Jedmonds24 Jedmonds24

Dead horse buffet

Dead horse buffet

Anyone been keeping up with the news about the $700,000,000,000 buyout plan?

First I want to say, OMG.

Next, if we actualy go through with it then I want to see the CEOs of the companies outside mowing my lawn. As a citizen I sure the hell don't expect for us to hand over $700 BILLION without them having the feeling of being seriously in debt to the people.

496,871 views 164 replies
Reply #101 Top

What humor?
End of quote

Okay, I don't care so much about the sky and the angels, but the last part is 100% TRUE!!!!!
End of quote

I did laught a little at that one. 

Reply #102 Top

Quoting psychoak, reply 22
One word, ACORN.
End of psychoak's quote

Ah, the great and extraordinary problem of voter fraud!

Let's see what the DOJ has to say about this epidemic!

Most recent press release is from March, talking about public corruption across the united states, and helpfully provides that from 2001 to 2006 we have initiated an average of 1,149 corruption cases/year (979 convictions) among the various districts, with another 61/yr (55 convictionsat the office of Public Integrity.

In contrast, from 2002 to 2006, the DOJ initiated 148 voter fraud cases, with 102 convictions - not per year, but total. That is to say, over a five year period, the total cases brought (Nevermind convictions) was less than the margin between Al Gore and George Bush in Florida, and with a worse conviction rate than any other corruption problem.

Now, that's not to say that Acorn shouldn't be held accountable when they were lax and didn't follow the rules for signing up voters - but they are being held accountable for that.

So lets not exagerate the scope of this 'epidemic'.

Jonnan

 

Reply #103 Top

According to ABC News, the day after we all bailed out AIG, its board all went on a $500,000 trip to a resort and played golf.

I suppose I don't need to say who paid the bill.

Reply #104 Top

Curseman, eat bananas, you need more humor.  You also suck at picking quotes, because I have way more offensive ones than that, not to mention serious ones.

 

The fractional reserve banking system needs to be done away with or at least highly restricted and national governments need to stop using privately owned for profit central banks! Hell the whole system needs to be dumped. There is no reason for a sovereign government to have to pay interest on the money it creates and spends.
End of quote

 

This falls into the magical fairy land category. 

First point, and this is categorically true and irrefutable without outright lying, private, for profit industry, without fail, does a better job in the long run at any and all tasks.

Second point, the fractional reserve banking system is the only way to maintain fluidity in the markets that we know of.  The flow of money is not constant, even with food down to the small portion that it is, staggered planting seasons with multiple shifts due to modern fertilization, a vastly more diversified economy, you will still have regular needs for expansion and contraction.

 

Yeah, it allows this sort of thing to happen, but your choice isn't between crash or no crash.  Your choice is between a stable economy between crashes, or one long string of problems the entire time.  What needs to be done is to minimize the ability to create bad debt, to propogate investments in something that doesn't exist.  This is what Jonnan fails to realize, it's not the ability to invest to the degrees that they have, it's what they've been investing in.

 

How's this "conservative?" Seems like straight-up anarchist talk to me. I used to say pretty similar things, and I still have a strong basic distaste for state power that's probably the main reason I'm trying to understand your take better than I think I do.
End of quote

 

Look at the qualities of leadership over the last couple thousand years in monarchies in Europe, the dictators in Africa and South America, and then compare those leaders to our own presidents.  There have been some seriously badass presidential picks amongst the dregs of idiots and tyrants.

 

Democracy is not the perfect system, it's a system based on self determination.  We pick the fuckheads in power, instead of a military wing or genetics.  Many of them have still been fuckheads.  This fits my being conservative because as a conservative, I want the government to have as little influence in my life as possible without devolving to anarchy.  The more power government has, the more damage it can do when a fuckhead is in charge, as they are much of the time.  The last two presidents have both done considerable damage to us with government power.  Liberals like their regulations and government power because they guard against bad behavior and poor choices, but the people writing those regulations are just as imperfect as the idiots they're designed to protect.  The health care industry is a prime example of why regulations should exist in minimal levels, the absurd costs of insurance and care both can be chalked up to regulations for a significant percentage.

 

The basic point of my conversion was when I accepted both a notion that on the whole, over time, most people tend to be decent to one another *and* that we're still primitive enough that some groups will organize to use violence against others. Because I believe large human populations tend to produce gangs, mafias, and armed corporations, I want to have the biggest, baddest gangs (militaries and police departments) all beholden to democratic governments.
End of quote

 

Your premise is true.  Anarchists have this retarded idea that, somehow, the fuckhead in power is only a fuckhead because he has power, and life would be better if there were no structure.  It's not a power structure that makes people do stupid shit, people do stupid shit because people are stupid shits.  Arguing over the internet for instance, consumately qualifies every last one of us as a stupid shit.

