EXCERPT:
At a recent conference that attracted 15,000 eBay fanatics to Las Vegas, the main sponsor was a big advocate of online shopping: none other than the United States Postal Service.
“I have one message today for the entire eBay community,” said Postmaster General John E. Potter in a speech to the crowd. “We, the Postal Service, we love you. We love every buyer, every seller, every power seller. Thank you for shipping with the United States Postal Service.”
World of Warcraft: Delissandra - Blood Elf Rogue (retired) - Feathermoon
EverQuest: Delissandra Splitshadow - 75 Rogue (retired) - The Rathe
City of Heroes: Splitshadow - Scrapper (retired) - Victory
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
- Steven Weinberg
Last month someone put like two weeks worth of junkmail (oops, I can't call it that - "Third Class Mail" - wait, thats another term they moved past - anyway, you know what I mean) back into the outgoing mail with "Refused" and "Return to Sender" and "Stop Wasting Paper!" written on all of it.
Of course, that level of postage doesn't come with return rights. It all got thrown away and the senders never discovered how these people felt about advertisements.
Yeah, I'd call the circulars that, but this was more like - catalogues, and stuff from car dealerships addressed to "Friend of XYZ Ford" and postcards from real estate agents wanting to buy/sell their house...
Last month someone put like two weeks worth of junkmail (oops, I can't call it that - "Third Class Mail" - wait, thats another term they moved past - anyway, you know what I mean) back into the outgoing mail with "Refused" and "Return to Sender" and "Stop Wasting Paper!" written on all of it.
Of course, that level of postage doesn't come with return rights. It all got thrown away and the senders never discovered how these people felt about advertisements.
Open the junkmail take the prepaid envolopes and stick the other junkmail into it and send it on out
No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater... than central air. -Dogma
I liked that book the first two times I read it, but last time I read it I was asking myself why I ever enjoyed it.
David Brin's book is great. What Costner did to it in the movie....
I talked to Brin at Comic Con two years ago and told him sorry about The Postman movie. He just laughed. Nice guy though, he used to fence and actually responds to emails, I first met him at a Book Festival in the 90s (really good time, met Orson Scott Card and Larry Niven there too).
I have no beef with the USPS, I use them a lot and like the way you can print postage online and get a free confirmation number that way for Priority Mail. Plus, when I was little and had penpals (yes, I was that kind of geek) I didn't realize that the mail was based on weight and not envelope size. When my best friend moved away we used to stuff our envelopes so much that they must've passed some kind of weight limit and would say "Postage Due X cents" on them... but then someone would cross that part out and just deliver them. I think they realized it was "kids" writing to each other.
Fricka
Safehouse Forums Administrator - Wielder of the Whip of Administration (TM) Fricka curtsies elegantly...while picking your pocket! My gaming store, now with iPhone & iPad cases!
Not really too surprising. The internet is doing hell on snail mail, but has been heaven for shipping. While more and more people are using email and doing billing online, they're also shopping online. It wouldn't surprise me to see the USPS evolve to just be a shipping provider a few years down the line. Of course, at that point, why keep it around if the private sector can do it better? That is, unless it can earn the government a profit.
Earning a profit is against the USPS charter...they're supposed to charge just enough to not take a loss, since they don't pick up money from other taxes.If they did earn a small profit, it would go right back into the next year and hold off another postage increase.
