Three cheers for Jim Hightower! This article should be sent far and
wide...every six months, until people get off this corporate
propoganda kick that claims this great service is a loser. But then,
aren't they the same caring folk who want to privatize your social
security and your medicare and any pensions you might be lucky enough
to have?
Carl Jarvis
On 9/15/16, Jim Hightower wrote:
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > The Post Office Costs Taxpayers Nothing, and Gives Us So Much in
> Return
> ________________________________________
> The Post Office Costs Taxpayers Nothing, and Gives Us So Much in Return
> By Jim Hightower [1] / AlterNet [2]
> September 14, 2016
> Although most of us take it for granted, America's postal service is an
> amazing bargain. For only 47 cents, you can purchase a Forever postage
> stamp.
> Buy one 47-cent stamp, and postal workers will deliver your envelope to any
> address in the country by plane, train, bus, boat, truck, car, bike,
> pushcart, mule, on foot or all of the above. Stick it on a letter, document
> or other missive, and our phenomenal network of postal workers and letter
> carriers will deliver it within a few days right to the specific mailbox of
> your addressee in any of the approximately 43,000 zip codes covering every
> nook and cranny of this vast country. For 47 cents! Also, that Forever
> stamp
> from our public postal service means it's good for first-class delivery
> next
> year, next decade or forever, protecting you from future increases in stamp
> prices.
> What a deal!
> But to really get your money's worth, mail something to someone in this zip
> code: 48222.
> That's the only floating zip code in the U.S. It's a 45-foot mail boat that
> has been a registered U.S. Post Office since 1948. Named the J.W. Westcott
> II, this postal boat is the mail box for crew members working aboard the
> giant freighters hauling grain, iron ore and other commodities across the
> five great lakes. Except for loading at one port, then unloading hundreds
> of
> miles away, these long-haul merchant ships never stop, with crews stuck on
> board for weeks.
> So the Westcott, based near Detroit, chugs out to deliver letters and
> packages as each of the freighters passes by. The skilled pilots of the
> mail
> boat maneuver it right up against a steep steel side of the moving freight
> vessels, keeping perfect pace with the big ships' speed.
> Then, in a very low-tech (but highly efficient) delivery technique, someone
> on the freighter lowers a bucket tied to a rope down to the Westcott. The
> mail boat pilot puts a bag of letters and packages addressed to people on
> that ship into the bucket, which is pulled back up, and then the little
> boat
> peels away from the freighter. Now that's service!
> The official motto of the 48222 zip code is "mail by the pail." It's all
> part of our public Post Office's amazing commitment to deliver service to
> all, not just the rich and the easy-to-reach.
> But look out, for a dealbreaker looms over your post office. A cabal of
> corporate predators and Koch-headed ideologues have been scheming for years
> to take "public" out of this public agency and strip "service" out of the
> U.S. Postal Service. The most effective ploy of these price-gouging
> privatizers has been a diabolical Big Lie-a massive PR hoax to depict this
> essential public service as a hopeless money loser, sucking billions from
> taxpayers every year.
> Unfortunately, our lazy media establishment keeps spreading their lie.
> Here's an August New York Times article falsely asserting that "the Postal
> Service has sunk deeper underwater-net losses for the second quarter of
> 2016
> were $2 billion."
> Bovine excrement! In fact, our Post Offices earned $1.3 billion in profit
> so
> far this year, making this year the fourth straight that it has operated in
> the black. The discrepancy stems from phony paper losses manufactured by
> corporate lobbyists and right-wing lawmakers who've insisted since 2006
> that
> the Postal Service must prefund retiree health benefits for 75 years in the
> future. No other agency and no corporation operates under this absurd and
> totally unnecessary burden, which adds billions of dollars in fictional
> costs to the agency's balance sheet.
> Here's another reality the sloppy corporate media ignores: Our postal
> network costs taxpayers zero, for we consumers finance its operations by
> purchasing those stamps and other services. It's time to put a Forever
> stamp
> on this public jewel.
> Jim Hightower [3] is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker
> and author of the book Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go
> With the Flow [4] (Wiley, March 2008). He publishes the monthly Hightower
> Lowdown [5], co-edited by Phillip Frazer.
