Post Office loses $3.8 Billion. (1 Viewer)

[BoltBacker]

Hmmmmm....

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/433767_mail19.html

I check my mail once or twice a week tops. Wouldn't really mind if the simply assigned everyone P.O. Boxes instead of delivering it all the way to each home. How much would that save? Building all those P.O. boxes would be a one time expense and I'm sure it would pale in comparison to the costs of maintaining/fueling a fleet of delivery vehicles 6 days a week.

Another easy fix: why don't they just charge more to deliver junk mail?

 

[Alex P Keaton]

Pretty sure if we cut out inefficient rural service they'll be running a surplus in year plus one.

You live in BFE, you don't deserve gov't subsidized mail service. You want better service? Move to the city, slacker.

Almost. If they cut a bunch of inefficient rural locations AND stopped Saturday delivery, they would run a sizeable surplus. They're already planning to close a ton of small post offices, and it's only a matter of time before Saturday delivery ends.

 

[Jabrone]

The last 6 pieces of mail I have sent via the post office to the New Orleans area have not been delivered, some over a year old. Eleven of the last fourteen items sent via the post office have not been delivered.

Uggggghhhhhh....

I work at a large law firm. One day two weeks ago our office never got any mail. Not a single attorney. Office manager called up to ask what was going on and was told "ma'am sometimes people don't get mail every day." When the USPS rep was told we were a large firm and that there is no way we could possibly not have a single piece of mail for the day the rep tried to call the carrier but couldn't contact him/her. She said she'd call back later when the carrier was found but that never happened. No mail and never any explanation for not having any mail delivery during the middle of the week. Carrier decided to not deliver mail that day I guess.

Just to be clear, I have mailed things to the New Orleans area that were never delivered.

Not surprising at all.

 

[the moops]

Yea. Not sure why they need to deliver on Saturday. I don't care to read all the crap mail I get on my weekends.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I'd be fine with home delivery twice a week. I don't check my mailbox any more often than that anyway.

I would be very happy with this.

 

[Wingnut]

Post office to stop Saturday delivery in August 2013 http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/02/06/u-s-postal-service-to-halt-saturday-mail-starting-august-1/

 

[Christo]

I really don't understand why people are so up in arms about dropping Saturday. It's the mail. If speed was of the essence, the sender wouldn't have put it in the mail in the first place.

 

[DrJ]

I really don't understand why people are so up in arms about dropping Saturday. It's the mail. If speed was of the essence, the sender wouldn't have put it in the mail in the first place.

They do have the most reasonable overnight shipping pricing.

 

[DiStefano]

$3.8 billion is chump change for Obama. Let 'em roll!

 

[the moops]

I really don't understand why people are so up in arms about dropping Saturday. It's the mail. If speed was of the essence, the sender wouldn't have put it in the mail in the first place.

Are people really up in arms about this? Seems most people have a who the #### cares outlook

 

[Kool-Aid Larry]

$5 stamps.boom.

 

[Christo]

I really don't understand why people are so up in arms about dropping Saturday. It's the mail. If speed was of the essence, the sender wouldn't have put it in the mail in the first place.

Are people really up in arms about this? Seems most people have a who the #### cares outlook

No. There was no basis for my comment. I made it all up.

 

[Novice2]

I'd be fine with home delivery twice a week. I don't check my mailbox any more often than that anyway.

I would be very happy with this.

Nooooooooooooooo my Netflix movies!

 

[32 Counter Pass]

It seems a ridiculous law passed in 2006 is a major cause of this: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/19/546851/postal-service-default-congres/?mobile=wt

 

[Sarnoff]

It seems a ridiculous law passed in 2006 is a major cause of this: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/19/546851/postal-service-default-congres/?mobile=wt

Oh, so ThinkProgress says it's all really Bush's fault. Whew.

 

[cstu]

$5 stamps.boom.

They have been jacking up prices so I think it's getting there. The price on international packages has went up over 50% in the past year. Domestic packages have also gone up but not to as great a degree.

 

[32 Counter Pass]

It seems a ridiculous law passed in 2006 is a major cause of this: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/19/546851/postal-service-default-congres/?mobile=wt

Oh, so ThinkProgress says it's all really Bush's fault. Whew.

Oh so you think requiring prefunding pensions for 75 years is a reasonable law. Good luck trying to start, let alone run a business with that requirement.

 

[DrJ]

It seems a ridiculous law passed in 2006 is a major cause of this: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/19/546851/postal-service-default-congres/?mobile=wt

Oh, so ThinkProgress says it's all really Bush's fault. Whew.

Oh so you think requiring prefunding pensions for 75 years is a reasonable law. Good luck trying to start, let alone run a business with that requirement.

Yeah, it's difficult to find employees these days without offering a pension. If you're going to offer one, you should fund it adequately. Especially considering the tax payers might be on the hook if you don't. http://www.pbgc.gov/

Right now it looks like there's a chance this fund will need a bailout or will go bankrupt as they've run deficits for 31 of the 38 years of their operation, which keep growing. http://www.dailyfinance.com/article/us-pension-insurer-runs-record-34b-deficit/2297105/

 

[nephilim]

has anyone mentioned that the USPS is explicitly authorized by the Postal Clause in Article 1 of the Constitution? fix the fuster cluck 75 year retirement pre-funding and the problem goes away. gop and chicken crap dems at their best... btw, that retirement funding is around 115 million/week...

