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Has Trump lurched into the truth?
Topic Started: Dec 29 2017, 05:48 AM (209 Views)
Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/946728546633953285
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Could be. As usual the comments are simultaneously more interesting and appalling than the OP. This cartoon:

Posted Image

Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
Background

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/for-every-amazon-package-it-delivers-the-postal-service-loses-146/article/2632857
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Amazon uses USPS for very little if my experience is indicative. But if we, the taxpayer, are losing money? Either raise prices or shut it down. We use snail mail for very little these days. I would be happier paying the correct freight for what we use than subsidizing everything else.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
It is worse than is what's being said - USPS fails to fund its own retirement obligations to tune of $4B
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Jolly
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Mikhailoh
Dec 29 2017, 06:06 AM
Amazon uses USPS for very little if my experience is indicative. But if we, the taxpayer, are losing money? Either raise prices or shut it down. We use snail mail for very little these days. I would be happier paying the correct freight for what we use than subsidizing everything else.
You'd be amazed how much snail mail is still delivered.

And...The USPS delivers to Cattlegap, Wyoming for the same price it delivers a letter two blocks in NYC.
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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Jolly
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Mikhailoh
Dec 29 2017, 06:09 AM
But doesn't the Post Office fund it's retirement upfront, unlike most businesses?
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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jon-nyc
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Cheers
He sort of stumbled on the truth but the blame is in the wrong place. USPS does not have the freedom to set its own rates. Unsurprisingly, Congress is to blame here.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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taiwan_girl
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Fulla-Carp
Quote:
 
Amazon uses USPS for very little if my experience is indicative. But if we, the taxpayer, are losing money? Either raise prices or shut it down


Quote:
 
USPS does not have the freedom to set its own rates. Unsurprisingly, Congress is to blame here.


I agree with both of these. When I was in the US, I remember that the post office asked to reduce delivery, maybe by one day a week or every other week or something like that. They pointed out that they were losing millions of dollars per day. But, they did not get approval to do this. I believe that the post office has tried to at least minimize their losses, but as Jon says, Congress has not moved with them.
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
If everything is easily profitable, you would not need a government to do anything.

Most new commercial services start with where the population is rich and/or dense, for that's where the money usually is, and where the infrastructure to deliver the new services is already in place (hence distribution cost is low).

Serving the poor, rural, distant communities is hard to do and not profitable. If not for the government, such communities would not get any service at all.
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Copper
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Shortstop

I had several Amazon orders for Christmas. I think most were delivered USPS, the rest UPS. Maybe 60/40.
The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
Probably half of my Amazon stuff has been USPS.

And I do a butt-load of Amazon.
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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Rainman
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Fulla-Carp
We are forced to ship to an Amazon warehouse, to qualify for shipping via "Amazon Prime." When stored and shipped from their warehouse, the product listing will receive prominence in search results at amazon.com. That's what I mean by "forced" - it increases sales of our stuff at amazon and can put us ahead against competition IF we also sell at the lowest price point. They get their "cut" of 15% of gross sale, and also charge us for warehouse space.

When one of our Chinese imported products sells very well, then amazon will find out where the product is made in China, and then order in large quantity direct. That's one of many ruthless tactics used by amazon. I wonder how many small businesses have been driven out of business as a result of amazon's ability to make sweetheart deals via backroom government deals. I'd like to know how this came about, and I'd like names.

When shipping to an amazon warehouse, we receive a shipping label from amazon based of course on weight and size of box. We are required to sign a nondisclosure form, which states that we cannot publicly state that shipping to amazon is a fraction of what an individual would pay.

UPS ships to the boonies via postal service, it's called "Surepost" shipping. UPS also delivers priority air mail. I received a package yesterday via UPS, it was in a postal service priority air mail envelope.

Good on Trump! I hope he does something about this collusion, and like I said, I'd like names, and I'd like to know how this all came about. It is completely unfair leverage IMO, to have shipping rates subsidized by all of us so that amazon can undercut all small businesses, and drive some/many out of business because it is impossible to compete against this monster.

If Trump would have made the deal, he'd probably be very proud of such a business model. Perhaps he has a different view now, realizing the collateral damage done to small businesses so that amazon can continue to metastasize.

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jon-nyc
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Cheers
Rainman - interesting stuff. This is precisely why capitalism is morally and ethically superior to its alternatives. Adam Smith would be proud.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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Copper
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Shortstop

Step on their throat.

If only more people would do that what a wonderful world this would be!

The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
Rainman
 
Good on Trump! I hope he does something about this collusion, and like I said, I'd like names, and I'd like to know how this all came about. It is completely unfair leverage IMO, to have shipping rates subsidized by all of us so that amazon can undercut all small businesses, and drive some/many out of business because it is impossible to compete against this monster.
1. What do you expect Trump to do? Add more regulation against "collusion"?

2. What "collusion" do you see Amazon.com engages in? Collusion with who?

3. Amazon.com did not start as a monster. It too, was at one point a "small business," one that bled $million then $billions in red ink for years and years before becoming what it is today. What advantages Amazon.com have compared to other "small businesses" back in th days that makes Amazon.com "big" and the others remaining small or go out existence?

I am all for "fair trade" and "give the little guys a fair shake." The CPFB, net neutrality, empowering the FTC to enforce anti-trust laws ... those are the things I support to "give the little guys a fair shake." So whatever ideas you have to make the playing field fair for all parties, I will listen.
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Larry
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Mmmmmmm, pie!
Axtremus
Dec 29 2017, 07:36 AM
If everything is easily profitable, you would not need a government to do anything.

Most new commercial services start with where the population is rich and/or dense, for that's where the money usually is, and where the infrastructure to deliver the new services is already in place (hence distribution cost is low).

Serving the poor, rural, distant communities is hard to do and not profitable. If not for the government, such communities would not get any service at all.
Sometimes when I see how your brain works it makes my skin crawl. Boil it down, and one is left with "city=rich/rural=poor""city people superior/rural people inferior" combined with "we superior city people need government to take care of us, and you inferior rural people will then benefit from the spillover that results from our superior way of doing things".

The problem you have however, and oh such irony.... is that you picked the US postal service as proof of your view.....

Apparently unaware that mail traveled between towns long before the government got involved....

A system that began with rural people sending letters via anyone going in that direction, and first monetized by a private, for profit company.
Of the Pokatwat Tribe

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Copper
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Shortstop
Larry
Dec 29 2017, 12:34 PM
monetized by a private, for profit company.

that put smoke signals out of business.
The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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Rainman
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Fulla-Carp
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Ax:
So whatever ideas you have to make the playing field fair for all parties, I will listen.

No thanks. If you had the power to do something about it, I would spend the effort. Just complaining to you changes nothing.
Well, hmmm...OK Ax, maybe you could help! Send me a couple of million $ so I can hire lobbyists to garner backroom deals in D.C.
(oh, if the check bounces, there is a $25 additional charge. Win-win for me-me!)
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
What if the government simply made the law that nobody could ship parcels below cost?
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
Jolly
Dec 29 2017, 01:52 PM
What if the government simply made the law that nobody could ship parcels below cost?
1. That’s “more regulation”, more restriction on how private enterprises can run their businesses.
2. Folks in remote, hard-to-reach areas are disadvantaged. E.g., city folks pay 25˘ to mail a check to pay for electricity bill, rural folks pay 75˘ to do the same.
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Larry
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Mmmmmmm, pie!
No, folks in rural areas just drive by the utility board and drop it in the night slot and don't pay anything...
Of the Pokatwat Tribe

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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
First class Forever is 49 cents, New York City or Ketchikan, Alaska.
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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