[meteorite-list] What a surprise! (not)

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 2 May 2008 01:37:48 -0500
Message-ID: <00da01c8ac1f$09d189b0$db45e146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Postal Doug,

Of course, the U.S. Mail is subsidized and
supported by law -- it's a government service,
as the National Posts of many nations are.
I believe, as Mr. Franklin did, that governments
exist to provide useful and necessary services
for its citizens, and a mandate to establish
a postal service was part of the Constitution,
one of the first National Posts in the world.

Originally, the price of post was prohibitive
for the ordinary citizen. In 1792, long distance
mail (450+ miles) cost 25 cents per sheet of
paper, and that 1792 "quarter" was worth many
dollars in today's money (OK, I didn't look it
up). When stamps were introduced in 1847,
the cost plummeted. In 1855, you could send
an entire letter of several sheets, in an envelope
now, 3000 miles for 3 cents, a rate that persisted
for a century.

It made a single communicative entity out of a
scattered nation. During that century, telegrams
were costly and the later long distance phone
call was too; they were reserved for deaths,
births, wars, and occasionally true love, but
you could write someone a letter every single
day of the week for no more than the cost of
a loaf of bread.

One consideration to bear in mind about
overseas shipments is that a single rate applies
to an entire nation, even though Southern
California to London is twice as far as Maine
to London, whereas any part of the UK is no
more distant from another than the ends of a
state like Illinois. And all National Posts are
only doing "half" the work when they each
reciprocally entrust a package to the National
Post of any other country. (The UK Royal
Post once directed a 12-string guitar intact to
my door from London for less money than UPS
charged to damage a guitar from Wisconsin,
one state away, in transit.)

As for "sacred" mailboxes, they are sanctified
by an extension of the personal privacy of the
recipient; mail "delivered" there has become
part of the "every man's home's his castle" right,
and the prohibition against others entering it
long precedes the invention of FedEx.

Who, since they came up, once "delivered" a
brand-new hard drive to a mud puddle in my
driveway, and tossed another parcel behind my
neighbor's shrubbery to languish there for a week
until discovered by them whilst raking leaves, and
once, by accident I think, they got a package within
six feet of my door. Remind me to tip the FedEx
man next Christmas, will you? In between my
drinking toasts to the virtues of free enterprise,
that is.

Postal Sterling
----------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: <mexicodoug at aim.com>
To: <meteoriteguy at yahoo.com>; <meteoritekid at gmail.com>;
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 10:31 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] What a surprise! (not)


"Actually cheaper to send overseas for less than one ounce packet, than
to send to my next door neighbor.
The US government shows us how smart it is again."

Hi Mike, List,

You're mixing apples and oranges. It should be cheaper, since when
does reason have place in corrupt systems of any nation? The US postal
service is only doing half the work for intentionsl shipments. They
put it on a cargo flight from their hub and forget about it.

Meanwhile in the USA they have a monopoly on home delivery so they milk
the cash cow, so why shouldn't you pay more? It's a US federal crime
for anyone to send regular mail through a private service for anyone to
offer the service, and for anyone else delivering anything to open
their sacred mailboxes - even though they are the homeowners' personal
property and expense. Only urgent mail is excluded from the monopoly;
provided the competing service charges at least twice as much. So next
time you are pissed about fedex, ups, dhl, etc., keep in mind that they
are more expensive because your government forces them to charge at
least twice as by law much AND denies them participation in the
economies of scale of the bulk of mailings.

Something to keep in mind next time you pat the USPS on the back for
being the cheapest of shipping options.

Going postal,
Doug



-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy at yahoo.com>
To: Jason Utas <meteoritekid at gmail.com>; Meteorite-list
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thu, 1 May 2008 2:52 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] What a surprise! (not)



A 20 gram Henbury can be shipped to the UK for under
$2.00. The minumum for one ounce to the USA in a
bubble envelope is now $1.13, yet I can send the same
bubble envelope to the UK for $1.01.
Actually cheaper to send overseas for less than one
ounce packet, than to send to my next door neighbor.
The US government shows us how smart it is again.
Michael Farmer
--- Jason Utas <meteoritekid at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello Herman, Dave, All,
> Regardless of whether or not he discounted shipping,
> he did still
> 'lift' a description that was written by someone
> else - without asking
> for the right to use it.
> This has been noted as an issue in the past, and it
> is clear that
> (although he did well to find a cheaper shipping
> service) wayner44
> still made a mistake in copying a description which
> he could easily
> have, at the very least, credited to the author. I
> see no excuse for
> doing what he did - except for laziness.
> Furthermore, who on earth would pay more than a few
> dollars to ship a
> twenty gram bit of Henbury? I think you're looking
> at this the wrong
> way; it should have cost only a few dollars to ship
> it in the first
> place. He discounted it $9 from...what, exactly?
> Needless to say, it
> would have been ridiculous had he *not* changed the
> shipping cost.
> What he did was not a shining example of charity,
> ingenuity, or
> intelligence. What he did was reasonable, nothing
> more - to say
> nothing of his plagiarism.
> Regards,
> Jason
>
> On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 10:01 AM,
> <Metorman46 at aol.com> wrote:
> > Hello Dave;
> >
> > Thanks for the positive,pleasant post about
> wayner44.He sure made your
> > day,i'll bet,and you sure made my day with such a
> positive post about someone who
> > did good and we never would have known about it if
> you hadn't taken the time
> > to inform us.My hat is off to you.
> >
> > Best Regards;Herman Archer IMCA 2770.
> >
> >
> >
> > **************Need a new ride? Check out the
> largest site for U.S. used car
> > listings at AOL Autos.
> >
>
(http://autos.aol.com/used?NCID=aolcmp00300000002851)
> > ______________________________________________
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> > Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> >
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> >
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Received on Fri 02 May 2008 02:37:48 AM PDT