I am tired of the USPS being used as an example of a poorly run government service! (wages, carry)
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Sure, people suck anywhere you go. The difference is that when a private business sucks too bad they go out of business, when a government run business sucks they just keep spending tax dollars. There is no incentive, there is no accountability. Private employers don't (well they do now, but they shouldn't) have anyone to bail them out like the government run entities do. The worst that can happen is that whoever approved the waste of money will get voted out of office. But that takes years and often never happens since those organizations are usually such a mess that no one even realizes how bad they are or how much money they are losing until someone does an investigation 10 years later.
Not really. Have you been to a Hertz counter lately?
What about Wal-Mart?
Fry's Electronics is notorious for having horrible employees.
And the biggest company in my industry has TONS of terrible workers, I know because I worked there and my girlfriend still works there. I know one guy who smokes joints in the bathroom before processing people's IRA deposits.
It doesn't matter if a company is public or private. Like with Universities, what matters is the personnel and the clients. The good public universities like Berkeley, Michigan or UVA are incredibly well run and they put out a superior product (students) than San Diego State or Chico State. If the right people are selected to run a government institution, it can run very well and can be more successful than a private institution.
Plus, when driven by profits, executives can make bad decisions that provide short-term profit at long-term costs. Like education and medicine (which I don't believe should be nationalized, but rather made into a not-for-profit industry like education), some things just shouldn't be done for profit.
I'd rather have a public break-even monopoly than a private for-profit monopoly. I can't think of any private for-profit monopolies that keep costs down.
Wow! Your fare card gets replenished every month! That must be some undertaking! No doubt they outsourced that to the private sector. In the meantime the Red Line crashed this summer and they still cannot get it back to even its usual ineffieciency. Escalators and air conditioners remain broken for months on end. Its a disaster. Yes their maintenance program stinks, but that part of the whole thing is kinda important.
Maintenance stinks right now. METRO as a system is an outstanding success. 700K subway and 400k bus trips per day. Imagine the city with METRO replaced by cars. It would be hell
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Originally Posted by Moth
Are you touting the same federal government that cannot control its own borders? The one that said WMDs was a "slam dunk"?
meaningless rant.
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Originally Posted by Moth
Please. I had the opportunity to visit the Census Burea once. Good grief! Miles of cubicles full of people doing NOTHING. One was selling candy out of her cubicle- undercut the machine price by a dime- maybe that is efficiency. Another was actually watching TV! Several were napping! All on the public payroll.
Like I said good agencies and bad agencies.
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Originally Posted by Moth
Been to the DC DMV? Don't you dare lie to me and tell me that place is efficient. Don't you dare.
You don't have to go to DMV. Everything one needs is on-line. How more user friendly can they get?
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Originally Posted by Moth
No, Reagan was spot on correct. He just could not do anything about it. Nobody really can. Sure, we need a modicum of goverment. Nobody really disagrees with you on that. But the fact that civil servants cannot be fired robs them of any incentive to put forward a proper effort.
Reagan was a high-functioning idiot who could read his lines.
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Originally Posted by Moth
As for cable tv companies and department stores, my tax money is not paying for their salaries and pensions. If they go bust, so be it.
Not really. Have you been to a Hertz counter lately?
What about Wal-Mart?
Fry's Electronics is notorious for having horrible employees.
But if you don't like these places you don't have to give them your money. Frys won't be around very long if there service isn't enough to satisfy most of its customers. Don't like it, don't pay for it. With the government, you have no say in the matter. You fund USPS regardless of your use of it.
I like USPS, but the thing that I dislike most about them is most of the clerks I have encountered locally are pricks. All angry retiree's or about to retire and they treat you like your a problem because your standing at thier counter.
UPS and FedEx are mostly in business to pickup and deliver packages not letters. If they were I am sure it would be more expensive due to the amount of the automated machines would cost.
The USPS also will deliver letters and packages to locations that UPS and FedEx will not deliver due to the cost etc...
I love the USPS and we all should because it is a good American company.
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Another was actually watching TV! Several were napping! All on the public payroll.
