The postage prices changed, again. They change quickly. I am left with lots of left overs. I needed to clean up my piles. So I went to the local post office.
I have many 41 and 42 cent stamps. I have many 27 cent post card stamps that I use for thank you cards to referrals. The new rates, as you know are 44 cents first class and 28 cents post card. Easy enough.
Or is it? This is my visit. As you read it, consider this post a metaphor:
Me -- (I have been in line for 22 minutes. It is finally my turn...) "Hi, I need some stamps please."
P.O. -- "Certainly! What do you need?"
Me -- "I need 139 one cent stamps, 78 two cent stamps and 43 three cent stamps."
P.O. -- "Just a minute, I will check." (She is gone for 7 minutes.) "I am sorry, sir, but we don't have any one cent stamps."
Me -- "The post card rate is going up one cent and you have no stamps?!"
P.O. "No sir. I couldn't find any. And we have no three cent stamps either."
Me -- "No three cent stamps either!?"
P.O. -- "Oh, and you are limited to only one small sheet of two cent stamps."
Me -- "How many is that?"
P.O. -- "Twenty. We have no rolls left."
Me -- "You are limiting the amount of stamps people can buy?! You have known for how long that this change was to happen, and you don't have any stamps! Why not? This is the post office. Where else am I going to go to get stamps?"
P.O. -- "I guess we didn't order enough."
Me -- "You change your prices more quickly than people can keep up with, and then when you make your change you haven't enough stamps to handle people's needs. This is the U.S. Postal Service. I think you need to call it the U.S. Postal. You have forgotten the service."
I got 20 stamps for my trouble! And don't get me started on the delivery to my house! We get other people's mail. They get ours. We are forever running letters to other people in the neighborhood and vice verse. And two-three-day Priority Mail is NOT two to three days! The last time I did that it took five. The price keeps going up and the service keeps going down.
Fedex, UPS, DHL, you name it are cheaper, quicker and provide much better service. Why is that? I order a book from Amazon, pay the cheapest postage rate (they don't use USPS) and get the book in two days. Why is that? My order never goes to the wrong house. Why is that?
Think carefully.
And the metaphor?
YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE. THE DIFFERENCE IS, THEY ARE GOING TO MAKE IT SO YOU CANNOT, CANNOT, CANNOT GO TO A PRIVATE PROVIDER FOR CHEAPER, QUICKER AND BETTER SERVICE.
And where will the rich British and Canadians go for their health care?
Jay, you were so funny when you talked about the postal service. It sounded as if you'd been to our local post office. We have little tiny towns all over the county with nice plush post offices and no line! In this town of 20000 plus we have one post office and the line is as you describe. Everyone dreads going.
Barbara - I think you are right. Where the most is needed, the least is provided!
Jay, thank goodness I recently bought a bunch of Forever Stamps. However, I've still got a pile of 37 cent stamps, and other assorted denominations sitting around. Oy gevalt!
Jay, the Brits and the Canadians are just going to have to go to the post office. They can't have my place in line at the emergency room.
Brian - I have some forever stamps, which I bought at 41 cents, but it doesn't seem worth it to use them yet!
Jack - You won't be allowed to go to the emergency room. You will have to go to, let's see, you live in Ohio, you will have to go to the Regional Health Care Decision Bureau, in Altoona PA, where they will decide if you have an injury or illness they will agree to treat. That line will soak up four days of your life. From there, if you have something they will deal with, you will be sent to an approved Regional Medical Treatment Facility, in Dearborn MI, where you will be in line for another six weeks. After the treatment, which will be minimal, you will be sent home and told to supplement your treatment with aspirin of your own purchase. So don't worry, the Brits and Canadians will not take your place in line. They will be in Mexico or the Cayman Islands being seen by American doctors who have "retired" and moved there.
Seriously, one of my wife's doctors (she is chronically ill), who is world class in laproscopic surgery, has already set up an office in the Cayman Islands and anticipates moving his whole office there if/when our wondrous, new, government-provided "medical care" hits the fan.
Who is John Galt? :)
Lanna - I have been getting closer and closer to becoming John Galt since I first read that book in high school!
Jay,
Here is the last forever stamp. Just copy and print a few pages. Guaranteed to work. It says .32, but the PO has guaranteed to honor this one.
Thanks Steve! I would feel absolutely Nutsy using that, and think I will. Let's see, copy image, save, up load, print. It's kind of big. Can I shrink it and still maintain the detail?
Jay,
You may shrink it. Then you are good to go, just get a glue stick
Thanks Steve! I don't want to infringe on your copyright!
We do monthly mailings to several different groups...and called it to the attention of the post office that we were shorted stamps on a couplle rolls...and what should we do...was there a form to complete...oh...she said...no one ever counts them...we just sell them.
S&D - "That's not my job..." I wonder how much we will be hearing that!!