 

Jonnan, I said ACORN, not voter fraud.  You do know ACORN isn't specifically for voter registration right?

 

Fannie and Freddie are the buyers that make it possible for companies to give bad mortgages without going under, ACORN is the group that blackmails mainstream banks into joining the practice and accounts for a significant percentage of the subprime block.  When banks aren't meeting their quotas, which means doing the opposite of what they did before the GSE's, underlending to poor areas through discrimination, ACORN sues them, pickets their businesses, and makes it less expensive to make those bad loans than it is to fight them over the issue.  Funding compliments of Clinton.

Reply #105 Top

Ok, I'm not really knowledgeable about economics or financial stuff, so let me ask kind of an innocent question, might even sound naive. Please though, before you completely shoot down my idea, give it some thought.

Why is our economy not based on our collective ability to produce? Instead, our economy is based on an abstract concept called money. If you have a stack of lumber, hammer and nails, you can build a house. If all you have is a stack of $20's you're gonna freeze your ass off.

Let me make an analogy. If you're driving down a narrow road with a couple friends, and come to a huge rock in the road, you and your friends would get out of the car, push from one side of the rock and move it off the road.

Instead, the way our economy works, because of the intense competitive need to have `money', is that we, collectivley as workers, get up everyday, and, as a society, we are all standing and pushing from opposite sides of the rock.

If we're all under the same flag, why aren't we working together to make sure everyone has everything they need, just like you and your friends helping each other to move the rock off the road?

I know we need a means of universal trade, but the whole rat race concept of charging more and more money for stuff that is basically a necessity just gets ridiculous.

As a previous poster pointed out, there is actually too much housing. Too many contractors. And there's people living in the street and in shelters. What sense can this possibly make?

How can we expect hundreds of millions of people to work 40-60+ hours a week producing stuff and providing services, when we have automation and technology coming out of our ears? What are we going to do 100 years from now when robotics becomes even more common place?

So these are my thoughts, please give them some thought, maybe expand on them. It seems to me we as a society need to seriously reassess our approach to the everday workaday concept, so we can move into the automation and technology age without having to end up killing each other in a massive sea of anarchy ala Thunderdome and Mad Max,.

Reply #106 Top

Why is our economy not based on our collective ability to produce? Instead, our economy is based on an abstract concept called money. If you have a stack of lumber, hammer and nails, you can build a house. If all you have is a stack of $20's you're gonna freeze your ass off.
End of quote

 

What you're really asking is why do us crazy people live in a capitalist society instead of a communist utopia.

 

I'm pretty sure if I were living in a communist utopia, I'd give one great big fuck you to everyone else and not do anything.  Which is what most of the homeless people have done even without the lack of incentive to work and aquire things.  The basic premise in behavior modification is that you reward good behavior and punish bad behavior to increase and decrease them respectively.  This works in almost all humans and animals.

 

The question you have to ask yourself is, are you perfect?  Will you work if you don't have to, or will your behavior need modification?  After you've figured that out, start thinking about what everyone you know will do.

Reply #107 Top

psychoak,

Thanks for your response.

The politicians that are running the show sit around in meetings blowing hot air, making a bunch of extraneous laws so they can substantiate their full time political job that started out as a part time job years ago and that's what it should still be, because unless you're constantly making new laws, there is nothing else to do. Most of those guys already had high paying jobs, now they're just making their money a whole lot easier. That's why they want to get re-elected.

Then you have the people running the stock market, making hundreds of millions for themselves, while playing with other people's money, including 401k retirement funds.

Then you have actual hard working people that are busting their asses at a real job, like EMT - emergency medical technicians - saving lives everyday, they make a whopping 40k a year `reward' money approx. Then you have guys like the coal miners, what do they get `rewarded', about $13.00/hr?

So my point is, the `reward' system is upside down and completely broken. 

As long as there is plenty enough to go around, we might as well make sure everyone is taken care of at a decent level. Then let the super achievers have their Porsche in the driveway.

You're asking me if I'm perfect. Of course not. Would I work if I had 10 miliion dollars? Yes, of course, and so would most other people that I've asked the same question.  

You are basing a lot of your thoughts on how afraid you are that everyone would just sit back and do nothing.

This doesn't need to be some ultimate `Utopia', in order for these things to happen. Most people naturally want to work and feel useful.

Reply #108 Top

It's not a power structure that makes people do stupid shit, people do stupid shit because people are stupid shits. Arguing over the internet for instance, consumately qualifies every last one of us as a stupid shit.
End of quote

I guess I need to apologize for thinking a bit better of you than you do of yourself :-|

Most people naturally want to work and feel useful.
End of quote

One of the several important basic things I learned in the middle of my formal studies was that if you want to have a personal political philosophy, you have to start with your idea of the basic human condition. My view today is much closer to StarMan99's than it is to psychoak's, although I surely have to spend much time raving at the newspapers and C-SPAN.

