jeffreyhy

Where are they housing it really? The Utah facility is not scheduled to go into operation until sometime this fall.

Just curious.

Regards, JEff

Pulaski

I think that Steve's point is that the delivery stage is by far the most labour intensive and time consuming step, but if the mailman was only stopping at, say, every 4th house, instead of, say, currently three out of every four houses, you could perhaps halve the number of mailmen and still run a daily delivery service. I.e. if you were only making a quarter of the stops you could cover twice the distance, perhaps?

However the truth is, no matter how long we, or anyone else, debates the logistics and economics, the junk mail companies fund a major lobbying effort in DC, so the chance for much change is slim.

RoadWarriorFromLP

Some years ago, 60 Minutes had a segment about the Echelon program, which for decades has monitored communications in and between the US, UK, Canada Australia and NZ.

One of the people profiled was a guy from Canadian intelligence. He would sit in an office in the United States and monitor phone calls, etc. in the US. You see, while there was a law preventing US intelligence from spying on Americans, there were no laws that prevented the Canadians from doing it or from sharing their information with the Americans.

One of the examples that he cited was some woman who complained on the phone that her kid had "bombed" in his performance in a school play. That utterance triggered a keyword identifier and placed that number on a watch list.

Incidentally, he claimed that he was trained by Americans. He was working with the US, in the US, but because he was getting his paycheck (or I guess that should be paycheque) from north of the 49th parallel, it was legal.

RoadWarriorFromLP

The point is that you guys don't know how to analyze the operations of the business.

The airline metaphor was a good one. There are a lot of fixed costs, and the goal is to make it generate as much revenue as possible, with the understanding that there aren't enough full-fare customers to keep the plane aloft.

But as I just explained, the bulk mailer spares them a lot of the work, while squeezing more money out of the route. The bulk mail is the coach class, advance purchase ticket of the mail system.

Pulaski

You're a patronizing twunt. You have no idea what I know!

It is very common, probably normal, for business sectors to have multiple possible profitable business models. GM and Ferrari both make cars, Cessna and Boeing both make aircraft, Kroger and Wholefoods both sell groceries, Ryan Air and Gulf Air both operate airlines, Sears and Nordstrom are both department stores, the list is potentially endless. You use a perfectly valid and defensible case for tweaking the current business model (I understand it, agree with the logic, know it fits basic economics and real-world management accounting principles, and despite your patronizing insults, I have absolutely no arguments with it), but your refusal to acknowledge that there are other potentially profitable alternative business models represents either narrow-mindedness, a lack of real-world business experience, or plain argumentativeness, ...... or a simple combination of all three.

GeoffM

PMSL.

+1. I'm wondering if he's HerrChina's long lost great grandson.

MMcD

Maryland isn't exactly idle
Nor Virginia
Start here/ Google away............ http://projects.washingtonpost.com/t...ntel-analysis/
(Remember - NSA has already revealed that 76% of their work is contracted out. And Booze Allen is hardly the sole outside contractor)

RoadWarriorFromLP

The media has picked up on this Utah meme, as if it matters.

Echelon and the programs that have followed it have been monitoring communications for decades. As communications go digital and computers get faster, they're just getting better at what they've been doing since for quite awhile.

RoadWarriorFromLP

I'm not sure why you're laughing, when your comment made it obvious that you don't understand it.

Junk produces a quarter of the revenue, yet it costs less to handle it than anything else in the system, since most of the handling costs are borne by the sender and are not incurred by the post office.

Anyone who can do arithmetic should be able to see how your supposed analysis makes no sense at all. If you understand how airlines work, then it should be quite easy to figure this out.

MMcD

OMG
This thread has become as contentious and mis-directed as our government.
What are we meant to be talking about here?

Why?

GeoffM

I was laughing because despite at least 3 people pointing out the flaws in your logic, you persist in arguing over other bits!

Pulaski

As usual, a "certain someone" has completely ignored my analysis, observations and suggestions!

Sally Redux

He's making sense to me. So it's 3 against 2.

RoadWarriorFromLP

Coming from the guy who gave tax advice that was quite wrong, I'll take that for what it's worth.

And being that I'm not the one who originally provided the airline analogy, I think that you'll find that makes three of us over here, too. Perhaps math(s) and you aren't on the best of terms.

Pulaski

What he says makes sense, the only contention I have is with his nonsensical assertion that the problem only has one solution.