首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
It’s Groundhog Day at the US Postal Service: time once again for the familiar laments about how the agency’s financial losses ar
It’s Groundhog Day at the US Postal Service: time once again for the familiar laments about how the agency’s financial losses ar
admin
2014-06-25
91
问题
It’s Groundhog Day at the US Postal Service: time once again for the familiar laments about how the agency’s financial losses are surging, how demand for its services is plummeting, and how officials have no choice but to close local facilities, raise the price of stamps, and reduce delivery standards.
Last week the Postal Service announced plans to cut $ 3 billion in costs by slowing down first-class mail service and eliminating about half of the country’s 461 mail-processing centers. That would mean an end to next-day delivery of first-class mail. Although that might not seem like much of a threat for something already thought of as "snail mail," the Postal Service has insisted for decades that 95 percent or more of local first-class mail is successfully delivered overnight. When the new standards take effect next spring, two-day delivery will become the new overnight, even for mail that’s just traveling down the street.
If all this sounds familiar, you aren’t hallucinating. "In 1990, the Postal Service launched a nationwide plan to intentionally slow down mail delivery," policy analyst James Bovard wrote in his 1994 book, Lost Rights. First-class letters were already taking 20 percent longer to reach their destination than they had in 1969, but Postmaster General Anthony Frank assured Congress that the reduction in delivery standards would "improve our ability to deliver local mail on time. " In the weird logic and language of the American postal system, the key to success was to give the public less for its money.
The Internet Age may be causing great damage to the post office and its mail-delivery business, but what industry in America isn’t going through the same painful experience? And not many institutions enjoy the benefits that federal law confers on the Postal Service: It pays no income or property taxes, it’s exempt from vehicle licensing requirements and parking fines, and it has the power of eminent domain. Most significant of all, it has a legal monopoly on the delivery of mail: The federal Private Express statutes make it a crime for any private carrier to deliver letters. The only exception is for "extremely urgent" letters, and even those may be delivered by a private company only if it’s willing to charge a much higher rate than the Postal Service would have charged.
Yet with all its privileges, the Postal Service is struggling, while UPS and FedEx flourish. Why? Because they have something invaluable that the post office lacks: Competitors. "We have a business model that is failing," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said last week. It’s true. But it was true long before e-mail came along. What is killing the post office is the lack of genuine, head-to-head competition that forces vendors to compete for customers by pushing quality up and holding prices down. Only in a government-sheltered monopoly like the Postal Service would labor costs remain as bloated as they have, year in and year out.
We can learn from paragraph 4 that US post office______.
选项
A、has been enjoying a favorable business position
B、has been greatly damaged by private delivery companies
C、has recovered from internet shock
D、has been deprived of its previous privileges
答案
A
解析
第四段指出,美国邮局享受着联邦法律赋予的一系列特权,不用交纳所得税或财产税,被免除了车辆执照要求和停车罚款,并享有强制征用权,而且享有合法的邮递垄断权。可见,美国邮局一直占据着有利的商业地位,[A]选项正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/0LK4777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
OnecountrythatiscertainoftheeffectoffilmsontourismisAustralia.TheTouristOfficeofQueenslandsaythatCrocodile
How’sthisforacynicalviewofscience?(46)"Anewscientifictruthdoesnottriumphbyconvincingitsopponentsandmakingth
Jurydutyisbadenough,butimaginenotbeingabletocheckyourphoneore-mailtohelprelievetheboredom.That’sthenewru
Innovationisawordlikedemocracy.Everyoneisinfavourofit,butdifferentpeopleattachdifferentmeaningstoit.IsEasyj
Entertheinformationage.Informationistherawmaterialformanyofthebusinessactivitiesshapingthisnewera,(1)_____ir
Entertheinformationage.Informationistherawmaterialformanyofthebusinessactivitiesshapingthisnewera,(1)_____ir
Asanation,Japanisunusuallywellpreparedfornaturaldisasters.IntheyearssinceWorldWarII,successivegovernmentshav
Forthepast250years,politiciansandhard-headedmenofbusinesshavediligentlyignoredwhateconomics,hastosayaboutthe
Americanhighereducationstandsonthebrink(边缘)ofchaos.1havesomanyspentsolonglearningsolittle.Thepresentcri
TheNotionandOperationthatthePopulationRaiseFundsPoliticiansdoit.Charitiestoo.Andnowfor-profitentrepreneurs
随机试题
A.胃底部B.胃窦部C.小肠上部D.回肠E.结肠(2001年第94题)及收铁的主要部位是
合同法的公平原则体现为( )。
背景资料某新建住宅楼工程,建筑面积43200m2,砖混结构,投资额25910万元。建设单位自行编制了招标工程量清单等招标文件,其中部分条款内容为:本工程实行施工总承包模式;承包范围为土建、水电安装、内外装修及室外道路和小区园林景观;施工质量标准为合格;工
计算公司各年营业收入、营业成本和各项费用的年同比增长率,这属于财务报表分析中的()。
导游人员应该在考虑游客旅游动机、身体状况等条件的基础上,灵活机动地搭配、安排旅游活动内容,满足游客需要。在活动安排上,应做到()。
贝克认为:人们从童年期开始通过生活经验建立起来的认知结构图式是()。
公安机关治安行政处置中的命令,是指公安机关为了维护社会治安秩序和公共安全,依法向负有特定义务的人发出的作为、不作为和约束的指令,这种命令又称“警察命令”。()
甲路过偏僻路段,看到其友乙强奸丙的犯罪事实。甲的下列哪一行为构成包庇罪()
DHCP客户端启动时会向网络发出一个Dhcpdiscover包来请求IP地址,其源IP地址为______。
Upto80percentoftimespentonlineatworkiswasted,accordingtoanewstudyfromKansasStateUniversity.Itsuggeststhat
最新回复
(
0
)