Thursday, September 10, 2009

“Competing” with the Government?

Recently the Post Office has introduced a new offering for package delivery basically saying if it fits in the box, no matter how heavy the box is (up to 70 lbs), or where it is headed, you are charged one flat rate. On the surface this might be considered a clever marketing campaign to garner additional business. But if you are Fed Ex or UPS this is not just a marketing campaign, it is a call to compete.

The Post Office is a government entity and runs billions of dollars in the red every year. What that means is that if the same circumstance was happening at UPS or Fed Ex they would have been out of business a long time ago. But because the Post Office has an endless stream of our cash to lose (including the employees that work at these two companies), they are not competing on a level playing field. The amazing thing to me is how UPS and Fed Ex still kick the Post Office’s butt in the service area. The Post Office, even with this endless pit of our money, still can’t beat down these two extremely efficient private organizations. This new offering does not have to take into account the cost of providing the service. So even if it costs the Post Office $100 a package to deliver and they charge $70, oh well. They just keep running deficits. If you are UPS or Fed Ex running deficits, this means not being able to pay employees, fix trucks, fly planes, and deliver packages. Basically you end up going out of business.

That will not be the case in the government run healthcare arena. Here’s why; Fed Ex and UPS are allowed to compete with the Post Office except for delivering letters. By law, UPS or Fed Ex cannot deliver the mail and this is how the insurance will be. By statute the private insurers will be regulated so they will only be able to offer services their “competitor” the government allows it to insure. Think of it this way; if UPS could regulate what Fed Ex could deliver; they would decide that Fed Ex gets all of the large, bulky, heavy packages, and only going to the state of Iowa. The rest of the freight, light, square, and delivered in all of the remaining states is left to UPS, who will be in business and who will win the “competition?”

You see, there is no competing with the government. They are allowed by the endless infusion of our cash to operate inefficiently, corruptly, and politically. They will be regulating their “competitors”, the private insurers, right out of business. The politicians will never admit failure of a system, just look at Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the VA. So there is no competition, government will win no matter what. The rules of the market will not be applied therefore the market cannot work.

There is no competing in the healthcare arena which means if this bill passes the government will be running your healthcare. And in my opinion, I would rather get my healthcare from UPS or Fed Ex…

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's is a 70lb weight restriction. See the USPS web site.

Rich said...

The point is? The point is that cost be damned even if you are losing a billion dollars a year. If Fed Ex and UPS were losing the money the USPS is they would be out of business. The constitutional directive to deliver the mail is an issue to be looked at since the mode of communication has been greatly improved as well as the ability to move amongst the country. If UPS and Fed Ex were allowed to deliver letters the USPS would sieze to exist.

BTW: Thanks for reading the Blog. I do appreciate it!

Anonymous said...

Rich,
Please don't talk about how successful UPS is and how much money we make...we'll be Obama's next target. He'll want to hold us "Accountable" too by taking our money. :)
KH