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E-Commerce's Biggest Obstacle May Be Slow Postal Services (thestreet.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader rudy_wayne writes:
J.C. Penney CEO Marvin Ellison recently said that e-commerce companies' biggest challenge is that they are all expanding their businesses and pushing for faster delivery, but UPS, Fedex and especially the United States Postal Service aren't able to keep up, at least not at same cost that exists today, because they're not increasing their delivery capacity at the same rate e-commerce is growing, He said this will cause a supply and demand issue "that's going to be apparent here pretty soon."
I would like this rule extended to the entire government, as we are sitting on a liability time bomb
I would like this rule extended to private corporations.
I would like this rule extended to the entire government, as we are sitting on a liability time bomb
I would like this rule extended to private corporations.
I agree completely. Unfunded pensions are a ponzi scheme that should have never been allowed. Whether it is Social Security, police officers, a car manufacturer, etc... promising to pay retirement out of future revenue is a disaster waiting to happen. Places like Detroit show what happens when your population shrinks and you no longer have the tax base to support your future obligations. Same with private corporations. They can go out of business, downsize, etc... and if their profit or workforce shrinks, there is no way they can fund those future obligations. At the very least, future obligations need to be on the book as debt owed so that if they go bankrupt, the retirees have equal footing to other creditors. I live in Missouri, and our public school teachers have a fully funded pension. My grandma actually gets raises when they have too much money in their pension fund. If school teachers can do it then other government and private businesses should be able to do it too.
> Unfunded pensions are a ponzi scheme that should have never been allowed. :)
I think there's a middle ground between fully funded and unfunded. Or maybe companies should be forced to buy "pension insurance."
Or maybe it's just something we should have the government do (ie, Social Security).
Social Security is no better. It's also unfunded. It pays out benefits using current revenue. I see no benefits of an unfunded pension. What are the benefits of an unfunded pensions? It's an unlisted IOU (aka liability) for whoever is promising it. It's a way to promise to pay someone more without actually paying them. A fulled funded pension also has the advantage that a person would have the option of taking the extra cash instead of the pension. The only advantage an unfunded pension has is the hope that future revenue is greater than current revenue. This is a horrible assumption that likely only holds true 50% of the time at best.
Right. Who first was semi-privatized (and Founding Father Ben Franklin, first Postmaster, is spinning in his grave), and then the GOP doesn't want to fund it well enough that they've been cutting back hours and delivery. Same as Amtrak.
The GOP: Government doesn't work... because we make *SURE* it doesn't.