On Mon, 10 Aug 1998, Reeza! wrote:
At 02:24 PM 8/10/98 -0500, William H. Geiger III wrote:
Many of the unusual suspects that will go along with this plan will be from the states like Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, ...ect who are fearful that their constituents will actually have to pay a fair price to have mail and packages delivered to bum-fuck nowhere. I don't recall the name but one of the critter from Alaska was very upset that if USPS looses it's monopoly delivery in Alaska would no longer be subsidized and that they might have to pay market value to have packages delivered by plane to the far reaches of the wilderness (god forbid!!).
Where are you from? Bum-fuck nowhere to you and bum-fuck nowhere to me are two different places.
A letter costs 32 cents (presently) whether you send it across town, or across the country. This knife cuts both ways. Once the precedent is set, other industries would quickly join in. How long would it take, do you think, until some whizbang at the electric company decides 'lectric usage rates should be determined on distance from the 'lectric generating plant?
Reeza!
This is how it works in a free-market economy (doh!). One of the self-appointed/assumed functions of gubbmint is to "fix" this, by granting some organization a monopoly in return for bearing the costs of creating infrastructure, as well as spreading the cost of servicing a (smaller) number of remote customers across a (larger) number of non-remote customers. Whether this is a good thing(tm) or a bad thing(tm) depends, as usual, on which side of the subsidy you are on. I would argue that such monopolies are desirable, and that their creation is a proper function of a responsible government. When the monopoly is no longer necessary (sufficient economy of scale has been reached to permit a competitive market to adequately service the customer base), then deregulation can occur. I'm sure some on this list will argue this with me from their mountain cabins in bf-nowhere, but without such monopolies, they'd be sending smoke signals rather than paying $10,000 to get a phone line installed to their home. If you doubt this, look at the heavy reliance on wireless communications in third-world countries, and take a moment to consider how recently the consumer-wireless market arrived on the scene. Before you argue "the best government is no government", visit a few third-world capitols, and note how you move from a modern capitol city to flintstones-like living in about 50km. A $.32 price on first-class mail to anywhere in the country is a good deal for all. OTOH, package delivery has become sufficiently competitive, and probably needs to be revamped. Just my $.02.