Article

2012-07-31 Economy

Post office nears historic default on $5B payment

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Posted by Fred 2012-07-31 00:00|| || Front Page|| [7 views ] Top

#1 Take it out of Congress' pension fund. They have plenty of money. Share the pain, heh.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2012-07-31 00:27|| 2012-07-31 00:27|| Front Page Top

#2 If you think the Post Office is doing good, just imagine what Federal health care would look like in 50 years!

Posted by Bobby 2012-07-31 05:57|| 2012-07-31 05:57|| Front Page Top

#3 We do not need a post office in 21st century America.

It was a great idea in the 18th century. It worked in the 19th. It was okay in the 20th. It began to break down near the end of that century.

We do not need a post office today. Take this simple test --

Gather all your mail for a month. Sort it to a) financial (bills, statements, etc) b) personal (letters, cards) and c) junk (everything else).

Which pile will be by far the largest at the end of the month? That's right.

The Post Office does less and less first-class mail, and more and more junk mail on behalf of corporations. Thanks Capital One but I DON'T WANT YOUR FRIGGIN' CARD. I don't need 50 invitations.

Packages can be delivered by UPS. Financial information can be delivered by secure web and email. Personal letters are Facebook, Twitter or email. Junk mail can be delivered by someone willing to pay full freight.

Wind it down. Pension off the older postal employees (the societal change isn't their fault) and provide a decent separation package for the younger employees (ditto).

Make a public declaration that in (say) 20 years the post office will close permanently. People will adapt. We're Americans.

Posted by Steve White 2012-07-31 07:41|| 2012-07-31 07:41|| Front Page Top

#4 Disagree. There are fine and dandy substitutions for the urban/suburban environments, but rural America [which till the latter half of the 20th Century was most of America], still needs the function of the Constitutionally mandate requirement "To establish post offices and post roads;". [BTW, as a stickler of others in 'interpreting' the Constitution rather than amending it because its inconvenient, this would require an Article V action if we choose to end it.]

It was never seen to be a 'profit' making part of the federal system. It was always expected to lose money [just not billions mainly in pension commitments]. It was one of the last of the old patronage departments of the government. Local Post Masters changed with elections. It also kept costs down because the local Congresscritters didn't want to do something so close to home to upset their voters.

It doesn't need it 6 days a week. It doesn't need next day delivery. It does require a radical downsizing and orientation, to include as part of the federal system the elimination of closed shop/collective bargaining by state employees.

Posted by Procopius2k 2012-07-31 08:47|| 2012-07-31 08:47|| Front Page Top

#5 Yeah, what he said. The mail is only junk mail, actual letters are almost nonexistent and bank statements and the like are all online now.

Can you believe that the Post Office actually has programs to make it easier to send junk mail? Incredible.

Posted by gromky 2012-07-31 11:45|| 2012-07-31 11:45|| Front Page Top

#6 We do not need a post office in 21st century America.

Disagree. We have neither the electronic payment nor legal infrastructure necessary to move to a completely paper-free marketplace. The postal service is still of extreme import to small business.

Posted by Ulorong Thud8932 2012-07-31 12:42|| 2012-07-31 12:42|| Front Page Top

#7 I am pretty sure if the post office charged the junk mail senders more money, they would be makiing a profit.

Posted by texhooey 2012-07-31 12:47|| 2012-07-31 12:47|| Front Page Top

#8 Post office fascinates me. On the normal workdays they can't possibly finish their rounds in the normal time so they get overtime or something but on Saturday when there is no overtime somehow they make all of the deliveries and nobody questions this?

Five days a week is sufficient. Heck, if it wasn't for Netflix I'd be content to get all my mail on Friday (especially if you include an opt-out for anything addrssed to neighbor or occupant or other spam. Perhaps that could be an option that might help them speed through their route the rest of the week.

Posted by rjschwarz 2012-07-31 14:47|| 2012-07-31 14:47|| Front Page Top

#9 I am pretty sure if the post office charged the junk mail senders more money, they would be makiing a profit.

What would Capitol One do if the Post Office jacked up their rates for junk mail? If the junk mail stopped, what would happen to the postal workers and their union?

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-07-31 16:04|| 2012-07-31 16:04|| Front Page Top

#10 Fear not, USPS, as a US courts declared that Iran + Al-Qaeda, etc. perpetrators of 9-11 have to payout US$9.0Bilyuhn in damages to Victims.

The US Govt's share comes out to ????????????

Posted by JosephMendiola 2012-07-31 23:00|| 2012-07-31 23:00|| Front Page Top

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