I say "much closer to" even though I'd prefer to say "the same" because every passing season shows me still more variety in the wonders and horrors our species can create--good samaritans really do exist, and so do people who throw babies against walls. But the main reason I've moved much farther from seeing people mostly as psychoak seems to is that I have enough misery from what I know of "exceptional" people. Coming to believe that *everyone* is total shit seems like a good reason to steal a semi of MREs and go live in a cave with a nearby water supply. At least that would keep one off the danged inner-net.

p.s. psychoak, you take your broad brush too harshly to the homeless, which I suppose is consistent with your larger philosophy. Yes, there are plenty of them who are drunks and/or junkies who just don't want to do anything other than scam and scrounge to get high. There are also *large* numbers of complexly-damaged veterans, plenty of mentally ill folks who were kicked out of public mental institutions by "conservative" politicians, and some plain honest folks who are in a really bad situation.

Reply #109 Top

Quoting StarMan99, reply 7
Would I work if I had 10 miliion dollars? Yes, of course, and so would most other people that I've asked the same question.
End of StarMan99's quote

The trouble is that even among those that would continue to work, many wouldn't work with the same dedication, and there are a lot of jobs that wouldn't get done.  You mentioned miners being paid less than stock traders and executives.  The reason executives get paid so much is because their job is one that anyone would want, but that not many are qualified for.  How many people would work as miners if they didn't need the money?  How many would work at a farm all day?  The pay is the main reason people stay with these low paying and difficult but necessary jobs.  If all of us were wealthy, the workers for these jobs wouldn't meet the demand, because even if we all worked, we'd generally find something easier and more pleasant than those things.

Reply #110 Top

Bottom line: No good paying jobs, no money for homes, cars and extras. Just the essentials, food and clothing. All big businesses will collapse without customers. Businesses are no longer willing to pay their employees decent wages (all the money is going to the top execs.). Every employee is just not a worker, BUT also a consumer/customer!!!

Reply #111 Top

My formal education in politics began and ended with my freshman year of undergraduate university study.  Admittedly, I have neither the time nor resources to diversify my qualifications so far as to include economics or government.  While I am not personally effected by financial crises, recessions, depressions, or otherwise, I would like to point out that the mortgage foreclosure rate does not appear likely to go over 5-6%.  At the point of default, the home in question is repossessed by whatever entity is loaning the mortgage.  My natural distrust of all things bureaucratic does not nurture a paranoia great enough to believe that the US government can somehow misplace the bulk of $700 billion dollars plus interest and the material assets acquired through any buyout plan.

 

As for the tangent discussion…

Will you work if you don't have to, or will your behavior need modification?
End of quote

No one in my field of expertise does it for the money.  Note: I can use the absolute, because I’ve personally met everyone in my field of expertise.

 

-Dr. B

 

Reply #112 Top

p.s. psychoak, you take your broad brush too harshly to the homeless, which I suppose is consistent with your larger philosophy. Yes, there are plenty of them who are drunks and/or junkies who just don't want to do anything other than scam and scrounge to get high. There are also *large* numbers of complexly-damaged veterans, plenty of mentally ill folks who were kicked out of public mental institutions by "conservative" politicians, and some plain honest folks who are in a really bad situation.
End of quote

 

Bullshit, I've studied the statistics and socialized with the bums myself.  If you want to drink yourself into a stupor every day, your being a veteran is irrelevant.  You're still choosing to drink yourself into a stupor every day.  That you may have more cause to do so than the other 67% of the single male idiots drinking themselves into a stupor every day doesn't change that you choose to do it.  Only 30% of the homeless veterans have ever been stationed in a war zone, and homeless veterans only account for 23% of the homeless to start with.

 

There is ample care available to them, they flat don't bother to take it.  Now the mental ones you almost have a point.  The problem is your warped history.  Conservative politicians my ass, try liberals.  :)

Reply #113 Top

Pardon me but more I read you psychoak and more well how I say wish you to meet the situation of those who you describe as lazy ppl. Not everything is in our control and one day something may go wrong and things may developpe pretty quick without you even noticeing it. That day you would be glad to have someone to offer you a hand of help but in your world that help will never come. In your perfect world where every one is happy and where the failure is impossible and where everything depends on your own will the help isn't needed. 

As far as veterans are concerned well know that they fought for your sorry ass so at least you can respect that and stopp by them just to ask them what is wrong or have a chat with them instead assuming that they are all fools because all they do they drik, and you never asked them why they drink. 

 

P.S.

