Posted by Harlan Messinger on 12/02/06 16:14

CJM wrote:
> "Harlan Messinger" <hmessinger.removethis@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:4takubF12q6qlU3@mid.individual.net...
>> I don't see the government as being in business to make a profit. I see
>> them as providing services at no more than cost. The cost of putting a
>> list of postal codes on the postal organization's web site is de minimis.
>> If they were to charge for cost, it would probably be under USD 1.
>
> It depends on what scale you want to apply your de minimis rule. Rather than
> providing a free service to big business, I'd rather they paid some of the
> cost they would have had to incur had the data not been there on a plate for
> them.
>
> This revenue is then fed back into the governments coffers and can be used
> to pay for healthcare and education. The alternative is the business gets it
> easy, and I have to pay more taxes to prop up schools and hospitals.

Businesses are just people making a living, and businesses also pay
their share of taxes, so arbitrarily assessing costs for schools and
hospitals from businesses that happen to need a list of postal codes
doesn't strike me as a superior approach to assessing those costs from
the public at large without regard to their need for postal codes.

> In the UK, I don't think the Post Office even break even when delivering
> mail; it is subsidised by other parts of the organisation that makes a
> profit.

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