[wplug] Taxes
Patrick Wagstrom
patrick at wagstrom.net
Thu May 1 16:14:03 EDT 2008
terry mcintyre wrote:
> I used to work for the USPS - well after the Nixon
> administration. My paychecks were direct from the US
> Treasury. How is that "privatised?"
The status of the postal service is often a little confusing. Many people
believe that they are a government owned corporation, such as Amtrak, but
they're not. In fact, in 2004 the Supreme Court held that it wasn't an
independent corporation and therefore couldn't be sued under the Sherman
Antitrust act, much to the chagrin of UPS and FedEx that were suing for
access to business delivery boxes.
However, it is an independent agency of the United States government which
basically has to balance it's own books and is given free ability to set
it's own rates.
With regards to price of stamps, lets look at it, today a stamp costs
$0.41. In 2000 it was $0.33, in 1990 it was $0.25, and in 1980 it was
$0.15[1].
Lets compare these increases:
Stamp %inc CPI[2] %inc
2008 $0.41 24% 213 26%
2000 $0.33 32% 168 32%
1990 $0.25 66% 127 62%
1980 $0.15 78
Notice a trend there? It exactly paces the CPI. You can argue that it
should be better because of improvements in IT, but the CPI also is a
weighted metric that doesn't exactly match the expenditures of the USPS
which is disproportionately affected by fuel costs.
Seriously folks, before bitching because you think XX is evil and you don't
like it, take some time to do a little bit of research.
--Patrick
[1] http://www.akdart.com/postrate.html
[2]
http://www.inflationdata.com/Inflation/Consumer_Price_Index/HistoricalCPI.aspx
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