Destroying the Postal Service in Order to Save It?

[HomerRamone]

By Chuck Zlatkin (Chuck Zlatkin is the Legislative and Political Director of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, APWU, AFL-CIO. He is a founding member of Chelsea Neighbors United to End the War and a founding member of the Big Apple Coffee Party.)

The big lie seems to be working. Most Americans now believe that the U.S. Postal Service is on the verge of a financial collapse. The explanation seems logical: email, too many post offices, unnecessary six-day delivery, overpaid and underproductive workers. Unfortunately, these are half-truths, misinformation or outright lies.

<...>

One of the provisions of the PAEA was to mandate that the Postal Service fully pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and to do it within a ten-year window. This means that the Postal Service is required to send to the U. S. Treasury $5.5 billion each September 30. Remember, this is to pay for the future retirement health benefits of people who haven't even been born yet. The Postal Service is the only entity that is mandated by law to do this. No government agency, corporation or organization is required to fully pre-fund future retirees' health benefits.

But that is not the worst of it. Both the Postal Service's Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the independent Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) commissioned audits to look into possible overpayments that the Postal Service has made into the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). Both audits show that the Postal Service has overpaid at least $50 billion into the pension fund over the years.

<...>

Mail and package delivery will still have to take place if the Postal Service fails. It will take place by a privatized system that does not employ union workers making a living wage and it will not provide universal service to those who need the Postal Service the most. What is taking place is a kind of "wisconsining" of the Postal Service, an excuse to break postal unions and siphon off the profitable aspects of mail delivery to private enterprise and demanding that those most in need sacrifice again.

MORE: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Destroying-the-Postal-Serv-by-Chuck-Zlatkin-110905-492.html

[drm604]

1. K&R

This is very important but is getting little attention.

[lumpy]

3. I think, if the USPS is in trouble, maybe they should discontinue

Saturday deliveries, at least on certain items; raise the stamp rates. Discontinuing USPS mail service should not happen. Of course the far right has been trying to privatize it for years; that alone should call for drastic measures if needed.

[DrunkenBoat]

4. Did you read the article? It's the Social Security scam revisited.

It's clear what should be done, & ending Sat deliveries aren't it.

[customerserviceguy]

5. Keep doubling the cost of junk mail

Once ought to do it for a decade or so, but if businesses wise up and clean up their junk mail lists, double it again.

So much of it just becomes litter or landfill. Let businesses figure out who REALLY wants to buy their crap, and send junk mail only to them. If they cannot figure it out, then they can fully pay for a system that delivers 75% advertising shit mail.

[Occulus]

8. Guaranteeing privatization into the bargain

well-played.

Wrong, but well-played.

[customerserviceguy]

9. Perhaps you can explain your remark

I propose that the junk mail system finance not only itself, but the costs of the people who still insist on using snail mail for letters, bills, etc. By what mechanism would jacking the price of litter delivery cause, nay, guarantee privatization?

[Occulus]

10. If we double the cost of standard mail we lose business almost overnight

We lose that business (the Citigroup mailings, and those from Chase, Mastercard, etc., & etc.), we lose the argument that the USPS can sustain itself ("they're losing business! USPS is unsustainable!"). We lose that argument and Congress puts it up for sale. I can almost guarantee that this Congress wouldn't bail out the USPS.

(If they would deal with the prefunding issue and give back the overpayments, things wouldn't be nearly so dire; I suspect that is intentional.)

I can say that many companies- far, far more than you would believe- still use standard mail for advertising. I should know; I personally sort hundreds of thousands of pieces per week! Despite what postal management says, standard mail is still an integral part of what USPS offers and believe it or not a lot of people still respond to the ads they get.

There's another problem, though; many small businesses rely on these particular mail rates to send their ads. Many local businesses send standard mail as one of their advertising avenues; they send it standard because of the lower bulk rate. I know for a fact that there are businesses local to me that only advertise through the mail because it's all they can afford to do. Raising their rates would go a long way toward putting them out of business. Which, of course, the USPS would be (rightly!) blamed for, which would be used as an argument that the 'company' would be better run in private hands.

I do have an idea that solves this exact problem in a novel way, introduces a new, 21st-century USPS, and launches a new service for postal customers, but for obvious reasons I'm not willing to go any further than that here. To be completely honest, even if I were to suggest it to management officially, I'm afraid it would fall upon deaf ears. Postal management is kakistocracy in action, which is itself a very large part of the problem.

[customerserviceguy]

20. I acknowledge that if you double the cost of sending junk mail

some mailers will indeed quit shipping litter. While you clearly advocate the continued destruction of trees and the burning of fossil fuels in order to send garbage around the country, because it's your job to do that, maybe you need to see it from a different perspective.

I have companies sending me catalogs for years after I bought some loss-leader product from them through a deal from BensBargains.net. Now, unless Ben tells me about another such killer deal (usually for some techie toy that I could take or leave) I'm not going to even open up that junk mail. I suppose that as long as you get paid to route it to my home, you really don't care. But taking the larger view, isn't this an incredible waste of resources? Sometimes people need a jolt to get them to re-evaluate their practices.