For statistics my professor used to say us : "Statistics are the best tool of propaganda. You can make them say what ever you want and it will always sound in your favor"

 

Reply #114 Top

While you're excusing their bad behavior, they're still flushing their lives down the toilet in spite of the helping hands already existing in ample supply.  Blind compassion hurts the targets more often than not.

Reply #115 Top

This falls into the magical fairy land category.

First point, and this is categorically true and irrefutable without outright lying, private, for profit industry, without fail, does a better job in the long run at any and all tasks.
End of quote

In the range of categorical statements are refuted by one counter-example, I have here in front of me a wonderful gif, How Our Mail Gets to Us saved from that paragon of communist thinking, Fortune magazine (Despite some searching, I'm not finding the original article) with the budgets, parcels, et al delivered by the top four shipping companies.

I'm sure you will come up with some way of ignoring the objective facts in favor of idealogy, nonetheless on a head to head comparison - Fedex, UPS, and DHL together don't have the efficiency and bang for your buck of the horridly inefficient government run service service.

Although it probably is an unfair comparison - as everyone knows the USPS actually uses magical fairies to deliver and sort packages. Also Orks, Oni, Djinn, Ifrit . . . you know, I'm almost sure this is the plot of an unpublished Tom Holt novel . . .

Jonnan

 

 

Reply #116 Top

Quoting Orao78, reply 13
Pardon me but more I read you psychoak and more well how I say wish you to meet the situation of those who you describe as lazy ppl. Not everything is in our control and one day something may go wrong and things may developpe pretty quick without you even noticeing it. That day you would be glad to have someone to offer you a hand of help but in your world that help will never come. In your perfect world where every one is happy and where the failure is impossible and where everything depends on your own will the help isn't needed. 

As far as veterans are concerned well know that they fought for your sorry ass so at least you can respect that and stopp by them just to ask them what is wrong or have a chat with them instead assuming that they are all fools because all they do they drik, and you never asked them why they drink. 

 

P.S.

For statistics my professor used to say us : "Statistics are the best tool of propaganda. You can make them say what ever you want and it will always sound in your favor"

 
End of Orao78's quote

Yeah - he's that 'special' kind of conservative - "if they're in that position, they must have done something to deserve it". Same kind of conservative that believes in market solutions when people try to deregulate, but when it's his company it's suddenly everyone elses fault.

I'm for a modicum of socialism - for everyone to benefit from. So many don't believe in an socialism at all, until *they* are hurting.

Jonnan

Reply #117 Top

The bailout plan is bad, but for many reasons not understood by the majority of people.  Not only is it morally wrong to give tax payers' money to companies to bail them out, not only is this the biggest intervention in the economy since the great depression, not only is it unconstitutional but --

 

This fails to address the problem that caused this in the first place.  The problem is NOT the free market gone amuck.  Many democrats and some republicans will try to tell you this.  Neither John McCain or Barack Obama have the first clue about the economy, how it works, and what caused this. 

The real problem is the government's current meddling in the economy.  Unfortunately this century has seen our once great country sullied by the economic policy of one John Maynard Keynes, whose ideas have formed the basis for European mixed economies (socialism).  Namely, the Federal Reserve Bank whose board members are private bankers, has the power to increase or decrease the money supply through a few quite powerful tools.  They can essentially print as much money as they want, greatly inflating the money supply and sending prices through the roof.  This not only destroys the dollar, and taxes the people since the new money they print is offered to banks in exchange for bonds (i.e. the bankers get free money at the expense of the value of dollars EARNED by every humble Tom Dick and Harry).  This really is a tax, and it's an outrage that the value of our earnings in controlled by people we don't even elect.  Taxation without representation.  The constitution doesn't give congress the authority to devalue the dollar and send inflation through the roof, and give another entity free reign to do it.  It's CONGRESS job to coin money and regulate the value thereof (by issuing 1 dollar notes vs 5 dollar notes).

The point is that this meddling, this manipulation by the Federal reserve... by decreasing the interest rate at which banks can borrow from the Fed far below their equilibrium level (since the Fed can just keep printing money and loaning as much money as it wants) they give banks very easy access to credit.  This essentially lets the banks loan out OVER 100 percent of their real assets.  In addition, since the banks have such cheap access to credit, they are less particular about who they are lending to.  The investor, correspondingly, gets money for much cheaper than he should given that in a market that actually reflects on the economic climate of the time money would be more or less scarce based on how much money banks actually had to loan to one another.  That is, the interest rate goes up as more loans are made and less money is left to loan.

The net result is that both banks and investors take more risks with their loaning and investments, respectively.  Risks that they would usually only make if times were good, since by pushing the interest rate so far south the Fed has made bad investments attractive.  They thus create bubbles.  Like the housing and financial bubble.  Combined with the bad loans made by Freddie and Fannie, and you get quite a bubble. 