 

[BigSteelThrill]

has anyone mentioned that the USPS is explicitly authorized by the Postal Clause in Article 1 of the Constitution fix the fuster cluck 75 year retirement pre-funding and the problem goes away. gop and chicken crap dems at their best...

Funny, I didnt see our tea-party types in here defending the USPS at all.

 

[DrJ]

has anyone mentioned that the USPS is explicitly authorized by the Postal Clause in Article 1 of the Constitution? fix the fuster cluck 75 year retirement pre-funding and the problem goes away. gop and chicken crap dems at their best... btw, that retirement funding is around 115 million/week...

And the 2nd Amendment gives the explicit right to bear arms. I'll take one of those thermo nuclear ones if you don't mind.

 

[humpback]

has anyone mentioned that the USPS is explicitly authorized by the Postal Clause in Article 1 of the Constitution? fix the fuster cluck 75 year retirement pre-funding and the problem goes away. gop and chicken crap dems at their best... btw, that retirement funding is around 115 million/week...

It gets smaller, but it doesn't go away.

 

[Christo]

has anyone mentioned that the USPS is explicitly authorized by the Postal Clause in Article 1 of the Constitution? fix the fuster cluck 75 year retirement pre-funding and the problem goes away. gop and chicken crap dems at their best... btw, that retirement funding is around 115 million/week...

Authorized, not required.

 

[DrJ]

has anyone mentioned that the USPS is explicitly authorized by the Postal Clause in Article 1 of the Constitution? fix the fuster cluck 75 year retirement pre-funding and the problem goes away. gop and chicken crap dems at their best... btw, that retirement funding is around 115 million/week...

Authorized, not required.

Building post offices is also different than hand delivering the mail. It wasn't until 1863 that they began delivering the mail, and even then it was only in urban areas that had enough population to support it. There's been a wide range of ways that this has all been handled. At one point it was delivered twice daily to residents and 7 times daily to businesses in Brooklyn. Maybe this made sense when we didn't have things like phones. Eventually it didn't, and they knocked that off in 1950 for residences and over the next few decades for businesses.It was 7 days a week for a long period, until the Church asked to have Sundays stopped to encourage more people to attend rather than hang out at the post office. Saturday delivery was suspended for a time in 1957 due to lack of funds.It's been all over the place. When it actually makes economic sense, they deliver more. When that stops happening, they deliver less. Clearly it doesn't make sense today, and should be limited so we don't bleed money providing a service few people really need.

 

[Glass Joe]

No USPS will impact our vendors who get paid with terms. It will also affect our handling of interest payments. The affect of no Saturday delivery will be bigger than you'd think.

 

[DrJ]

What about something like this - we continue delivering priority and express packages on Saturday. If you want your stuff delivered on a Saturday, pay the $5 stamp. If you are fine with it making it there M-F, normal stamp prices. The people that want to continue having their packages arrive on Saturday just have to cough up extra money and fund the service.

 

[NajehHejan]

It's a joke, 80% of my mail is unwanted and unsolicited junk. I get my bills emailed to me online. Sure I'm still a slave to the USPS for year end tax info like W2, 1099, charitable forms etc. but even that is trending online. F the mail, just keep it open for holidays, tax season, and my birthday, and shut it down the rest of the time.

 

[NorvilleBarnes]

I'd be fine with home delivery twice a week. I don't check my mailbox any more often than that anyway.

I would be very happy with this.

Yep.

 

[the moops]

I really don't understand why people are so up in arms about dropping Saturday. It's the mail. If speed was of the essence, the sender wouldn't have put it in the mail in the first place.

Are people really up in arms about this? Seems most people have a who the #### cares outlook

No. There was no basis for my comment. I made it all up.

That seems about right.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

I've always been in favor of the post office:

• It's original to the country's founding
• It delivers and picks up mail at your door
• It's a traditional uniformed form of protection for citizens, the government is charged with protecting the safety of communications (btw - weird, right, considering what's been going on? Can you imagine the uproar if Obama said he was going to start tracking and maybe opening people's mail???)

However, now with Sen. Lizzy Warren saying she wants to start to turn the PO into a money maker as a financial transactor, quasi-bank kind of thing, I wonder if we should just shut the whole thing down. If it's that expensive, maybe we should just let it go.

 

[HellToupee]

However, now with Sen. Lizzy Warren saying she wants to start to turn the PO into a money maker as a financial transactor, quasi-bank kind of thing, I wonder if we should just shut the whole thing down. If it's that expensive, maybe we should just let it go.

Putting 500k+ employees in the unemployment line is bad politics

 

[BigSteelThrill]

I've always been in favor of the post office:

• It's original to the country's founding
• It delivers and picks up mail at your door
• It's a traditional uniformed form of protection for citizens, the government is charged with protecting the safety of communications (btw - weird, right, considering what's been going on? Can you imagine the uproar if Obama said he was going to start tracking and maybe opening people's mail???)

However, now with Sen. Lizzy Warren saying she wants to start to turn the PO into a money maker as a financial transactor, quasi-bank kind of thing, I wonder if we should just shut the whole thing down. If it's that expensive, maybe we should just let it go.

The only reason the USPS dont break even (or a profit) is congress refuses too allow them to run an even ledger. Thats how they want it.

The congress literally states... the post office will be funded any loss the can be reasonably quantified.

Why? The are bought off by the lobbyist of companies those who use the service most.

http://www.thenonprofittimes.com/news-articles/hiked-postal-rates-get-approved/