I'll take a stab at it Jay. (You probably expected that though, didn't you?
)
1. The Post Office
A lot of people may disagree with me on this; but I think this is one entity that needs to go. Where in the private sector could a company lose
billions of dollars every quarter, and still remain in business? The price of postage stamps has been rendered completely irrelevant- the difference comes out of our taxes. The other thing that bugs me is the culture that exists within the postal service. Employees seem entitled to a job for life, regardless of behavior or financial realities. People don't get laid off, they get moved from one place to another. And I know that there are good people that work for the post office, but I have seen way to many of the bad eggs that give them a bad rep. I have seen carriers intentionally throw and drop parcels because they are in a huff. When taking packages to the local post office dock for my company, I have watched helplessly while the attendant I handed the box of our customers books too, turns around and
throws it overhand at a wall 20 feet away. The box slams into the wall and drops into the bin below. All I can do is look at them like they are out of their minds.
I can't say anything to them because there are laws against "harassing" federal employees. (There are laws against choking them too- which is usually my first thought.)
It was a good thing that has run it's course. It needs to go and let the private sector replace it with an accountable alternative.
2. The Check
Haven't used these for years.
3. The Newspaper
Another thing that seems to have worked to hasten it's own demise. A victim of it's own political version of inbreeding. Newspapers long ago lost sight of the objective of reporting facts, and replaced it with attempting to be an instrument of social change. Genetic diversity fell by the wayside as the intellectual gene pool became populated by reporters, writers, and editors all of the same mindset. A large enough section of the population was intelligent enough to sense an agenda hovering behind the stories they were reading, and chose more and more not to subscribe to it. The internet and electronic media only hastened the effect. Now people are turning off the big TV news networks, and the newsmakers, operating in denial, still don't get it.
4. The Book
I have a front row seat to this show. As a publisher, I am currently caught between a market that is shrinking exponentially by the day, and a CEO that seems to have no clue about basic business as well as a complete unwillingness to make the necessary changes that would mean the difference between survival and oblivion.
I go to my office every day, sit at my desk, and wait for the end.
5. The Land Line Telephone
We have one. We never answer it. It's just an avenue for telemarketers and my Canadian in-laws who for some reason can't seem to grasp the concept that we exclusively use our cel phones. I insisted on keeping it for emergency reasons (911 and all). But last years ice storm took out both land line and cellular service at the same time. If one of the many candles or lanterns we were using for light, caught our house on fire, we would have been screwed. Smoke signals would have been about our only option.
6. Music
I don't know about this one. I think it's just one of those things that will always be around; it's just always in a constant state of change. I thought MTV would be the death of music. For a time I was right. But now MTV is dead. (It just doesn't seem to know it yet.)
7. Television
Won't really miss it that much. Now if I could just get my kid away from the damn computer.
8. The "Things" That You Own
Three words: Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)
Look it up.
Then back up all your stuff on hard copies.
9. Privacy
Orwell was right. He was just a few years off: Big Brother
is watching you.
