Pony Express, Part II

OK. So my logic was a little fuzzy on that
last post. But remember, my world of knowldege
about the Post Office had come crashing down
all around me and nothing made sense, so why
should I?

Looking over the post, I realized that what
I was trying to say didn't come out the way
I wanted it to. Perhaps now I can do a little
better. Here's the problem paragraph.

"I'll bet when it was first proposed to
'the powers that be' in the Post Office
that the machine should be purchased, the
reason given was because it would save
$1000's of dollars in salaries, annually.
But now, I get to pay a machine via a
"NON-MACHINABLE PACKAGE" TAX (and it is
essentially a tax, a -value added type of
tax), for a machine to process this box
and make sure it gets to its destination
carrying a PRIORITY MAIL sticker and treated
like any other package! And when a package
doesnt' get to its destination in 2 days?"

What I wanted to get across is that basically
'the machine' is piggy-backing on top of and
in addition to the set postage fees originally
designed for and only included human handlers
of the mail.

This means that the Post Office is charging
the public for humans to process your mail
AND for machines to process it as well.
What isn't stated is that the humans are
now retained essentially to 'feed' the machines.
Now, if the machine will not accept the package,
due to the machines' design or whatever, then
a special fee is charged... because now a human
has to process the package, the very element
in this equation that the machine was supposed
to replace! Talk about double-dipping!

And this is the mind-blowing premis that
undergirds the entire postage system. This
particular situation shows that a complete
reversal of labor/rates has been accomplished
with the addition of just one small fee!

In 1965 the Optical scanner (ZIP Code reader)
was tested. In 1963, the postage rate was 5 cents.
In 1968, after the institution of an Optical
Scanner, the rates were increased to 6 cents.
Three years later they were increased to 8 cents.
Another three years saw an increase to 10 cents.
In September of 1975, the next year, saw another
increase by limiting a letter to 2 ounces and
an additional fee of .09 cents was charged for
each ounce over the initial two ounces.
By December of that same year, both the cost of
a stamp for those same two ounces was increased
to 13 cents and the 'over 2 ounces' fee was raised
to 11 cents.
From 1978 to the present, the postal rates have
increased from 13 cents to 37 cents. Twenty seven
years have seen an increase of 24 cents. Next
year, 2006, will see another increase of 2 cents,
putting the increases to almost 1 cent per year.

True, all of these increases seems like paltry
amounts when compared to increases for other goods
and services. Yet, it the fact that 5 cents of
that 39 cents is based strictly on human processing
of the mail, humans who could get a letter from
upstate Massachussetts to Chicago overnight
without the use of a sorting machines. And therein
lies the problem.
If machines are so wonderful at sorting
and processing mail and more and more machines are
needed to process the 'ever-increasing quantity'
of mail and fewer humans are needed, then
why doesn't the postage rate stabalize at some
point?

Machines don't have children, machines don't
have to deal with the increases in the cost of
living, machines don't have the expense of driving
to work every morning, machines don't buy groceries.

Machines may require a mechanic to oil and repair
them, but basic common sense tells us that one
mechanic can 'process' more than one machine!
Are we reversing the mechanization trend and
increasing the number of humans now needed
simply to serve (oops, make that 'service')
and maintain the machines? Is this a good
management? When do we have enough machines?

Hey, the Good Ol' Days are starting to make us
look like we've finally outsmarted ourselves.