| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
Nickelless
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1311 Posts |
 Posted - 06/27/2008 : 08:30:51
|
|
I almost forgot that I had to go to the post office before I turned in for a good night, er, day's sleep, and as I was standing in line at the post office, the thought ran through my brain, what's going to happen to mail delivery if/when we end up like Zimbabwe, Weimar Germany, etc.?
|
Why hyperinflation is inevitable...and very soon:
http://www.shadowstats.com/article/292
http://www.ChrisMartenson.com |
|
|
WilliamC
Penny Collector Member
USA
471 Posts |
Posted - 06/27/2008 : 08:58:15
|
Eventually the price of gas will get so high that the mail trucks won't be able to run. I suppose they could always cut back on delivering from every day to once or twice a week.
Or they could make us go to the post office and pick up our mail. |
Sorting In Northwest Mississippi |
 |
|
|
kavajava
Penny Collector Member
USA
484 Posts |
Posted - 06/27/2008 : 13:29:31
|
Now we are starting to think about what it might be like if TS REALLY HTF.
Might be as bad as no power, no internet, no mail, no grocery stores, no law, etc. Always try to imagine the worst case scenario, and then hope it doesn't happen, but do your best to be prepared.
I think you are right--after raising rates considerably, they will cut down on the number of days to deliver, and/or require us to go pick it up. (Of course that would mean that they are laying off employees who are no longer needed, further adding to the S hitting TF, and leaving more folks unemployed and desperate).
Or--the mail might not run because people are hijacking the delivery trucks looking for anything of value. |
|
|
|
Lemon Thrower
Penny Pincher Member
USA
191 Posts |
Posted - 06/28/2008 : 06:59:56
|
| Kunstler's book The Long Emergency explores this but he's a wierd guy and you won't agree with everything he predicts. Interesting, provocative read, though. |
|
|
|
kavajava
Penny Collector Member
USA
484 Posts |
Posted - 06/28/2008 : 10:21:03
|
quote:
Originally posted by Lemon Thrower
Kunstler's book The Long Emergency explores this but he's a wierd guy and you won't agree with everything he predicts. Interesting, provocative read, though.
I requested it from the library just now--several people ahead of me--may get it in a couple weeks--thanks for the recommendation. |
|
|
|
Ponce
Penny Pincher Member
Cuba
174 Posts |
Posted - 06/28/2008 : 12:31:47
|
Do you guys remember the TV movie "The Mailman" ????????
I do hope that my 1,000 "For Ever" stamps will still be good. |
"If you don't hold it, you don't own it"...Ponce |
|
|
|
WilliamC
Penny Collector Member
USA
471 Posts |
Posted - 06/28/2008 : 13:58:53
|
Wasn't there a movie with Kevin Costner about a guy trying to keep up mail delivery in a post-armagedon world? It had Tom Petty in it...
Here it is, The Postman.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119925/ |
Sorting In Northwest Mississippi |
|
|
|
legacypac
Administrator
Canada
1646 Posts |
Posted - 06/28/2008 : 15:27:03
|
| Or the US Mail might raise the rates, hault most home delivery, require you to come to the post office for packages, and quit Saturday service. Oh, Canada Post beat them too those ideas, sorry! |
|
|
|
Ponce
Penny Pincher Member
Cuba
174 Posts |
Posted - 06/28/2008 : 17:39:05
|
| Yes william, that's the movie........and that's why I wonder if they will take my "For Ever" stamp as full payment. |
"If you don't hold it, you don't own it"...Ponce |
|
|
|
Know Common Cents
Penny Pincher Member
173 Posts |
Posted - 06/28/2008 : 21:58:03
|
I think that Legacy is right. I'll bet that Saturday service will be suspended by the end of this year. USPS doesn't have the staff to have everyone pick up their mail at the PO on Saturdays, either. Nor is it even practical to only deliver to those who "subscribe" by paying for Saturday delivery service every three months in advance. Oh well. I rarely get mail on Saturdays that has earth-shattering consequences if I didn't receive it until Monday.
Oh well. That'll give me even more wiggle room when I tell someone that their check is in the mail. |
Here in Wisconsin, we have some of the highest property and gasoline taxes in the US. We're squeezed so much, I have to make my daughter wear penny boxes for shoes. At least she has an endless supply. |
|
|
|
swusc
Penny Collector Member
489 Posts |
Posted - 06/28/2008 : 22:29:07
|
I am for them cutting back days over increasing the prices more. If they went to once a week--- could they go back to like 25 cent stamps?
