The USPS is the canary in the coal mine?

[kentuck]

The US Postal Service has been closing offices and processing centers all across the nation. Why?

Some say that their pension system can no longer be funded from their profits. Some say that Congress took about $5 billion dollars from their account for other purposes. Some say it is the changing technology - people don't use the Post Office as much as they did before email and text messaging. Perhaps it is all of the above?

There is no doubt that technology and computers have changed almost every workplace in America. In some instances, computers have made it possible to replace 50% or more employees in some jobs. This is revolutionary.

Government and societies have always been slow to change with the advent of new technology. From the days of stage coaches to trains to buggies to automobiles, people were slow to give up those things they were accustomed to.

Some folks are saying that our present 8% unemployment is the new norm? Could it be the result of the new technology, even though the technology itself creates a lot of new jobs? Could it be that the 40-hour work week is obsolete? That we need to adapt to a new world of labor, perhaps a 35-hour week, in order to maintain a more full employment?

These are ideas Congress should be studying, instead of playing political games, in my opinion.

.

[liberal N proud]

1. Congress took about $5 billion dollars from their account for other purposes, the result...

pension system can no longer be funded.

Social Security will be experiencing the same situation. Make Congress put the money back they STOLE!

[JDPriestly]

9. Right!

But for the powers that be, the worst thing about the Post Office is that if they want to read your mail, they have to manually read your mail or get some gizmo to x-ray photograph it. And they probably need a special warrant and probable cause unless you are using international mail. (I don't know that for a fact. I am guessing they need a warrant unless they use the Patriot Act.)

But the powers that be have graciously given themselves the authority to collect all on-line communications, transactions, everything for future reference, just in case there is some sort of vague probable cause or almost probable cause for rummaging through the past ten years of your credit card statements to see whether you frequented Pasqual's soda counter a few times too often or not.

So, of course, the government prefers the easily-snooped-into internet to the not-so-easily-snooped-into USPS.

And then, of course, the fact is the USPS does not make campaign donations to wealthy members of Congress but its "private sector" competitors do.

And, may I repeat, since the private competitors of the Post Office are not literally run by the government, the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution does not apply to them. In a world dominated by "private" corporations, that pesky Bill of Rights is just words on paper -- nothing more.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

2. I think the internet has put a strain on the Post Office...

I haven't mailed anything in at least two years. I didn't even do Christmas cards this year. Honestly, the convenience of paying bills online is really great. I cannot be the only one this is true for. When I have to send packages, we use UPS or Fed Ex. If it's from Amazon, they pick who they use. Sometimes it's Fed Ex, sometimes UPS, and sometimes USPS. The mail is so unreliable anymore that I just will not take the chance.
Funny story. My mom got a Christmas card dated 12/12/10 the other day that was sent from my cousin through USPS. I guess better late than never, huh?

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. No, it hasn't"5 been the net

I wish people listen. Can you pay your home loan, thirty year loan in two years? Me neither. If they had no Pre funding they'd be fine. By the way USPS has about a 1% issue with processing. UPS and FedEx are higher.

[lacrew]

11. I think the internet has an effect

IIRC, the USPS deferred its 2011 contribution to the pension system to 2012....which means the losses they saw in 2011 were based on volume...not the pension issue.

Junk mail - greatly reduced - why pay to mail junkl mail, when you can spam people's inbox.
First Class mail - more people are weighing and paying exact postage, which hurts the USPS

Opportunity Lost? I buy lots of stuff online, and often the only shipping options are Fed Ex and UPS. I think its because its difficult to get the USPS to make pickups, on a daily basis, at the same time everyday. If they could work that out, they could undercut the others. Alot of the stuff I order, I don't need immediately.

Head in sand - Do nothing and keep saying its just the pensions.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. No they did not

As to USPS I use them exclusively... or rather almost exclusively and their packages volume IS way up.

And you remember wrongly... they tried and Congress in "their wisdom" did not let them.

[lacrew]

27. Ah...the Head in Sand approach

According to GAO - first class mail has dropped off 30 percent since 2001, and less than half of bills sent to people are paid using snail mail.....that might be because of the interwebs.

And per Huffington:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/us-postal-service-loses-less-than-expected-5-billion_n_1095694.html

They absolutely did defer the pension payment, from FY 11 to FY 12. The $5 billion loss in FY11 was exclusively the difference in income and expense...completely outside of any pension payments, which were delayed until November ($5.5 billion). So, I really have no idea what you are talking about....I did not remember wrongly at all.

[zappaman]

19. You are absolutely right

I know way too many people that do EVERYTHING they can on the internet and never use the USPS.
To say the internet has nothing to do with the USPS problems is naive at best...

[They_Live]

8. Fed Ex and UPS

are more difficult to use and more expensive.

I just mailed a package, regular First Class postage, from Texas to NYC with USPS, and it got there safe and sound in TWO DAYS.

I sell through Amazon marketplace and use USPS. Never had a delivery problem.

