As IF Times

link How Patricia Cohen Plans to Seek Revenge Against Her Hedge-Fund Superpower Ex-Husband Steve Cohen — New York Magazine.

An entertaining piece and voyeuristic glimpse into the private lives of people who you might only see in movies such as War of the Roses.  No doubt on many smaller scales, similar dramas happen every day by the thousands. 

People should expect that after being put through the grinding legal machinery of divorce, once all  the haggling and legal manoevering are over, it should  be over.  As anyone who has been through it knows, that just isn’t the case as this story amply illustrates.  From a legal perspective, there should be closure to the end of a relationship once both sides have signed off on an agreement.  This particular story is perhaps an egregious example of the entitlement mentality of much of society, supported by a willing legal system.  It’s as if once married, the parties are entitled to participate in a lifelong lottery win.  According to this story at least, the legal system is an accomplice to the ex Mrs. Cohen’s ingrained vindictiveness despite being separted for over 20 years.   Apparently, divorce can actually be a career pursuit even if you’re not a lawyer.

Consider these statistics from divorcerate.org:

The divorce rate in America for first marriage, vs second or third marriage
50% percent of first marriages, 67% of second and 74% of third marriages end in divorce, according to Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri.”

In addtion, the breakdown (ha ha) according to age distribution:

Age at marriage for those who divorce in America

Given these intimidating statistics, it’s a wonder the institution of marriage still exists.  On the other hand, there has been a very public push by the vocal gay community for marriage rights.  Either they are unaware of the statistics or there are career choices being made.  Hmm.

 link Will Five-Day Delivery Save the Postal Service? – Newsweek.com.

If this article is leading to what it implies, that is the closing down of many postal offices, it will have a signficant impact upon American culture.  Where are people supposed to go to get really angry? Who will dogs chase around?  What will lonely housewives do to pass the day?  Where do you mount wanted posters?

Something’s illogical here.  Not the usual diatribe about the inefficient post office, but just big picture logic.  With the onset of the computer age, the world has moved towards sending messages, greetings, advertisements and yes, even bill paying on to electronic media.  If this is the case, there MUST have been a coincidental decline in regular mail over the past decade and a half.  Wouldn’t this have been obvious from the revenue statements from year to year?   Yet in the article, it states that it was only in 2008 that red ink began to show at the U.S. Post Office.

How can it be possible that the Post Office is projected to lose 23 billion dollars a year for the next decade?  The obvious answer is fixed costs, in particular labor costs.  While the rate for a letter has gone up from $0.32 in 1995 to just south of $0.50 cents today according to the UPS website, this apparently hasn’t been enough to cover salary and pension benefits for all  the hard working posties.  Heck, the Postmaster General John Potter is forced to scrape by on only $845,000 a year,  a pittance compared to what he could be making if he ran UPS or Fedex. 

As mentioned, not only has electronic communications cut off one stream of revenue for the Post Office, private carriers like UPS and Fedex are also formidable competitors for delivery service.  The downside is, the Post Office still tries to maintain the offices and staffing levels as if they were still the monopoly.  We know some cutbacks will happen, but before then, there will be an enormous hand extended to the government for money to support an old, inefficient business model.  The article states that much of the business is from catalogs and magazines and which still contributes substantial revenue.  Do people really need to spend over 230 billion dollars over the next 10 years to get catalogs?  It seems more reasonable to let those companies find an alternate way to send their junk mail and stop having the public subsidize their business model.  At the very least, we’ll likely receive less junk mail.

As heart wrenching as the ultimate demise of the Post Office will be, modern times have eclipsed the business model.  They are still selling allegorical blocks of ice to consumers who now all own refrigerators.  It still appears that there will be room for a federal postal service, but on a significantly reduced scale.  Not to worry, there’s another big government industry being created now to absorb some of the displaced workers creating something else for them to deliver.  Healthcare.  Hopefully, it won’t be just 5 day delivery.