Translation:  this is all false wealth.  Of course it will fall.  It doesn't really exist.  Houses, for example, are far overvalued.  By continuing to try to prop up the bubble they've created (with the bailout and even more printed money) the government just makes assets even more overvalued and continues to propagate bad loans.

I mean, people took out loans using imaginary, temporary increased perceived market value on their homes as collateral.  That means they owed more than they bought their house for.  When these unnaturally high house prices fell, their houses were worth far less than their loans and the only smart thing to do is default. 

The translation is that this is all the government and their monetary policy's fault.  And by continuing to attempt to prop up false wealth they make the eventual inevitable market correction even more extreme since assets are even more overvalued.

The solution is to let the market readjust and abolish the Federal Reserve since putting our monetary system under the control of the very bankers that can profit most from this control, and then trusting them, not auditing them, and not even electing them is disastrous, immoral, and unconstitutional.  And it prevents market participants from correctly judging the true market conditions.

 

The bailout bill, in addition to continuing to try to prop up imaginary market values, also rewards bad business and therefore makes these businesses less efficient and frugal.  Namely, rewarding people whose businesses failed can do nothing but teach them that if they fail again all will be fine.  Bad, risky investments, as well as inferior service, are suddenly not so costly when big brother's got your back.

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Reply #118 Top

Jonnan, you're a moron.  I mean that in the best way possible.  This is, by far, your dumbest attempt at an argument that I've seen.

 

Comparing the post office total operations to pure package shipping operations...  Wow, the post office is more efficient by item!  Maybe that's because nearly every item is... junk mail?

 

In 2007, they lost 5 billion dollars!  Everybody cheer for the efficiency of your tax dollars!  If they can't compete, by golly they'll fucking compete anyway and hose us for the remainder through the backdoor.

 

It's illegal for anyone but USPS to ship a letter for less than three bucks, it's illegal for them to ship it for less than twice the competing USPS price.  They also aren't allowed to use the mail boxes.  OMFG THEY'RE CHEAPER!!!!

 

I tell you what, you find direct comparisons on package shipping that proves they make more money for less and I'll shut up.  Otherwise, please try to avoid dropping your readers I.Q. levels any further.

Reply #119 Top

Well put vxt22!

psychoak, remember one ststement. "Don't argue with a fool as others might not be able to tell the difference..."

Your statements are sound, but I see your IQ dropping with each rebuttal.

I'm just saying, don't let yourself get dragged down!!!

Reply #120 Top

Quoting psychoak, reply 18
Jonnan, you're a moron.  I mean that in the best way possible.  This is, by far, your dumbest attempt at an argument that I've seen.
End of psychoak's quote

Really - Oh, and all the kind things you said about my logical persuasiveness when I agreed with you - I'm hurt, I really really am.

No, No, wait a second . . . Nope, actually,  turns out I'm not.


Comparing the post office total operations to pure package shipping operations...  Wow, the post office is more efficient by item!  Maybe that's because nearly every item is... junk mail?
End of quote

Wow - and all these years I assumed that I had to deal with spammers because email was cheap and easy for them to send through - but I should be *thanking* spammers, because thats what *makes* email cheap and easy!

Well, at least now I know exact where Psychoak has been getting the drugs he's on - it's G3n1rIk V1@GR@, which he buys out of gratitude for spammers making e-mail efficient!

Or - wait, I have another idea, and I'm just spitballing on this - is it possible mass mailing uses the U.S.P.S. because it's actually a quite cheap and efficient way for large amounts of mail to be sent from one party to another?


In 2007, they lost 5 billion dollars!  Everybody cheer for the efficiency of your tax dollars!  If they can't compete, by golly they'll fucking compete anyway and hose us for the remainder through the backdoor.
End of quote

The USPS delivered, in 2006, 29 & 1/2 times the total volume of the top three private firms combined, for 64.6% of their total cost. Lets be pessimistic and add in a in a five billion dollar shortfall that I'm paying an extra $14.30 a year in taxes for, and it comes to 68% of the cost.

So, by paying a cost of slightly under three package deliveries from the nearest competitor in my taxes, I get access to a service that deliveries packages for 4338% of their package/revenue efficiency.

Wow - that hurts almost as much as being called a moron in the best possible way. Not quite as much, but, really nearly almost as much!

Just how many anomalies do you have to pickup before you hit 4338% efficiency anyway? Come to think of it, I didn't even know they had survey modules on postal delivery trucks - must be what the extra 5bc pays for.


