Government Math

[death dealer]

So I'm visiting my mother, and while there I'm reading the local paper. On the front page is an article about a small community and the loss of there post office and zip code. Turns out that the postal service has identified 2000 additional local post offices that they feel would be good candidates to close in an effort to shrink their budget deficit. The single employee of the post office was visited by a representative who identified themselves as a govt number cruncher who explained to her with simple math why closing the post office made sense. The salary of the current post master was $33,168 plus benefits of $11,111 for a total cost of $46,379. Add rent and supplies, minus the cost of extending an existing rural route to service the area, and closing this post office alone would save $43,478.00 a year!! That's serious cash.

There's only one little problem with the govt's plan. The post office in question hasn't had a post master in over 40 years. That's right, there is no post master working at this post office and there hasn't been for over four decades. Why didn't the govt number cruncher know this!?!

So, when you look at actual numbers, accounting for the single employee's current salary, rent, and supplies then subtract the cost of extending that rural route you actually get a net increase in cost of $2000.

Besides passing me off for obvious reasons, this has personal significance to me. Being of the Hebrew persuasion and from the south my mother's family were involved in the textile industry. This little town was one of the places where they owned a mill. I spent quite a byt of time there growing up. That post office is the center of town. It is sort of a community center, not to mention it hasn't changed in over a hundred years according to my grandfather. It used to share space with the company store. If they lose that post office, they lose their identify as a town.

When informed of her errant math, apparently the number cruncher said that the wheels were in motion and decisions had been made so there was little that could be done. She left some forms that concerned citizens could fill out and mail in expressing their concerns, but didnt seem to think the incorrect math was a significant issue. SMFH.

My family is no longer associated with this community, but I remember it fondly. I'd hate to see it damaged in this way, especially for such a stupid amd flawed notion. Makes you wonder. If the math on something this simple and easily discovered is so fucked-up how bad off is some of the more complicated stuff?

[∞∞∞]

Maybe we're not in massive debts afterall? Maybe we actually have trillions of dollars in surplus and all this fear about irreversible economic damage is a huge math mistake? Someone should go check on that...

[kalm]

I recently went through an audit with the WA State Deptartment of Revenue. We reached a settlement number for a small amount of taxes we had underpaid over the past 4 years and were invoiced with a March 1st due date. But the invoice also stated we we're eligible for an amnesty reduction and we needed to apply for amnesty by April 17th and if accepted would owe the reduced amount by April 30th. Assuming I had read the paperwork correctly but having dealt with the state before, I called Olympia to clarify that if I applied for amnesty, I wouldn't owe anything until the end of April. And then all hell broke loose with the poor bureacrat unable to answer my question and finally admitting after a painfully long conversation that they were as confused about things as the rest of us. She passed me back to our local office who told me to apply for the amnesty and not pay anything until April 30th.

So in answer to your question DD, I have very little faith in the government really knowing at all what they're doing. And I think community centers, be they rural post offices, churches, or bars are worth spending a little dough on or less dough on as the case may be.

[death dealer]

I have known for years that any number released by any govt agency was at the very least total and utter bullshit. I was a govt employee for a few years and released my fair share of doctored up bullshit. It wasn't that I didnt know they were bullshit our that I couldnt have pointed it out to someone. It was mainly that I was only paid for 32.5 hours per week and, honestly, shining sunshine up my bosses ass was so much more efficient than trying to fix the reasons for that. I was just a college kid trying to pay his tuition. And caring was above my payscale. It's cultural.

[death dealer]

double post. Oops

[Baldy]

But so many people want "the Government" to run our health care?

[Pwns]

It's called feel-good budget cuts. Making cuts that amount to chunk change. Meanwhile, the biggest budget-busting waste doesn't get touched because special-interest groups are going to protect their piece of the government waste pie. Such is the times we live in.