If gasoline goes up 25-50 cents a gallon, a lot of people look at that and say, "Well, it will be back down again after Labor Day, (or when the new Mid-East conflict fades away, etc,)" and don't change their habits. But if the price goes up 2-3 dollars a gallon, they start figuring out ways to consolidate trips, carpool, etc. That's what stupid advertisers need, a kick in the pants that tells them to really think hard about the crap mail they scattergun the country with.

I simply cannot imagine FedEx, UPS, or some other new private provider that would have to be created out of thin air delivering junk mail at a rate even twice what the USPS currently charges, so you'll still have the business, since you've still got the infrastructure in place. But as that infrastructure deteriorates, perhaps it should not be replaced, only repaired. We're coming to a place where the only useful things that will be delivered by human courier are packages. While you would like to see dead-tree advertising continue to pollute the planet, I'd rather see us phase away from it.

Besides, if your pension and health care plans really are as overfunded as you think they are, what do you have to worry about?

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. This s purely about busting unions.

I am amazed you do not really understand this.

[customerserviceguy]

24. If the USPS continues on

with rate increases to junk mail, how does that bust the unions?

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. Congress needs to approve it

You honestly believe Issa will? And Issa has said that s his goal, to bust the unions.

[customerserviceguy]

26. You say that over and over and over again

I want Congress to approve the doubling, or at least the raising, of junk mail rates.

If they kick up first class rates, so that Grandma will have to find a dollar stamp to send off her payments to her creditors, then she will figure out from her grandchildren how to pay her bills on the Internet. They might not want to kick first class rates up that high, but it makes sense to put the costs of running the USPS on the backs of the junk mailers who are the prime beneficiaries of that organization.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Here..go read this

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/07/14/269946/issa-postal-service-union-bustin/

The current congress will not approve it...not when they are this close to busting it.

[customerserviceguy]

28. Thanks for providing that

And it's not news to me that Rep. Issa and other Rethugs in Congress want to bust the postal unions. But what is preventing a Democratic representative (or especially a Senator) from proposing an increase in junk mail rates? My feeling is that even the tea partiers cannot defend the subsidy given to the distributors of crap that clogs mailboxes across the country, Monday through Saturday.

Can we at least try to keep the USPS going by charging those who get the very most benefit from it?

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. They have... But republicans have the gavel

Issa will not even let it into committee, just as he will not let any legislation to correct the abuses of the 2006 law.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. How many times do we have to point out ANY mail rate increase

Needs to be approved by Congress?

[alfredo]

13. It's the Postal Regulatory Commission.

http://www.prc.gov/prc-pages/default.aspx

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. And it still goes through congress

Ultimate authority...and unlike a private business they can't set mail rates.

That's the point.

[alfredo]

15. Or products they can sell.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Exactly but some folks don't get it

It's not a bidness, nor does it function like one.

[alfredo]

19. If the post office acted like a business, poor and rural areas would

Be red lined. My route was a money loser because most of my 600+ customers were poor. I had to visit over 100 houses an hour, and walk 10 miles in 6 hours. I walked across America every year. Even with my productivity, my mail volume was too low to be profitable.

[justabob]

17. junk mail

I get so much junk mail it is ridiculous. Was thinking just this afternoon about this very thing as I collected the mail. Surely all that tonnage of crap costs the post office dearly. Is it really too much to ask that they pay what everyone else has to pay, or more? I get very little real mail, but several pounds of junk paper every week... if even a fraction of that was eliminated, the USPS would be a much happier place, I think. Such a simple thing could make a world of difference all the way around.

[purna123]

6. agree

yes, it is weird how people ignore important think and put many effort to many unimportant thing.

http://purnailweb.com">purnail

[elfin]

2. I really like the USPS

Cheaper than private. My carrier KNOWS me. If the mail piles up, they will check to see if I am OK. They will screen to make sure no one sends me anthrax or a letter bomb.

They can discern if a group in a house is getting things from places that are terrorist suspect.

They employ vets. They are the community meeting place in smaller communities. And on and on.

So they missed the boat on the whole internet thing. Perhaps let them make it up with other services, like simple banking like Japan does.

Of course, the check cashing business lobby will HATE to lose the exorbitant rates they charge to underemployed people -- USPS could provide other needed services for people other than mail.

[texpatriot2004]

7. I wasn't aware of this, good to know. I love snail mail and I can't

imagine an America without the USPS.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Call critter and demand they roll back the 2006 legislation

Ask them to co-sponsor hr 1351

[defendandprotect]

18. Destroying the PO in order to steal its assets -- and privatize it -- !!

[Starry Messenger]

21. k&r

[senseandsensibility]

22. Great piece on countdown about this last night.

Journalist guest (for truthout) said that it is a myth that the PO is being put out of business by the internet, and that this is a manufactured crisis.