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Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount

Renae

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The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.

At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/business/in-internet-age-postal-service-struggles-to-stay-solvent-and-relevant.html?_r=1

T
he day of reckoning is at hand for the Post office. This is what happens folks, when Government runs a business.
 
The day of reckoning is at hand for the Post office. This is what happens folks, when Government runs a business.

Actually this is more what happens when government runs a vital service that fails to keep pace technologically and innovate to stay ahead because actually investing money in innovation is now apparently communism.
 
Some relevant questions to scale backs in the Postal office might be if they close rural outlets are they cutting back staff in metros that arent as busy as they used to be? Are they running a trim staff to meet goals, short and long term? Are they trimming administration? Are they recognizing that wages need to be more tightly controlled? Are they in a hiring freeze? Are they in a wage freeze? Are they adjusting medical and retirement benefits?

Its a changing economical world, not just a changing technological world. I bet USPS could use an overhaul of vast proportions from top to bottom and run both more efficiently and more cheaply. They do perform a vital service. That doesnt mean they cant improve or there are better ways to do what they do.
 
I had a friend that got payed $20.00 an hour to sort mail into a an array of cubby holes all day at the post office... makes me wonder.
 
The full service Postal Service has been replaced pretty much by email. When was the last time you wrote a letter?

Postal deliveries could easily be cut back to three times a week and the staff reduced by 40% to 50%.

Some people would receive mail on Mon. Wed. & Friday, and the others would receive mail on Tuesday. Thursday, and Sat.

I mean how many days of the week do want to receive bills and past due notices? lol

I don't remember the last time I used the Postal Service, because I have direct deposit for my banking and pay all my bills electronically. I haven't written a check in almost 4 years. I do get Bank statements and Ballots by mail but not much else.

Hell I only check the mail twice a month.
 
Actually this is more what happens when government runs a vital service that fails to keep pace technologically and innovate to stay ahead because actually investing money in innovation is now apparently communism.

Who said anything about Communism? You did. Trying to deflect from the underlying problems with the US Postal service, if you read the article, 80% of the US Post office costs are in Man Power. Take a wild guess what the same costs are for UPS and FedEx.
 
I don't have the statistics nor do I wish to look them up. I spend more in one month at the post office than I did for my first 38 years combined. While letters may be way down becuase of email, things like mail order is way up because of the internet.

So, since Fed Ex can be profitable with packages I would think a model like Fed Ex for packages and cutting letter delivery down to 3 days would work better.
 
i still mail my bills, partially to help the postal service. plus, sitting down and writing the check makes me feel what i'm spending. i prefer that to clicking a button or having it automatically taken out of my account.
 
I ship everything on ebay through the postal service, if prices are better through fedex I havent noticed a significant enough disparity to care. I can drive 1 mile to my post office and pack everything myself, I receive almost everything through usps as well.
 
I ship everything on ebay through the postal service, if prices are better through fedex I havent noticed a significant enough disparity to care. I can drive 1 mile to my post office and pack everything myself, I receive almost everything through usps as well.

Fedex is better for big items if you are willing to use the cheap option. I sent two motorcycle tires half way across the country for $12. Being that the Post Office is just around the corner for me, I also use them 95% of the time.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/business/in-internet-age-postal-service-struggles-to-stay-solvent-and-relevant.html?_r=1

T
he day of reckoning is at hand for the Post office. This is what happens folks, when Government runs a business.

This post is extremely ignorant.

This is less about a government-run business and more about undergoing a technological revolution.

The reason why the Post Office is losing money is because the expansion of the internet and the use of e-mail is taking the place of correspondence through letters. After all, the music, film, and television industries are losing money because of he expansion of the internet as well, and those aren't government run industries.
 
Fedex is better for big items if you are willing to use the cheap option. I sent two motorcycle tires half way across the country for $12.

Please link me to how that is possible through fedex if you didnt hold them at gunpoint lol. Also how is that even logistically feasible?
 
