Slashdot Mirror
Amazon Opposes Plan To End Saturday Mail Delivery
theodp writes "Online retailer giant Amazon.com has come out against a US Postal Service proposal to end Saturday service, part of efforts to address the USPS budget deficit. 'Amazon's customers have come to appreciate and expect Saturday delivery,' explained Amazon VP Paul Misener. 'If the five-day delivery proposal is not withdrawn,' he added, 'we ask that Congress ensure that Saturday delivery be maintained.' In the past, Amazon has argued that it should not have to help support public services in states in which it has no physical presence." The article adds, "Interestingly, online DVD service Netflix is backing the plan to end Saturday mail delivery, arguing that a 'well functioning' Postal Service is more important than 'maintaining current delivery frequency.'"
The United States Post Office is self-sufficient
Support a few technologists in Washington.
I think that's referring to Amazon defending its exemption from sales taxes (as cross-state sales typically are, at least in practice), the argument being that it's not bearing its share of e.g. road upkeep costs for the products its delivering.
Of course, I disagree with that argument, since taxes are normally completely decoupled from provision of the government service they fund, but I'm just trying to clarify what (I think) it's referring to.
Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.
Not Canada Post, not FedEx, not UPS, not DHL, not Purolator. Nobody delivers on saturday except pizzerias.
The US Constitution, motherfucker! have you read it?
"Section 8 - Powers of Congress
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and Post Roads
; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."
Eliminating the national post office would require a Constitutional amendment. Delivering the mail is in the U.S. Constitution.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
It would be a great first step if they simply removed the federal monopoly on first class mail. That certainly wouldn't require changing the Constitution.
That's 17% fewer movies sent and received by Netflix every week. I would expect them to also want more public holidays in a year as well
They don't need to. From their current Terms and Conditions:
We reserve the right to process orders and otherwise allocate and ship DVDs among our members in any manner that we, in our sole and absolute discretion, determine. In addition, we will, in our sole and absolute discretion, determine the quantity of DVDs we purchase for any particular movie, their location within our distribution network and the level of staffing and number of shipments to be processed at each distribution center.
Every new Terms and Conditions, they're putting things in their agreement that allows them not to give you "unlimited" whatever ....
There's verbiage in it that limits your "unlimited" online viewing too now.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
Q. Amazon, can you pay some taxes here? A. No way, we don't want to operate this way. Q. Amazon, what should be we do about the spending problem and the deficit? A. Cut your services. Q. Amazon, we are going to cut the services, happy? A. NOOOOOO!
The USPS is funded solely by the sale of postage, not tax dollars and thus has NO impact on the deficit. .
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law - Aleister Crowley
Many USicans only have Saturdays free to run errands. Ending services on Saturday is a burden to them.
How does a lack of Saturday delivery interfere with running errands? I find your comment confusing.
For comparison, I offer the Canadian system. While delivery only occurs on Monday through Friday, postal services are often available on an extended schedule. Canada Post maintains a network of service counters (often in drug, convenience, and grocery stores) which provide parcel services, sell money orders, and supply copies of frequently-used government documents (passport applications, tax forms). These local outlets also act as pickup points for parcels which are too large for home delivery (the stuff that didn't fit in your mailbox while you were out).
Many of these counters have extended weeknight hours (beyond typical nine-to-five business hours) and offer Saturday hours; some are even open on Sunday afternoons. (The retailers hosting the counters have probably realized that extended postal hours can attract customers.) In other words, Canadian Saturday-errand-runners have no trouble obtaining postal services, even in the absence of Saturday delivery.
Letters and smaller parcels can, of course, be sent at any time simply by dropping in a post box.
~Idarubicin
Sure they don't drop it off at your house, and most post office customer areas are not open sundays (they probably can't stop saturday customer house for people who work), but mail that is in the system is constantly moving. If it was going to arrive on monday, it will still arive on monday (with saturday's mail).
I wouldn't be surprised if they still send the trucks around for a daily pickup on the blue boxes on saturdays since this requires significantly less labor than actually delivering mail to every single house in the country.
Bottles.
Actually people have done some studies and found that netflix starts to fuck with your DVDs if you order too many. They got sued over this a few years back in which they admitted that they were doing this, settled with lawyers (netflix customers got less than one week free subscription as payback), and changed their TOS to say something like "netflix send you DVDs when we want to, the X many out at a time plan is not actually legally binding."
They do things like mess with your queue. A movie that is ready to ship will appear as "long wait". Your DVDs will be shipped from a shipping center across the country so that it takes 2-3 days to get to you and back, etc.
Ending Saturday delivery will only help netflix screw its customers out of more money. One more reason I don't have a netflix subscription.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
You do know the USPS is given a monopoly on first class mail deliver to ensure rural service is as good as urban service, correct? Otherwise, you'd end up with what we have for broadband: Some options in urban/suburban areas, no options in rural areas due to the unprovability of servicing said areas.