The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Your tax dollars
: Took the family to the local Post Office to get their passports Saturday (a new service at more Post Offices lets you hand in the docs there for a fee). As a result, we went behind the door into the bowels of the place and what do we find but damned nice furniture in the postmaster’s large office: leather chairs and couches all around, dark wood desk and table, and dorky inspirational poster. Why the hell does a Post Office have leather and solid-wood office furniture?
While you might have a good point on the leather & wood furniture, it’s really not your tax dollars buying the pieces. At least since 1971 (or 1982, depending on when you consider it done), the Postal Service is self-sufficient for its budgeting process. Except for some one-off items, the U.S. Gov’t isn’t adding any revenues to the coffers of the system. This is part of the reason why many finance pundits believe the system will ultimately fail if electronic transmission of data continues to grow at its current pace.
More details here in the description of the business and subsequent pages.
Privatize. Privatize it all.
that’s right, let them sit on boxes and work in cages…who do they think they are, human beings?
The ignorance of your observation (you went to the post office because they offered you a new service, after all) is incredible.
Why should they work in uncomfortable, outdated and ugly surroundings? beacise they are ‘government employees’?
Look at the bright side, at least leather and solid wood are fairly immune to fashion fads, so they’ll likely keep that furniture forever. Juxtapose that with the education system and the fashions that require new student desks and furniture every 5 to 10 years.
Look at the bright side, at least leather and solid wood are fairly immune to fashion fads, so they’ll likely keep that furniture forever. Juxtapose that with the education system and the fashions that require new student desks and furniture every 5 to 10 years.
But the reasoning behind that is some entirely stupid DoEd study which suggests that certain desks can cause spontaneous combustion. This in turn makes school districts panic and purchase new desks, which five year later will be found to cause fatal brain warts in 0.000005% of the students worldwide. This in turn will cause another panic, etc, etc, etc….
Remember the whole idea of “going postal”? If it significantly lowers the chances of that occuring, let them get an open account with La-Z-Boy. ;-)
One time I was walking through the 57th street tunnel at the Columbus Circle subway stop and an office that was under construction had a door open. Even in its not-fully-constructed state, it looked lavish and had — I shit you not — a small fish pond.
Leather chairs and solid wooden furniture last a lot longer than pressboard and that IKEA junk. It’s exactly how taxpayer money should be spent — and if providing postal service management with a spot of decency in a low-prestige government job is achieved along the way, what on earth is wrong with that?
civil servants.. emphasis on the servants…
and no, bureaucrats should not have any comforts or be well paid…
pay defence and law enforcement well, treat the rest like animals…
they are there to dominate others, so the less attractive working for the government is, the less people will want to work there and get their power rocks off…
bureaucracies (especially government ones) destroy value. they provide some management but tend more towards slowing things down and destroying productivity and morale in any environment, corporate or government, but in government (or government owned corps) the lack of competition and threat of layoffs or takeovers leaves growth unfettered and without any good mass layoffs to clear things out occasionally.
as for being independent… the exemption from taxes and osha rules and the general ability to strongarm states and municipalities on zoning and permits is worth many billions anually…
You were lucky. When I got my passport at the Forest Hills, Queens post office, I had to stand in line to get to a window, turn the papers in, pay the fee and then stand there while the clerk checked it out. There was no going into any office at all. Of course there were about 20 people in line to do the same thing.
The good part is the people who waited on us were very nice and helpful. Excellent post office to deal with – amazingly.
The postmaster is a professional. If the goverment wants to employ capable managers, it can and should provide a competitive level of compensation. Including office furniture.
Next you will complain he is not making minimum wage….
It’s the ‘dorky inspirational poster’ that makes me smile.