Need world zip codes

[CJM]

I don't see the government as being in business to make a profit. I see
them as providing services at no more than cost. The cost of putting a
list of postal codes on the postal organization's web site is de minimis.
If they were to charge for cost, it would probably be under USD 1.

It depends on what scale you want to apply your de minimis rule. Rather than
providing a free service to big business, I'd rather they paid some of the
cost they would have had to incur had the data not been there on a plate for
them.

This revenue is then fed back into the governments coffers and can be used
to pay for healthcare and education. The alternative is the business gets it
easy, and I have to pay more taxes to prop up schools and hospitals.

In the UK, I don't think the Post Office even break even when delivering
mail; it is subsidised by other parts of the organisation that makes a
profit.

CJM

 

[William Tasso]

...
I don't see the government as being in business to make a profit. I
see them as providing services at no more than cost.

oh dear - that would be like services provided for the people, by the people
&c?

hrmm - radical to say the least

it all depends on where the profit element is siphoned off to. At any point
the fee can be related to cost - somewhere along the line there will be
'profit' for someone.

 

[Toby Inkster]

There was a story going around shortly after the postal codes were
introduced (in the 1970s, IIRC) of someone whose mail had been
routed through Japan. His postal code was T0K 0Y0.

What about the guy whose mail was routed to the top floor of his block of
flats, and then down to the basement, and then back to the top floor
again, and back to the basement... his postcode was Y0Y 0Y0.

 

[Stuart Miller]

What about the guy whose mail was routed to the top floor of his block of
flats, and then down to the basement, and then back to the top floor
again, and back to the basement... his postcode was Y0Y 0Y0.

- very punny

Stuart

 

[Harlan Messinger]

It depends on what scale you want to apply your de minimis rule. Rather than
providing a free service to big business, I'd rather they paid some of the
cost they would have had to incur had the data not been there on a plate for
them.

This revenue is then fed back into the governments coffers and can be used
to pay for healthcare and education. The alternative is the business gets it
easy, and I have to pay more taxes to prop up schools and hospitals.

Businesses are just people making a living, and businesses also pay
their share of taxes, so arbitrarily assessing costs for schools and
hospitals from businesses that happen to need a list of postal codes
doesn't strike me as a superior approach to assessing those costs from
the public at large without regard to their need for postal codes.