It's illegal for anyone but USPS to ship a letter for less than three bucks, it's illegal for them to ship it for less than twice the competing USPS price.  They also aren't allowed to use the mail boxes.  OMFG THEY'RE CHEAPER!!!!
End of quote

So, your complaint here is:

a.) that they are bound by law (I'm unfamiliar with it, but will grant it for purposes of argument) to not drop below a price that the cheapest competitor is over by a factor 166%, which you claim the U.S.P.S. is no more than 50% of? Because, this is an argument that in some way could be worked out to be in your favor, if only I were imaginative enough. Somehow.

And
b.) that the U.S.P.S, unlike every other company in the world, has an established infrastructure that they have developed over time - that they don't let their competitors use? Forgive me if I'm wrong - but is Fedex allowed to pick stuff up and drop it into the UPS drop off points or vice versa?

Gee, if only the resources developed at public expense could be used for free by private companies for their profit, they would be just as efficient as the Postal Service. And I thought you didn't believe in socialism - you're just fine with companies and stockholders getting money from the public dole - it's just people benefiting from the government you hate.


I tell you what, you find direct comparisons on package shipping that proves they make more money for less and I'll shut up.  Otherwise, please try to avoid dropping your readers I.Q. levels any further.
End of quote

Well, gee, knowing how you hate those 'objective' things like facts and figures, I would go find something where libertarians 'proved' how inefficient the U.S.P.S. is that completely ignored all that annoying 'reality based' stuff in favor of something 'truthy', but those commie pinko liberals Fortune magazine printed out this beautiful chart that shows the exact figures that one could use for, say, a direct comparison between the four largest package delivery services in the world, and you know how sensitive they are - so instead I'll work with those.

Jonnan

Reply #121 Top

psychoak, remember one ststement. "Don't argue with a fool as others might not be able to tell the difference..."

Your statements are sound, but I see your IQ dropping with each rebuttal.

I'm just saying, don't let yourself get dragged down!!!
End of quote

 

I can't help myself, arguing with retards is the only thing that keeps me living.  I'd go emo and slash my wrists without such entertainment!

 

As an aside, based on the posts I keep seeing, I feel compelled to clarify that the above statement is not serious.  If you all stop posting this idiocy, I wont actually kill myself.  However, my I.Q. probably is dropping from this so perhaps that might change eventually.

 

On to the paradox of an utter moron that can somehow argue copyright law logically.

 

Really - Oh, and all the kind things you said about my logical persuasiveness when I agreed with you - I'm hurt, I really really am.

No, No, wait a second . . . Nope, actually,  turns out I'm not.

End of quote

 

It's a mystery to me.  If your USPS snafu had been your first post here on these forums, I'd have decided you had the I.Q. of a retarded gnat, severe reading comprehension flaws, no arithmatic skills at all, and years of brainwashing by equally stupid people.  Without your political posts, just going by your copyright law arguments, I'd have assumed you were relatively intelligent.  It's a simplistic issue and doesn't require a genius to understand of course, but the ability to read, and grasp what you're reading at least says something.

 

My current hypothesis is that you're just severely brainwashed, unable to see beyond the cages of your royally fucked up mind, and can only logically argue that which you haven't already been fed illogical conclusions in advance.

 

Wow - and all these years I assumed that I had to deal with spammers because email was cheap and easy for them to send through - but I should be *thanking* spammers, because thats what *makes* email cheap and easy!

Well, at least now I know exact where Psychoak has been getting the drugs he's on - it's G3n1rIk V1@GR@, which he buys out of gratitude for spammers making e-mail efficient!

Or - wait, I have another idea, and I'm just spitballing on this - is it possible mass mailing uses the U.S.P.S. because it's actually a quite cheap and efficient way for large amounts of mail to be sent from one party to another?

End of quote

 

Ok, second try.  IT'S ILLEGAL YOU FUCKTARD. :)

 

Take what you've done with copyright law, study the fucking subject.  Your argument is fucking worthless because one fifty pound box costs as much to ship as thousands of leaflets, and is a single item to those thousands.  The USPS is the only cheap letter carrier because it's ILLEGAL for anyone else to do so.

 

The USPS delivered, in 2006, 29 & 1/2 times the total volume of the top three private firms combined, for 64.6% of their total cost. Lets be pessimistic and add in a in a five billion dollar shortfall that I'm paying an extra $14.30 a year in taxes for, and it comes to 68% of the cost.

So, by paying a cost of slightly under three package deliveries from the nearest competitor in my taxes, I get access to a service that deliveries packages for 4338% of their package/revenue efficiency.

Wow - that hurts almost as much as being called a moron in the best possible way. Not quite as much, but, really nearly almost as much!

Just how many anomalies do you have to pickup before you hit 4338% efficiency anyway? Come to think of it, I didn't even know they had survey modules on postal delivery trucks - must be what the extra 5bc pays for.

