Funny Story From Jon Fleischman (On The Perils Of Government Run Health Care Alert)

Flash Report ^ | 08/27/2007 | Jon Fleischman

[goldstategop]

Where I live, instead of bringing mail to my house, the United States Postal Service has set up one of those pedestals with a box lock box with twelve slots where my incoming mail is deposited. So I have to walk about 100 feet from my front door to retrieve my mail. I am sure this is done so that the mail carrier can zip up in their truck and efficiently deal with mail delivery, and zoom off again. Of course, any efficiency in the process for me is offset by the fact that I typically only bother to check the box two or three times a week. Saturday I went to check my mail, and as I walked over, I realized it had been since Tuesday that I had done this last... Well, apparently three days of mail to the Fleischman household is about the limit for my mailbox, as I was greeted on Saturday with an empty box, except for one brown slip of paper, which indicated that because my box was full, all of my mail would have to be picked up at the local post office. Groan!

So, I got in my car, and drove over to my local post office. Of course I was nervous heading over there because nothing good ever comes out of a trip to the post office. This trip, of course, was no exception. As I approached the lobby, the people waiting around outside was a harbinger of things to come. I don't know about how your local PO works, but in mine, you enter and grab a slip with a number from one of those machines. The clerks at the counter call off numbers and then advance the worlds largest LED display up on the wall. My slip said 68 and they were on number 31! Nice. So I settled in for what promised to be a long wait...

While waiting, I started to chat with a couple of other people who were also waiting in the lobby -- a younger couple with a baby (who was pleasantly sleeping). We got to talking and the mom said that she wished that this Post Office were as efficient as her doctor's office. I asked what she meant, and she made the keen observation that when she goes in to see her doctor, they take appointments, and she seldom has to wait too long. She also jokingly waved her little ticket and said in a loud voice intended to be heard, "..and at least at my doctor's office I AM A PERSON and I am NOT A NUMBER!"

Of course I couldn't miss the opportunity to make a quip about how Arnold the Democrats in Sacramento want to get government involved, in a major way, with the healthcare system in California. This young mom said, "Yeah, I read that. I thought Arnold was a Republican?"

I asked her, and it turns out this young family is all Republican (of course, I do live in Orange County, so the odds were good). Dad weighed in saying that this post office was a great example as to why you do not want the government involved with healthcare. As he so aptly put it, "we would spend all of our time waiting to see the doctor, and when we saw him, the doctor would probably be the equivalent of some tenured political science professor who still talks about the Soviet Union as if the wall never came down."

The mom chimed in, "Don't people come FROM Canada TO the United States for major surgeries and such?"

I recounted a story I had just read on Senator Tom McClintock's website about that very thing, and about how a Canadian woman was giving birth to four children at once (what are the odds of that? very long!). She crossed the border into the U.S. to have her quartuplets. And she was not the only one, others do this as well, as our medical care here in the U.S. is superior to that in Canada, and as a predictable result of government's involvement in their healthcare system, there are long wait to get care (how long can an expectant mother of even one child wait?).

Well, the wait took a while, and I got to the counter, only to be informed that my carrier had not yet returned to the PO with my mail, and that since they were about to close, I would have to return on Monday.

I don't know if it was a coincidence that that little baby started crying as I was told this news, but it was certainly appropriate.

Let's hope that efforts by advocates of big-government in Sacramento to move our healthcare in the directly of more government controls are unsuccessful. Their recipe for 'fixing' the problems with our health care system are in the wrong direction. Increasing the government's role will diminish the quality of healthcare in California. It's a bad idea.

[goldstategop]

I have the same Post Office lock box as Jon but I don't have to do much waiting in a small town if it overfills. In California though, government-run health care is a bad solution. Do you want to take a number and wait in line? It has all the efficiency of the old DMV. Just wait your turn and hope you get served today.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[USMCWife6869]

We have that stupid lock box thing as well. Our mail person leaves it sitting wide open, with everyone’s credit card statements and other bills sitting there for anyone to take. I have called the Post Office before, only to receive a nastygram in my box saying that I should confront the mail person directly next time. So I tried that, and she got really angry, and now she does our box last. LOL, most of the time I don’t get my mail until about 6:00 PM, whereas, before I said anything it was always there when I got home from work. My neighbors would probably kill me if they found out I was the one who said something, even though it was their information I was trying to protect. She still leaves the box unlocked all the time, too. I hate the USPS.

[goldstategop]

I have the key to mine. I suspect if you live in a condo, the PO set it up that way so the mailman doesn't have go door to door to drop of the mail. Instead, you go to your assigned box and unlock it to pick it up. Its inherently secure. Of course, it also eliminates the need to walk to the familiar blue drop off box on the street corner. All you do is push your send mail through the outgoing mail drop slot on the box lock box.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[USMCWife6869]

We live in this townhouse style neighborhood. I have the key to the front, but she fills the whole thing by opening the back panel, which exposes everyone’s box. That is the part she leaves open all the time. It’s the whole back panel. Only the delivery person has the key to that, and you need the key to close it back up, we have tried.

[goldstategop]

Multi-unit dwellings have that where I live here. The point of the article is still a good one: convenience for the government eliminates choices for individuals and families. So no - I do NOT want it managing my health care for me.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[USMCWife6869]

Oh, I absolutely agree. I guess the point I was trying to make in a round-about way is that if the government screws up the most minor things like this, and then offers us no recourse to fix it, we are going to be in huge trouble.

I have always said that I am baffled that our American Military is so good at fighting wars. It baffles me because, having been part of this system for 13 years, my husband and I witness daily how much they can screw up even the smallest thing. I’m glad they focus on the fighting, of course, but if most people could see what you have to go through if your pay gets messed up, or if they lose a piece of a personnel’s record, they would be nervous also.