What do you do instead of Christmas Cards? A mass e-mail? Tweet? Phone calls? It's just not the same.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

10. I'm not a Christian, so why would I mail out Christmas cards.

If I could find mass marketed Winter Solstice cards, I might do it just to shock some people, but I figure why keep doing something I don't really believe in (I once read a story about someone born in Egypt named Horace who was born of a virgin in a barn and I figured it all out)? We made gifts last year for my husband's family and the nieces and nephews, but honestly, it is more an excuse to get together and eat with us than for any religious reasons. We call people if we care about talking to them. I don't hear from anyone all year. Apparently the rest of the year we don't matter. What makes us matter in December? Jesus's Birthday? If he really was a person, he was born in March or April. It just got to be ridiculous, and we stopped.

I'm glad USPS works for you. IF you have a tracking number it is fine. If not, I'd be worried sick about it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. My I even use it to mail letters TO OTHER COUNTRIES

where it goes from ONE postal system to the next. Yes, it takes a little time... but I have yet to have TWO postal systems lose a letter.

No tracking either... and I am never worried. Yup, I know that when I mail a letter during the HIGH VOLUME, read Christmas season, I have to do it early, since two systems and high volume I am guaranteed a little longer. Alas using overnight or any thing silly like that. yup, got the tracking number and paid twenty to thirty dollars for the privilege,

And the letter I send to Poland each year goes through at least THREE postal systems.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

21. I've had really bad luck with it.

But I'm glad that you haven't. I think that Congress screwing it sucks, but at some point it is going to be obsolete. All we get is junk at this point in the mail that goes directly into the paper shred recycle bin as soon as we pull it out of the box.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. Alas we don't, we still pay bills every moth the old fashioned way

I tried online pay a couple times, and I got punished for it.

[They_Live]

15. Uh.. whatever

Last edited Mon Apr 16, 2012, 08:15 PM - Edit history (1)

You're the one who mentioned Christmas cards in the first place. I'm not religious, you apparently have some issues with it.


EDITED TO REMOVE RUDE CONTENT.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

20. Was just using it as an example.

Don't use the mail. I cannot be the only one.
But I'm so glad you trust it and I'm so glad you don't care about me.

[They_Live]

29. I'm sorry.

It was rude of me. I was being a jerk with my knee-jerk. I'm removing the remark, but I am perplexed about why you bring up a subject that is a tripwire for a long comment about your dislike of imposed religious holidays and forced visitation with relatives, when the subject is mail. I personally appreciate the ability to send someone a handwritten note or drawing or photograph, or a cd-r, etc. Something that they can save or hang on the wall. Grandparents especially enjoy receiving grandchild material. Phone calls and emails are okay, and I do use them as well, but they are not the same.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

30. I don't really have any family left that I care about.

I shouldn't have brought it up, shouldn't have elaborated. But it was a good example of the only reason and time of year many people use the USPS.

[Zambero]

12. Agree 100%

For smaller packages under 8 or 10 pounds, Fed Ex and UPS are no bargain, and USPS delivery is every bit as reliable.

[jp11]

22. If it was Fedex or UPS that lost the letter they'd probably

just toss it in the garbage when it was 4+ months late. Unless of course it was fedex/ups who had the post office's letter then when they found it they might hand it back over to the post office. For Fedex/UPS there is no need to make more work for themselves, extra stop, when at that point either a loss claim was filed or it wasn't.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Prefunding requirement

And greed.

Kentuck it is the prefund your pension system for seventy five years in ten. That is not hear saying, the truth. As yourself who benefits.

[kentuck]

5. Can you elaborate on that, Nadin?

??

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. In 2006 Congress passed a requirement

That the USPS had to prefund their pension for 75 years in ten. Yup, cover people not yet born. I was designed by people like Darryl Issa and signed b Bush. It's a poison pill. Essentially they were told to pay ther 30 year fixed in two years.

No agency or private business des this. If they didn't have to they'd be making a profit right now.

Congress can fix it. b the way the objective is to break the Union, and to give profitable routes to the private sector, read UPS and FedEx, and the rural areas can fend for themselves.

[kentuck]

7. Yes.

I was not totally familiar with the terminology.

[former9thward]

16. Henry Waxman and Danny Davis were the co-sponsors of the bill.

Hardy people "like Darryl Issa". The postal union backed it at the time which is why the Senate vote was unanimous and the House did a voice vote with no one requesting a recorded vote.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. But since Daryll has resisted any effort to fix it

But I'm proof positive you knew this.

[former9thward]

18. Of course I know it.

And I know you knew of the sponsorship of the bill even though you characterized them as "people like Daryll Issa".

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. At this point I prefer to live in the actual present

where it is Daryl Issa who can allow a certain bill to fix this mess out of committee or not. Hell, he has the authority to even allow a bill INTO committee.

Sorry if that bugs you.

[CTyankee]

28. We can't have all that socialism, doncha know...those bastids...

[Egalitarian Thug]

23. It's the pensions and the Congress that is killing the USPS.

The obscene funding requirement has become pretty well known, but another huge factor is the little known restrictions placed on USPS operations legally forbidding them from doing what is best for the system because it would hurt "private" carriers. Things like barring the post office from buying its own equipment, and instead having to lease from FedEx and UPS, at usurious rates.

ITSS: It's The Subsidies Stupid.