End of quote

 

I will now accomplish a great feat.  I will make this simple enough that a two year old can figure it out.  How many grains of sand can you carry in a quart jar?  How many quart jars can you fit in a quart jar?  Do you think that maybe if they used actual volume, instead of the number of items, there might be a drastic difference in the amount shipped when comparing sheets of paper to a fucking box?

 

You're shitting me right?  You don't actually believe this and you're bored out of your fucking skull, right?  Please say yes, because I'm pretty sure I've never met anyone this stupid, and it's a scary thought that you can type and study law with such a handicap.  Hell, it's a scary thought that you can survive eating.  OH SHIT, I ACCIDENTALLY ATE MY FORK AGAIN!

 

So, your complaint here is:

a.) that they are bound by law (I'm unfamiliar with it, but will grant it for purposes of argument) to not drop below a price that the cheapest competitor is over by a factor 166%, which you claim the U.S.P.S. is no more than 50% of? Because, this is an argument that in some way could be worked out to be in your favor, if only I were imaginative enough. Somehow.

And
b.) that the U.S.P.S, unlike every other company in the world, has an established infrastructure that they have developed over time - that they don't let their competitors use? Forgive me if I'm wrong - but is Fedex allowed to pick stuff up and drop it into the UPS drop off points or vice versa?

Gee, if only the resources developed at public expense could be used for free by private companies for their profit, they would be just as efficient as the Postal Service. And I thought you didn't believe in socialism - you're just fine with companies and stockholders getting money from the public dole - it's just people benefiting from the government you hate.

End of quote

 

Well, that answers that question, you didn't read it.  Could you at least go to their websites and calculate package shipping costs and compare equal services?  You'll find that for a two day delivery on that letter, UPS is cheaper.

 

First, laziness in not looking it up yourself aside, how does this not work out in my favor?  UPS and FedEx are prohibited by law from shipping half pound letters in most cases.  You know what they're allowed to do?  Second day air and faster.  You know what USPS does?  Express mail and slower, at equivalent prices to second day air, with a guaranteed arrival date one day later.  Wow, they don't have comparable prices because they aren't allowed to compete with USPS for the snailmail letter carrier badge!  Maybe if USPS offered same day delivery, they'd have $70 shipping plans too!  Maybe if UPS was allowed to take two weeks to deliver a letter, they'd send it for fifty cents?

 

Second, the almighty mailbox, sanctuary of USPS delivered mail.  Who buys your mailbox?  Who puts it up?  Who replaces it when some shittard runs it over or throws a brick at it?

 

Now, do you really want to be a fucking dumbass and compare your mailbox, that you purchase and maintain yourself, but can't recieve mail from other carriers in, to a store location owned by a private company?  It's either hypocracy or stupidity to the extreme, and I can't figure out which.  My fucking mailbox should be my own goddamned property and I should be able to give access to whoever the fuck I want to.  Instead, it's a fucking felony if UPS opens it and puts a package inside.  This should answer your claims that I'm socialist and want to give USPS resources to UPS and FedEx, but if it doesn't let me know and I'll cuss you out again.

 

Well, gee, knowing how you hate those 'objective' things like facts and figures, I would go find something where libertarians 'proved' how inefficient the U.S.P.S. is that completely ignored all that annoying 'reality based' stuff in favor of something 'truthy', but those commie pinko liberals Fortune magazine printed out this beautiful chart that shows the exact figures that one could use for, say, a direct comparison between the four largest package delivery services in the world, and you know how sensitive they are - so instead I'll work with those.

Jonnan

End of quote

 

Would it help if I begged?  Please tell me you're not this dumb.  It's going to give me nightmares.  Next I'll be debating primordial goo like they did in ST:TNG!

 

Um... if I disappear, I was banned, for cause, lots of cause...  So many rules to disregard, so little time...

Reply #122 Top

Psychoak, the only difference between me on copyright and me on the U.S. Postal Service is that you happen to diasagree with me this time, and so assume that somehow, when I disagree with you, that I must have abandoned actually looking stuff up. Because there is of course no chance you are wrong.

That said - You don't actually look anything up before you type it do you?

UPS Rates 12^3 in, 5 lb package, Indianapolis (46205) to LA (90096)

Critical (Same Day) From $317 to over $5,500, depending on routing

next day $64.20 - $107.63 (Depending on delivery time)
2nd day $36.20 - $54.61
3rd day $25.97
ground $10.66

USPS Parcel Post, same trip (Zone 8, highest for non-international)

Express Mail $36.60 (1 day)
Priority Mail $14.75 (2-3)
Parcel $9.67 (7 days)

Although, sadly, no 'critical' option is avail

There are a couple of cheaper ways to do it USPS, but this establishes a baseline. But - lets try 50 lbs!

First of all - the good news. If you're going to pay for critical, they don't appear to care a whole lot about whether it's five pounds or fifty - so you can get the same bargain price of $317-$5,500!