-SWUSC |
`Everybody is ignorant. Only on different subjects.' Will Rogers
"This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the "hidden" confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard." Alan Greenspan, 1966. |
|
|
|
natsb88
Penny Collector Member
USA
462 Posts |
Posted - 06/28/2008 : 22:55:08
|
Once a week mail is horribly unappealing to businesses. I doubt it will happen. Saturday service could be eliminated pretty easily though. Our flat rate boxes would probably be early victims as well. They don't have the box capacity to force everyone to pick up their own mail, at least around here. These little 1 cent postage increases are a joke (think about the cost to announce the change and make all those extra 1 cent stamps). Wouldn't surprise me if it jumps to 50 cents or more next spring.
I'm not sure it will really take a SHTF scenario for some of these changes. When I dropped off packages around the time of the latest postage increase we started discussing the economy a bit and they said every 1 cent increase in gas prices costs the USPS over $8 million... |
Nate
www.coppercave.com |
|
|
|
Lemon Thrower
Penny Pincher Member
USA
191 Posts |
Posted - 06/29/2008 : 07:06:35
|
quote:
Originally posted by kavajava
quote:
Originally posted by Lemon Thrower
Kunstler's book The Long Emergency explores this but he's a wierd guy and you won't agree with everything he predicts. Interesting, provocative read, though.
I requested it from the library just now--several people ahead of me--may get it in a couple weeks--thanks for the recommendation.
well, its not the be all end all. the guy is a typical tree hugger liberal who curiously had some good insights. the last chapter he predicts what life would be like without oil. its the only book I know of that does this. there are probably others that are better. not surprisingly, he predicts a sort of liberal utopia where there are no more subdivisions, SUV's, or drive through fast food. The NE will come out best, the South and SW worst. So you have to peel away a thick layer of his prejudices but there are some interesting insights in it. |
|
|
|
NDFARMER
Penny Collector Member
USA
293 Posts |
Posted - 06/29/2008 : 08:20:06
|
| Once or twice a week delivery would be fine with me. Then I would get bills only twice a week instead of every day. |
COPPER - the "poormans" precious metal!!! |
|
|
|
starwarsgeek171
Penny Hoarding Member
USA
602 Posts |
Posted - 06/29/2008 : 14:25:06
|
The NE farming communities would IMO (and hopes - that's where I live) fair best in such a situation. I still hope it never happens.
I'd be glad to send my copy of The Long Emergency to anyone that's interested. |
|
|
|
legacypac
Administrator
Canada
1646 Posts |
Posted - 06/29/2008 : 15:42:05
|
The smaller US Post Office in Sumas, WA I use regularly already is closed on Saturdays. They should just move it 3 blocks North into Canada because it deals only with Canadians.
Canada also launched "Forever" stamps with little maple leafs where the value used to be. The last series of value stated stamps was declared valid for some months after the last price increase - to save the printing and use of all those penny stamps.
These changes will allow Canada Post to spring price increases on us faster. |
Edited by - legacypac on 06/29/2008 15:44:53 |
|
|
|
Saul Mine
Penny Collector Member
USA
335 Posts |
Posted - 06/29/2008 : 23:30:25
|
| Everybody is sure there will be some hard times, but it's not possible to predict exactly what will happen. I can only suggest you go to http://darkage2007.blogspot.com/ and download the manuscript. It describes what has happened when other cultures collapsed. There are some general tendencies, but details vary a lot. |
A penny sorted is a penny earned!
Please use tinyurl.com to post links. Long links make posts hard to read. |
|
|
|
simplicitycounts
Penny Pincher Member
USA
196 Posts |
Posted - 06/29/2008 : 23:57:32
|
| They used to deliver mail by horseback, and if need be I will donate the overgrown grass in my yard to help feed the horses and help the cause :) |
|
|
|
HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
3577 Posts |
Posted - 06/30/2008 : 00:18:42
|
And it got there faster in the days of the Pony Express. I can just picture them trying to deliver my flat rate boxes of pennies accross the country that way.. LOL. I don't think the "Penny Express" would be very easy on the equines.  |
If your percentages are low.. just sort more. If your percentages are high.. just sort more.
|
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
Mail delivery during hyperinflation/WTSHTF
