Feed on
Posts
Comments

In 1971, the National Association of Letter Carriers (i.e. the Postal Union) secured a court injunction against the Independent Postal Services of America – who had the gall to deliver 2nd, 3rd and 4th class Christmas Cards for 5 cents while the Postal Service was only able to do it for 8 cents. Why did they get the injunction? Because the practice by IPSA threatened to cut into the Christmas overtime hours of the Postal Workers.

Or here’s another tasty treat. In December 1974, the six children of the Gibson family in Mountain Lakes, NJ were threatened with a $500 federal fine for delivering Christmas cards locally for 5 cents each.

Did you know that the US Postal Service attempted to monopolize the e-mail industry when it was first created? Could you imagine having to send e-mails through them, and not through gmail, yahoo, hotmail, or whatever firm you currently use?

3 Responses to “Tidings of Comfort and Joy”

  1. Harry says:

    In the 1970’s the Italian postal service found itself faced with mountains of backlog after a strike. The solution? They burned it.

    We operating specialists used to say, when confronted with a seemingly insurmountable problem, “Well, there’s always the Italian Postal Service solution.”

  2. jb says:

    And who could forget this one, from 1985…

    IRS Chief Denies Tales of Missing Tax Returns
    April 11, 1985|ZACK NAUTH | Times Staff WriterWASHINGTON — The commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday angrily denounced as “sheer, utter nonsense” reports that overworked IRS employees in Philadelphia have intentionally shredded or lost as many as 20,000 income tax returns and checks.

    Commissioner Roscoe L. Egger Jr. said that an internal investigation turned up no evidence of employees destroying tax returns, which is a criminal offense. “If any such number was missing, we’d know.”

    In an appearance before the National Press Club, Egger called on the accusers, who have described themselves as IRS employees, to come forward. He said their anonymous reports are “about as constructive as yelling fire in a theater.”

    An aide to Sen. John Heinz (R-Penn.) said in an interview Wednesday that more than 25 persons have called his office anonymously to report such allegations and a Philadelphia newspaper reported recently that tax returns were found in a restroom and above ceiling tiles at the local IRS office.

  3. chuck martel says:

    Self-educated attorney and fervent anarchist Lysander Spooner spent years in the mid-nineteenth century fighting for the right to deliver mail privately. Unfortunately, the federal government always has more money to spend on legal expenses than a private entity and Spooner had to give up. http://www.lysanderspooner.org/STAMP3.htm

Leave a Reply to jb