That said -

next day 243.14 - 292.86
2nd day 206.18 - 224.60
3rd day 130.11
ground 50.22

Express Mail 172.30
Priority Mail 61.50
Parcel 39.23

Now - first of all, That's not the whole story - go over a certain size (24x24x16 <= x? <= 24x24x24) and the USPS charges go up dramatically - important information thank you Egon, don't cross the streams - but UPS doesn't ask and until that size is reached USPS doesn't care.

But a basic comparison  - that you could have done - doesn't support your premise.

That isn't to say that UPS isn't essential to business - the Government is good for large, generic services that will be of equal value to me or Warren Buffet. But is you need that 'critical' service, you need a specific time frame as to when it's delivered, even if you are okay with 4 days but not 7 days, the more specialized private sector is going to be better - and for commercail purposes even worth the extra money.

But the assumption that UPS is better on any basis for comparison, which was your original premise, is quite verifiably and objectively not true.

Scream and throw feces all you want Psychoak - you typed that out without verifying a basic assumption, and the fact is you would have been better served by verifying it before you posted.

Jonnan

Reply #123 Top

You suck at debating a losing argument, when cherry picking aspects to make yourself look good, they can't show the opposite.

 

You mistake optimal delivery for guaranteed delivery.  UPS next day air is guaranteed by the end of the next business day.  USPS Express mail is "guaranteed" inside three.  Comparing Express to Second day air seems fair, maybe it arrives a day earlier, maybe a day later.  Unless they lose it and ship it to you a week later.  A show of hands for those with personal experience on that one?

 

Also, 5 pound packages and .5 pound letters are a long way off from each other.  But then I've apparently stated that UPS is more effective in every minute aspect of their business in an alternate reality and have to prove that they outdo the USPS at every weight, dimension and shipping speed before your colossal fuckup of an argument becomes invalid and you don't look like a complete asshat.

 

I really shouldn't complain though, much less brain atrophy caused by reading this one.  Also, chimpanzees seem to be smarter than you going by these last few posts, so I'll take the poo flinging as a badge of honor.

 

For your next argument, try damage.  USPS has the best record for packages arriving safely between the big three.

Reply #124 Top

Quoting psychoak, reply 23
You suck at debating a losing argument, when cherry picking aspects to make yourself look good, they can't show the opposite.

You mistake optimal delivery for guaranteed delivery.  UPS next day air is guaranteed by the end of the next business day.  USPS Express mail is "guaranteed" inside three.  Comparing Express to Second day air seems fair, maybe it arrives a day earlier, maybe a day later.  Unless they lose it and ship it to you a week later.  A show of hands for those with personal experience on that one?

Also, 5 pound packages and .5 pound letters are a long way off from each other.  But then I've apparently stated that UPS is more effective in every minute aspect of their business in an alternate reality and have to prove that they outdo the USPS at every weight, dimension and shipping speed before your colossal fuckup of an argument becomes invalid and you don't look like a complete asshat.

I really shouldn't complain though, much less brain atrophy caused by reading this one.  Also, chimpanzees seem to be smarter than you going by these last few posts, so I'll take the poo flinging as a badge of honor.

For your next argument, try damage.  USPS has the best record for packages arriving safely between the big three.

End of psychoak's quote

In this reality, October 7th, at 23:49, Pschoak posted - -

Quoting psychoak, reply 4

This falls into the magical fairy land category.

First point, and this is categorically true and irrefutable without outright lying, private, for profit industry, without fail, does a better job in the long run at any and all tasks.

End of psychoak's quote

Quoting psychoak, reply 21
Well, that answers that question, you didn't read it.  Could you at least go to their websites and calculate package shipping costs and compare equal services?  You'll find that for a two day delivery on that letter, UPS is cheaper.
End of psychoak's quote

Sorry Psychoak, in this reality, approximately 50 hours before you posted this, you stated that "a for profit industry, without fail, does a better job". I posted a counter example with objective, verifiable facts.

You then proceeded to move the goalposts and say that UPS, specifically, would be cheaper on a package - and, looking up prices specific for packages on five and fifty pounds packages between identical routes and locations, I refuted that.

Now you want a different set of criteria, rates of damage.

First it's "Private Industry will always win", then it's best two out of three, and now you want to compare damaged package rates for best three out of five? If I win that one, what's your next set of criteria - fashion sense?

You've done a great job at trying to insult me and claim victory - backing up your blanket assertion with any objectively verifiable facts, ehhhhh - not so much.

How many times do you think you get to move the goalposts on this Psychoak?

Jonnan

Reply #125 Top

psychoak, you seem to read a lot, so I wonder what you think of the economists' term "public good." If you find the category reasonable, can you tell us some things you'd put there? If you reject the concept, can you say a little about why?