Comments on: Local Mail Affected if Sorting Facilities Close
By hotfishmt on 11-20-11
Its safe to say….the USPS….is paying too much for employees retirements & benefits…add in e-mail & less stamped mail…something has to give?2 months ago….I sent my daughter in Seattle area….a Priority Mail Envelop…..cost $5.86 to send….took only 7 days for her to get it and at that she had to go to the Post Office in Everett to pick it up….so the extra cost to send fast US Mail….gota wonder why??
Add in the “commercials” for the USPS….if it fits…ship it…..what a joke & waste of money….for the USPS & customers…trying to be UPS…and waste a lot of money on television commercials???? Go to any local PO and see the stack of boxes….you can take one or all…...free storage containers I guess you could say.
Course the obvious problem is the so called funded retirement benefits….figured out some 40 years….geeze what a time the CPA’s must have had figuring out how to phase that to the public???
By waterman on 11-20-11
Why not save even more money by closing the whole postal system down ? Just think of how much we would save then.Why do the news articles not mention the fact that congress takes the income from postage costs and spend it as if it came from the general tax fund ? Then congress gives them some funds back to operate for the next year.
Yes, you read it correct. The postage cost we pay is spent by congress on whatever they choose. It is nothing more than another concealed tax. Think of it as, raising the cost of postage = raising taxes in disguise.
If the gov’t was even serious about a profitable postal service they would have them operate outside of the control of the ‘money grabbing congressional thieves.’
Shut it down. Let private enterprise take it over and it will be operated as a business that needs customers to stay alive. You keep customers by trying to keep costs down and providing a better service than the competition.
Since we already have private enterprises, i.e. Fed Ex, UPS, etc. that is well skilled in competing for business they are already poised to relieve the gov’t of they mess they have created.
Want to create jobs of tax contributors or just more incompetent federal gov’t employees that consume taxes ?
By Firebeam on 11-20-11
My sense is that that USPS cannot recover from the nosedive they are in. And yet we’ll undoubtedly watch them spend millions, if not billions trying to “bail water out of the Titanic with a teacup”.
Let’s not apply the “too big to fail” theories to this one. Cut our losses and hand this over to private enterprise.
99% of what I get in the mail goes straight into the recycling bin.
By reggie on 11-20-11
This attempt to privatize the postal service has been in the works for years. Conservatives saw an opportunity to open another route to public funds for the ruleing class and have placed unnecessary financial burdens on post office operations to discredit them.
According to a recent study http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/us/13contractor.html it costs the government, on average, over twice as much per employee to contract out work as to hire employees directly. I have also read that our mercenaries cost up to ten times as much each as soldiers.
We all have shipped by private carrier and by USPS, which was less expensive for you?
By mentalward on 11-20-11
It is interesting how everyone here is discussing how much money we would save by shutting down the USPS. I am going to spell this out simply: Except for a small amount of reimbursement they receive for complying with federal regulations related to shipping voting forms to military personnel/disabled voters, THE USPS DOES NOT RECEIVE ANY TAXPAYER MONEY TO SUPPORT ITS OPERATIONS. AT ALL. The idea the we would be saving anything at all by shutting them down is absurd. Furthermore, Waterman, the reason articles to not report that postage rates are taxes is because they aren’t, and haven’t been since Congress changed it in 1982. They are “postal products” and all of the revenue from their sale goes to the USPS and only the USPS.
The reason that the Post Office is in the position it’s in is because of Congressional meddling. Shocking, I know, that Congress could screw anything up, but it’s true! The USPS must run itself like a business, but they can’t actually make any business decisions themselves; they must ask Congress to approve anything.
And Congress will change the rules at a whim. In 2006, they mandated that the USPS must pay the next 75 years of pensions WITHIN 10 YEARS. No other agency has to comply with this absurd regulation. In fact, if it weren’t for that, the post office would be in the black now.
And Hotfishmt, I’m sorry that your experience with mailing a letter was so poor. When I mailed a DVD+Birthday Card from the post office in Whitefish to my brother-in-law in Madison, WI last Monday, it cost me $2.77 and was there on Thursday. Perhaps you could drive it there yourself next time? Assuming that you could find a way to get to Seattle for $5.86, of course.
By waterman on 11-20-11
mentalward, I stand corrected. I verified some of what you stated at http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/consumerawareness/a/uspsabout.htm , and you are correct about the USPS not receiving tax dollars to op. with. Only about 96 million/yr. is what they receive from tax dollars. Never thought I would say, Only 96 million. They do about 45 billion a yr. in business.
By bocephusj57 on 11-20-11
You’re absolutely correct, mentalward. Had Congress not inflicted the undue burden of accelerated pension funding, there would not be a problem.
Before the free marketeers get too carried away: Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution, known as the Postal Clause or the Postal Power, empowers Congress “To establish Post Offices and post Roads”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Clause
By mentalward on 11-21-11
Thanks waterman and bocephusj57. I wish it weren’t so hard to uncover this information, as it seems that it’s totally buried under political push and pull. It’s especially sad since, as bocephusj57 pointed out, the USPS is one of the only government agencies that is specifically authorized in the Constitution. It would be tragic (and ironic) to see it go.
By NatureMan on 11-24-11
mentalward, hey quit being so mean, your comment was not necessary, “And Hotfishmt, I’m sorry that your experience with mailing a letter was so poor. When I mailed a DVD+Birthday Card from the post office in Whitefish to my brother-in-law in Madison, WI last Monday, it cost me $2.77 and was there on Thursday. Perhaps you could drive it there yourself next time? Assuming that you could find a way to get to Seattle for $5.86, of course.”
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