The Efficiencies of Modern Capitalism

I work in an office in New York City (naturally; it's overwhelmingly the home of American book publishing), on East 26th Street overlooking lovely Madison Square Park. It's not a tiny office -- there are probably 100 of us here, spread across two floors -- but the main office of my company is out on Long Island, in Garden City.

And, just five minutes ago, I learned that all of our USPS mail must first go on our twice-a-day van to Garden City, and only there actually enter the mail stream. I thought this was quite silly for a package going to Houghton Mifflin, but apparently it's the way our mail works here. I'm pretty sure messenger packages go straight out (it would be insane if they didn't), and I think FedEx does as well. I'm not sure about other packages; we use UPS (last I knew), and those may need to be processed out on the Island.

You know, I try to be a good Republican, I really do. I generally do believe that private systems are more efficient than government ones. And then I have to go and find out Dilbert's boss is lurking somewhere in the org chart of my own employer...