’ve seen a worse public speaker in my lifetime more lionized for his public speaking ability than President Barack Obama.

I think President Obama is an incarnation of Saruman and similar to that scheming wizard he has the “voice.”

His tone is perfect, his cadence is flawless (if using TOTUS), and you find you must obey his every command. But when you stop to think about the words and message, when you compare what he said today with what he said yesterday, when you hear him without the teleprompter, the spell is broken. What was deemed eloquence becomes blather. The rhetorical flourishes are exposed as men of straw. He is reduced in the end to a common politician.

So, to use Obama’s analogy — in healthcare, government will freeze out private companies, except in narrowly defined areas. There will be no real competition between the Obamacare required healthcare and buying your own medical care.

although, I think it will be more Amtrak than US Post Office.

1) skilled vs. unskilled

No offense to anyone in the industry, but sorting mail and delivering mail cannot be compared to practicing medicine. Its amazing that the USPS can l screw that up, but they do. You cannot assume that the market and the people can and will absorb the same inefficiencies in the health care.

2) not exactly the same

USPS has frozen the private sector out of key markets. As a result, the private sector was forced to innovate and excel in a different market. While they both deliver mail, they both have different focal points.

3) not regulated

Postal services are hardly regulated at all. Health care and insurance is extremely regualted. The government cannot be trusted to regualted itself. It often tries, but never with the same vigor as it does the private sector. Therefore, compaines like USPS and FedEx can operate without huge audit, compliance, regualtory, litigation burdens and expenses. The private health care industry has that burden, but the public option wont. Sovreign immunity alaone mitigates most legal expenses. Common sense dictates that they wont be fined as much and wont need to incure the same level of compliance expneses

4) quantity vs. quality.

There are many unknowns. I grant that. But the decline in care will only felt by the minority that is actually sick. Most Americans are younger, healthy and not ill. They will often trend towards the cheapest option just because they don’t want to pay. Employers will choose the cheaper option as well. The masses that choose the cheaper options will drain premiums from the private plans who will incur high loss ratios from the people who are ill and want good care and the private option. There is no dynamic in postal delivery like this. Private delivery companies do not rely on premiums from one sector to pay for claims of another sector. Private plans cannot afford to provide quality services unless they are getting the premiums from the relatively healthy.

We all should have a pocket copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with us for handy reference at all times. I do.

Thank you.

ColdWarrior

Also Justin, let’s not forget that, as a consumer, if I choose to use the postal option that “is always having problems” a) I have no long term binding commitment to continue to use it and b) if something is delayed or gets lost due to negligence or inefficiency…it’s just mail.

As a business owner, I use the USPS all the time but only for mail that is unimportant, sacrificial, and/or not time sensitive. Does this sound like a health care panacea?