stuffs and shipments, was Re: SCSI preprocessor for HP16500

On Fri, 14 Jun 2013, Cory Smelosky wrote: Blame the US Congress and the inflexible "Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act" that was passed in 2006 by the 109th Congress. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022335782 The pension funding requirement is why the postage rates have continued to go up (especially for parcel services), along with the overall lowering of the quality of service. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/8909a (3) (A) The United States Postal Service shall pay into such Fund? (i) $5,400,000,000, not later than September 30, 2007; (ii) $5,600,000,000, not later than September 30, 2008; (iii) $1,400,000,000, not later than September 30, 2009; (iv) $5,500,000,000, not later than September 30, 2010; (v) $5,500,000,000, not later than August 1, 2012; (vi) $5,600,000,000, not later than September 30, 2012; (vii) $5,600,000,000, not later than September 30, 2013; (viii) $5,700,000,000, not later than September 30, 2014; (ix) $5,700,000,000, not later than September 30, 2015; and (x) $5,800,000,000, not later than September 30, 2016. (B) Not later than September 30, 2017, and by September 30 of each succeeding year, the United States Postal Service shall pay into such Fund the sum of? (i) the net present value computed under paragraph (1); and (ii) any annual installment computed under paragraph (2)(B). This is /more/ than the USPS actually pays out each year. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/06/the-post-office-… http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-02/understanding-the-post-office-s-be… This is also why the USPS eliminated the international "surface mail" (cheap but very slow) and "Global Priority" (airmail, under 4lbs) [http://pe.usps.com/imm_archive/html/imm_archive_2006/imm/immc2_016.html] and replaced both with the MUCH more expensive "Priority Mail International". This alone pretty much killed all the international shipping I once did, since it made international postage cost as much or more than the stuff I used to send out. More: http://www.esquire.com/print-this/post-office-business-trouble-0213?page=all