[goldstategop]

If the government can't get your mail to you when you go to see them to pick it up, it stands to reason it shouldn't be involved when you can see your doctor. ArnoldCare or HillaryCare or any other variant of government-run health care is a solution in search of a problem. When every problem looks like a nail, you want to use a hammer. Government should be an answer of LAST resort to our problems.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Don W]

Funny you should mention the DMV: I went to my local DMV the other day to renew my “permission to use a motor vehicle on public roads” slip.

I waited 6 minutes in the lineup to get a number for the service cue, then walked out.

[ElkGroveDan]

These boxes have become quite common in newly built (mine was 1998) residential neighborhoods (at least here in Nor Cal). I have to walk two houses down to a large standing unit that has about fifteen smaller boxes in it for the entire block.

I lived in a house across town a few years ago that was built around 1988 and there the postman delivers right up to the box on the porch.

My guess is that the postal union goes in to meet with the planning agencies and demands these things.

Haha. Moving into a new house early next year in a rural area so I get my own mailbox again

[teeman8r]

start documenting with pictures the times it is left open and then send it to the postmaster general...

your postal rates will increase for the added security, but you’ll be able to sleep better at night.

teeman

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I haven’t gone to the DMV too much in recent years, but in California they now do “stand in line” things by appointment. The last 2 times I’ve had to go, I was on time and I was in and out in about ten minutes! Both times in Los Angeles. Frankly, I wondered whether I had entered an alternate universe, LOL.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

Don’t even get me started on the USPS. Oopps too late.

The postman is constantly delivery our mail to an address on the next street that has the same number. When I complain I get told that they don’t have to delivery to me, that they can hold my mail and I can pick it up at the post office. Since we have a gerrymandering zip code this would require a 10 mile drive across town.

I wish we would get those little lock boxes. The current system is an individual mailboxes at the curb that have been robbed of credit card info in years past.

We have given up on getting our bills and the payments delivered on time so now we are doing the on line payment.

As far as I am concern the USPS is a junk mail supplier. They are more interested in give discounts for mass mailings than delivering first class mail. As usual it is about the money. My solution to the junk mail is for the USPS to charge more for junk mailings than first class, then we would get far less junk mail and they can concentrate on the first class mail.

The USPS states that the government has to run the USPS so they can “protect” us, using the example of anthrax. Well if they haven’t noticed, there has been plenty of illegal items sent through Fedex and UPS and they handled it all quite well without needing a pay raise or a Congressional hearing.

Me think that the USPS is going to go the way of the MSM. Soon we will have every bill sent through the Internet instead of the USPS.

[Dave Olson]

a Canadian woman was giving birth to four children at once (what are the odds of that? very long!). She crossed the border into the U.S. to have her quartuplets.

Last year, Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister of Italy, needed heart surgery. He didn't get it in France or Britain or Canada or even his own country. He came to the United States for it.

[Graybeard58]

I have a mail box on the street edge and last winter it got knocked down by a dumb ass grand son. The ground was frozen so hard that I couldn’t dig a new hole and couldn’t get the old stump out.

My post man told me not to worry, that he would bring my mail to my door until I could get that new hole dug. For about 6 weeks he delivered my mail to the door every single day.

He has gotten a Christmas gift from me every Christmas for the past 12 years, we are on a first name basis, I consider him a friend. It pays to be nice to your post man.

A dog tipped over my garbage can? No problem, the collectors will clean it up, they get Christmas gifts too.

[webboy45]

We went on an extended vacation a few months ago. We were surprised to learn that the Post Office will only hold mail for 30 days. What are people supposed to do when they go away for a couple of months? Anyway, we discussed this with our postman and he said, “no problem.” He said he would personally take care of it while we were gone. He did. Thanks.

[GATOR NAVY]

I’d be happy to have one of those lock boxes even if it was out on the main road which is about 1/2 mile from my house.

But my only option here is to have a PO box. Oh well, it does give me a good excuse to get some exercise, since I usually ride my bike the 12 mile round trip to the PO.

[Spok]

Government managed health care would have the efficiency of the Post Office and the compassion of the IRS. I love how the USPS buys advertising time to tell us how wonderful it is.

[oldfart]

A lot of people already know about Lawdog and his blog, The Lawdog Files, but for those of you who have somehow missed it, here’s his take on government-run medical insurance.

Thursday, August 09, 2007
This is exactly what I’m talking about ...

The Mustang Ranch is back in private hands and open for business once again.

For those Gentle Readers who may be less-worldly than others, the Mustang Ranch was, at one time, the largest brothel in Nevada as well as being the first licensed bordello in that State.

However, while interesting, this is not the part of it’s history that is really fascinating. What we’re interested in is this little tid-bit buried way down in the article: after several years of tax shenanigans by the owner, the Mustang Ranch became the first (Official. Licensed.) brothel run by the United States Federal Government.

They lost money.

Let us allow that simple, yet profound, truth sink into our synapses, shall we?

The Federal Government of the United States can not run a bordello and make money.

One cathouse. Just one. Not “one in every state”. Not “one whether you think you need it or not”. Just one single legal bawdy-house with an already-established customer base.

And they couldn’t keep it out of the red.

Now, this is just my opinion, but if your money-handling skills are so poor that you can’t even make a profit selling sex, then you have absolutely no business getting involved in more complicated financial areas.

In other words, if “Slam, bam, thank you ma’am, here’s a hundred bucks” is too complicated for you to make a profit, then you might just want to keep your meat-hooks out of, say — health care.

So, the next time some bright-eyed little bit starts chanting about “Universal Health Care”, I’m going to loudly and firmly opine that until the Federal Government is capable of running a profitable brothel ... they’ve got no business trying to run my health care.

LawDog