Actually this is more what happens when government runs a vital service that fails to keep pace technologically and innovate to stay ahead because actually investing money in innovation is now apparently communism.

The government has done a poor job maintaining the postal service especially when we have TWO private companies that do a much more efficient job (FedEx & UPS) to use as examples, and the only thing that makes the USPS vital in the 21st century is the Constitution which states in Article I Section 8 To establish Post Offices and Post Roads; Congress has failed to maintain the USPS and is suspect, with all the infrastructure reports lately, of maintaining Post Roads as well.
 
This post is extremely ignorant.

This is less about a government-run business and more about undergoing a technological revolution.

The reason why the Post Office is losing money is because the expansion of the internet and the use of e-mail is taking the place of correspondence through letters. After all, the music, film, and television industries are losing money because of he expansion of the internet as well, and those aren't government run industries.

But that technology is going to cause the loss of many jobs and people are going to fight that tooth and nail.
 
But that technology is going to cause the loss of many jobs and people are going to fight that tooth and nail.

I hope you werent of the lot that was opposed to bailing out the latest bust in the capitalist economic cycle that wouldve crashed earth into the depth of a depressionist hell spiral unbeknownst to modern man...

that may have cost some jobs too... :p
 
Please link me to how that is possible through fedex if you didnt hold them at gunpoint lol. Also how is that even logistically feasible?

Yep, error on my part. It was $16.69. It was still far cheaper than what the Post Office was going to charge. That includes $100 worth of insurance. Coker's sent me 4 tires through Fedex for $20. I figured $12 would cover two but I imagine that Coker gets a volume discount.

Regular shipping has seemed to pretty much a wash between the two. WV to Alabama.
 
I hope you werent of the lot that was opposed to bailing out the latest bust in the capitalist economic cycle that wouldve crashed earth into the depth of a depressionist hell spiral unbeknownst to modern man...

that may have cost some jobs too... :p

I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. The loss of jobs will simply be inevitable. It's not a position to take. It's inevitable. Lose some or lose them all.
 
The post office isn't a business. It is vital infrastructure for delivering official communication to every citizen in the country. In order to reduce overhead due to loss of volume from competing technology, Fedex would simply cut its least profitable route. Since our legal system sends paper as the means communicating with the public, the post office has to insure that everyone gets their mail. If you can guarantee every American has access to e-mail, then you can get rid of the post office and send your legal notices electronically, but until that day we run the current system even at a loss.
 
But that technology is going to cause the loss of many jobs and people are going to fight that tooth and nail.

No it won't.

Because I think the U.S. Post Office should re-task itself to providing e-mail accounts to all American citizens, and possibly to running a government-based social networking sites.

By re-tasking the USPS to doing so the government can better communicate with its citizens, especially in regards to providing important information in case of natural disasters or the like. Government-provided e-mail can also send important educational information to citizens, and from local and state governments as well as the federal government.

That's what I think is the future of the USPS.
 
No it won't.

Because I think the U.S. Post Office should re-task itself to providing e-mail accounts to all American citizens, and possibly to running a government-based social networking sites.

O.K. but I'd still think that would require far fewer employee's.

By re-tasking the USPS to doing so the government can better communicate with its citizens, especially in regards to providing important information in case of natural disasters or the like. Government-provided e-mail can also send important educational information to citizens, and from local and state governments as well as the federal government.

That's what I think is the future of the USPS.

Any government email will likely be directed to people's spam files.
 
No it won't.

Because I think the U.S. Post Office should re-task itself to providing e-mail accounts to all American citizens, and possibly to running a government-based social networking sites.

for reals player?
By re-tasking the USPS to doing so the government can better communicate with its citizens, especially in regards to providing important information in case of natural disasters or the like. Government-provided e-mail can also send important educational information to citizens, and from local and state governments as well as the federal government.

That's what I think is the future of the USPS.
Thankfully, you aren't in any position to waste tax payer dollars with such... merit-less ideas.
 
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