Re: [NTLK] [OT?] Spam?

>> Because Federal Express and UPS can get a 1 ounce letter
>> across the country from one doorstep to another in within a week for
>> $0.44.
>
> That's actually a pretty disingenuous example, seeing as how the
> USPS enjoys a monopoly on First Class Mail. IOW: no private carrier
> is allowed to deliver it; only the USPS can by Act of Congress.

It's only a disingenuous example if FedEx or UPS were capable of this
in the first place, and the only reason they don't offer the service
is because of Federal law. All of the proposals I've seen for
privatizing first class mail retreat on service time, price, or
doorstep to doorstep delivery. The postal system is one of those cases
where a government run service actually works well enough.

BTW, IIRC, the monopoly pre-dates Lysander Spooner. He chose to
challenge it. It wasn't enacted because of him. (It's also not clear
to me that he provided doorstep to doorstep service.) For that matter,
the postal service of the 1840's is not the modern postal service in
at least one significant way for the purposes of this discussion.
Modern postal rates are highly regulated.

In any case, all you have is speculation on how FedEx and UPS might
deal with first class mail. That you're certain that surely they'd do
it at least as well as the postal is not exactly a sound foundation
for argument.

Like I said, the government running something is not a guarantor of
efficiency or inefficiency. It doesn't make sense to throw together
any old list government run services to prove one's point.

                                                john

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Received on Sun Jul 19 18:42:47 2009