USPS losses double for past year to $8.5 Billion

[cbdo2007]

Losses double for U.S. Postal Service
By Aaron Smith, staff writerNovember 12, 2010: 12:46 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The U.S. Postal Service more than doubled its losses in fiscal year 2010, despite cutting billions of dollars in expenses and trimming its staff.

The Postal Service said its net loss totaled $8.5 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That compares to a loss of $3.8 billion the prior year.

The Postal Service blamed the deeper losses on the recession and on the continuing growth of e-mail. A change in the interest rates affecting the Postal Service's workers' compensation liability also played a role, the organization said.

Chief Financial Officer Joe Corbett said the losses were worsening despite cuts that generated cost savings of $9 billion over the past two years. Those savings came primarily from the elimination of 105,000 full-time positions -- "more than any other organization, anywhere," Corbett said.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/12/news/economy/postal_service/index.htm?hpt=T2

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So is it getting close to time to shut down the USPS? It's going the way of the Pony Express eventually, so how long ($$$) do we wait?

[Kalyke]

1. So you deliver goods electronically?

It's not going the way of the Pony Express. The problem is that Congress won't allow the USPS to compete with UPS or FedEx by restricting it to selling one product: stamps. Sure you can buy boxes, but you're actually buying the shipping cost.

And, now, they're restricted from delivering tobacco (dumb, dumb move) except overseas to troops.

The problem isn't the USPS - it's the strangulation of it by Republican (and in at least one case, Democratic) policies.

[cbdo2007]

3. USPS does compete with UPS and FedEx. That isn't what's killing them - it's the daily delivery

of sh*t advertisements that go directly into everyone's recycle containers.

Sure, everyone will always need to ship "goods" but the days of writing letters, communicating with companies, heck even mail advertising - those days are over. That is 95% online now.

[Uben]

2. Rupert Murdoch buys U.S.P.S.

All postage stamps will have Rush Limbaugh , Glen Beck, Dick Cheney or Carl Rove on them. Parcels will be delivered on a fair and balanced schedule and republican voter registrations will accompany all parcels.

[Chimichurri]

4. If they deem you a dirty hippy, suddenly your bills start to get lost 'in the mail'.