> Share on Facebook Share
> Share on Twitter Tweet
>
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [6]
> [7]
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> ________________________________________
> Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/economy/what-costs-47-cents
> Links:
> [1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/jim-hightower
> [2] http://alternet.org
> [3] http://www.jimhightower.com/
> [4] http://jimhightower.com/store/swim_against_the_current
> [5] http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/
> [6] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on The Post Office Costs
> Taxpayers Nothing, and Gives Us So Much in Return
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/
> [8] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > The Post Office Costs Taxpayers Nothing, and Gives Us So Much in
> Return
>
> The Post Office Costs Taxpayers Nothing, and Gives Us So Much in Return
> By Jim Hightower [1] / AlterNet [2]
> September 14, 2016
> AddThis Sharing Buttons
> Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Google+Share to More3Share to
> Email
> Although most of us take it for granted, America's postal service is an
> amazing bargain. For only 47 cents, you can purchase a Forever postage
> stamp.
> Buy one 47-cent stamp, and postal workers will deliver your envelope to any
> address in the country by plane, train, bus, boat, truck, car, bike,
> pushcart, mule, on foot or all of the above. Stick it on a letter, document
> or other missive, and our phenomenal network of postal workers and letter
> carriers will deliver it within a few days right to the specific mailbox of
> your addressee in any of the approximately 43,000 zip codes covering every
> nook and cranny of this vast country. For 47 cents! Also, that Forever
> stamp
> from our public postal service means it's good for first-class delivery
> next
> year, next decade or forever, protecting you from future increases in stamp
> prices.
> What a deal!
> But to really get your money's worth, mail something to someone in this zip
> code: 48222.
> That's the only floating zip code in the U.S. It's a 45-foot mail boat that
> has been a registered U.S. Post Office since 1948. Named the J.W. Westcott
> II, this postal boat is the mail box for crew members working aboard the
> giant freighters hauling grain, iron ore and other commodities across the
> five great lakes. Except for loading at one port, then unloading hundreds
> of
> miles away, these long-haul merchant ships never stop, with crews stuck on
> board for weeks.
> So the Westcott, based near Detroit, chugs out to deliver letters and
> packages as each of the freighters passes by. The skilled pilots of the
> mail
> boat maneuver it right up against a steep steel side of the moving freight
> vessels, keeping perfect pace with the big ships' speed.
> Then, in a very low-tech (but highly efficient) delivery technique, someone
> on the freighter lowers a bucket tied to a rope down to the Westcott. The
> mail boat pilot puts a bag of letters and packages addressed to people on
> that ship into the bucket, which is pulled back up, and then the little
> boat
> peels away from the freighter. Now that's service!
> The official motto of the 48222 zip code is "mail by the pail." It's all
> part of our public Post Office's amazing commitment to deliver service to
> all, not just the rich and the easy-to-reach.
> But look out, for a dealbreaker looms over your post office. A cabal of
> corporate predators and Koch-headed ideologues have been scheming for years
> to take "public" out of this public agency and strip "service" out of the
> U.S. Postal Service. The most effective ploy of these price-gouging
> privatizers has been a diabolical Big Lie-a massive PR hoax to depict this
> essential public service as a hopeless money loser, sucking billions from
> taxpayers every year.
> Unfortunately, our lazy media establishment keeps spreading their lie.
> Here's an August New York Times article falsely asserting that "the Postal
> Service has sunk deeper underwater-net losses for the second quarter of
> 2016
> were $2 billion."
> Bovine excrement! In fact, our Post Offices earned $1.3 billion in profit
> so
> far this year, making this year the fourth straight that it has operated in
> the black. The discrepancy stems from phony paper losses manufactured by
> corporate lobbyists and right-wing lawmakers who've insisted since 2006
> that
> the Postal Service must prefund retiree health benefits for 75 years in the
> future. No other agency and no corporation operates under this absurd and
> totally unnecessary burden, which adds billions of dollars in fictional
> costs to the agency's balance sheet.
> Here's another reality the sloppy corporate media ignores: Our postal
> network costs taxpayers zero, for we consumers finance its operations by
> purchasing those stamps and other services. It's time to put a Forever
> stamp
> on this public jewel.
> Jim Hightower [3] is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker
> and author of the book Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go
> With the Flow [4] (Wiley, March 2008). He publishes the monthly Hightower
> Lowdown [5], co-edited by Phillip Frazer.
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [6]
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[7]
>
> Stay Ahead of the Rest
> Sign Up for AlterNet's Daily Newsletter
> EMAIL:
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>
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>
>
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>
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>
> Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/economy/what-costs-47-cents
> Links:
> [1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/jim-hightower
> [2] http://alternet.org
> [3] http://www.jimhightower.com/
> [4] http://jimhightower.com/store/swim_against_the_current
> [5] http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/
> [6] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on The Post Office Costs
> Taxpayers Nothing, and Gives Us So Much in Return
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/
> [8] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
>
>
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