[lbo-talk] the free market at work

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Fri Sep 30 11:14:32 PDT 2011


Just to follow up on this subject, I think there is a need for a new "Anarchist Cookbook." The old one focused mostly on how to fight a guerilla war in a jungle, the new one should focus on sabotaging business efforts of privatizing profits, socializing cost, and destroying public institutions.

This new "Anarchist Cookbook" would be a listing of simple steps an average person can take on the everyday basis without incurring much of personal risk. Using the business reply envelope is but one example of such a step - everyone can do it with little effort and no risk, yet the cumulative effect of such action is transfer of resources from private businesses to a public institution. This new "Anarchist Cookbook" would be a wiki project benefiting from numerous online contributions who know the vulnerabilities of various business systems and transform that knowledge into advice how to exploit them for the purpose of advancing public good. The benefit of such an effort over, say, Wikileaks is that it goes beyond words and stimulates action that will hit businesses where it actually hurts - in their bottom line.

Wojtek

On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 1:58 PM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:
> If you write "return to sender" - USPS will have to absorb the cost of
> return.  If you use the business reply envelope, the business will pay
> and this means extra revenue to USPS. That is why I suggested it.
>
> You are absolutely right that for international shipments, USP is
> still a bargain.  I would not even think of using a private carrier.
>
> And I would never excuse a destruction of a public institution - you
> should know that.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 12:30 PM,  <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
>> What the hell Woj? This is a response to the destruction of another public institution?
>>
>> As for junk mail, just write "return to sender" & post.
>>
>> Joanna
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Wojtek S" <wsoko52 at gmail.com>
>> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>> Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 6:24:51 AM
>> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] the free market at work
>>
>> I dunno.  Hardly anything good comes in the mail nowadays - mostly
>> junk mail and bills, which is a great subsidy to advertisers.  As far
>> as USPS parcel rates are concerned, they are on a par what UPS or
>> Fedex charge.
>>
>> While we are at that - it may help USPS revenue if every person used
>> business reply envelopes received in junk mail to send a "business
>> reply" to the sender - like stuffing a gutter cleaning offer to AmEx
>> business reply envelope, and the Amex pre-approved credit offer to the
>> gutter cleaning company, stuffing the menu of a Chinese restaurant to
>> the business reply envelope that came with an offer of life insurance
>> - you get the drift.  AFAIK, USPS charges per piece rate for every
>> business reply envelope they deliver, so it would be a nice and fun
>> way of making businesses subsidize a public service.
>>
>> Wojtek
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 4:30 PM, Jordan Hayes <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com> wrote:
>>>> How they're killing the post office
>>>>
>>>> http://patrick.net/forum/?p=1061994
>>>
>>> I was thinking the other day that people really don't get how much of a blow
>>> this would be to daily life.  I've started telling people that whenever they
>>> look down at their cellphone and see "no bars" that this is what a country
>>> with only competitive mail delivery will look like: large areas with "no
>>> bars" of mail delivery.
>>>
>>> /jordan
>>> ___________________________________
>>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>>>
>>
>> ___________________________________
>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>>
>> ___________________________________
>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list