USPS in trouble

[gemini]

I think we need the USPS, but not in it's present form. It has bloated union contracts and employees that can't be fired.
Maybe it needs to fail to divest itself of those contracts, then it needs a complete reorganization.

This exactly! ! I just left my local Post Office. The line was out the door (typical scene), the clerks are so slow and have
such bad attitudes..... the customers standing in line are shaking their heads and rolling their eyes in disbelief. Any small
business in America run like the PO is managed.... out of business in 6 months.

[Glenn61]

My guess is that the current administration will force us to purchase stock in the USPS. No different than forcing everyone to purchase health insurance to fund obamacare right?

[bizarrenormality]

If Obama does a bailout like he did for the banks, the Postmaster General can pay himself a multi-million dollar bonus from the bailout money like the crooks on Wall Street.

[FishInTx]

How about if Congress doesn't act and the USPS stops treating taxpayers like a cash cow? How about if it declares bankruptcy, giving it the authority to dispense with its union contracts........just like any other business might do? Then, Congress (and by extension, you and I) are not on the hook for pumping tax dollars into a failing institution, which is failing for not keeping costs under control. To make use of your reference to rural areas, when the postal system was first instituted, MOST Americans did not live near a post office, and MOST Americans did not have a letter carrier delivering their mail to their front doors. With today's technology, it is relatively easy to get a satellite Internet connection anywhere in the U.S., and the cost is far cheaper than the cost to the taxpayers of keeping failing post offices open, union contracts in force, and unrealistic pension plans. It would actually be cheaper for the government to put more communications satellites into space than it would be to continue bailing out the postal system. Then it can charge a small basic monthly fee for access to those satellites. And by the way, this would give customers some control over "junk mail," through the use of SPAM filters.....which is something the current postal system does not really afford its citizen customers. In fact, the USPS exists today primarily as a distributor of junk mail. If you eliminated all junk mail customers from the system, the number of actual person-to-person communications, whether personal or business, would represent a small percentage of the total currently being mailed through the system.

I would submit that you can't make a cost/benefit analysis supporting your position which doesn't penalize everyone else. There is a reason that the postal system was not set up as a department of the government. The fact is, technology has rendered the postal system obsolete. READ THIS WIKI ARTICLE ABOUT THE GERMAN POSTAL SYSTEM. Germany privatized its postal system in 1995, and it is operated by DHL.....the same DHL which competes with FedEx and UPS here in the U.S. The American postal system should be privatized. If it winds up costing rural residents a lot more money to have postal services, then they will have a financial incentive to invest in technology. The monthly cost of a satellite connection is not that much. The purchase price of an inexpensive e-machine is not that much. In a world in which welfare recipients own big screen TVs and have cable service, it is very hard to imagine that a working farmer could not afford a monthly satellite Internet connection fee. It is increasingly difficult to justify supporting failing institutions in this economy. The only way it CAN be justified is if it becomes competitive in the marketplace.

I thought the post office got money by selling stamps and it's services not from tax money?
Didn't DHL go bankrupt a few years ago?
When you mix a shrinking business with huge overhead and massive unions this is what you get. They need to make some big changes or it's gonna crash big time. The public is tired of the junk mail, slow service, and bad attitude. Throw a "bailout" on top of that. NO WAY

[texasmusic]

USPS has a budget 1/10 that of SS. Their budget shortfall is 1/100 of the budgets of the wasteful programs and agencies out there if not less (depending on what you consider wasteful). They are covering their shortfalls with loans from the treasury as I understand it.

Deficit spending... unions... bureaucracy out of control: there's the USPS.

It's constitutional though. It's also a drop in the bucket compared to the REAL issues. I say keep our constitutional high ground and move on to attack the other progressive unconstitutional programs. Gotta pick your battles. I say reform the USPS after we deal with obamacare, SS, medi-whatever, etc.

[The Annoyed Man]

How about if Congress doesn't act and the USPS stops treating taxpayers like a cash cow? How about if it declares bankruptcy, giving it the authority to dispense with its union contracts........just like any other business might do? Then, Congress (and by extension, you and I) are not on the hook for pumping tax dollars into a failing institution, which is failing for not keeping costs under control. To make use of your reference to rural areas, when the postal system was first instituted, MOST Americans did not live near a post office, and MOST Americans did not have a letter carrier delivering their mail to their front doors. With today's technology, it is relatively easy to get a satellite Internet connection anywhere in the U.S., and the cost is far cheaper than the cost to the taxpayers of keeping failing post offices open, union contracts in force, and unrealistic pension plans. It would actually be cheaper for the government to put more communications satellites into space than it would be to continue bailing out the postal system. Then it can charge a small basic monthly fee for access to those satellites. And by the way, this would give customers some control over "junk mail," through the use of SPAM filters.....which is something the current postal system does not really afford its citizen customers. In fact, the USPS exists today primarily as a distributor of junk mail. If you eliminated all junk mail customers from the system, the number of actual person-to-person communications, whether personal or business, would represent a small percentage of the total currently being mailed through the system.

I would submit that you can't make a cost/benefit analysis supporting your position which doesn't penalize everyone else. There is a reason that the postal system was not set up as a department of the government. The fact is, technology has rendered the postal system obsolete. READ THIS WIKI ARTICLE ABOUT THE GERMAN POSTAL SYSTEM. Germany privatized its postal system in 1995, and it is operated by DHL.....the same DHL which competes with FedEx and UPS here in the U.S. The American postal system should be privatized. If it winds up costing rural residents a lot more money to have postal services, then they will have a financial incentive to invest in technology. The monthly cost of a satellite connection is not that much. The purchase price of an inexpensive e-machine is not that much. In a world in which welfare recipients own big screen TVs and have cable service, it is very hard to imagine that a working farmer could not afford a monthly satellite Internet connection fee. It is increasingly difficult to justify supporting failing institutions in this economy. The only way it CAN be justified is if it becomes competitive in the marketplace.

I thought the post office got money by selling stamps and it's services not from tax money?
Didn't DHL go bankrupt a few years ago?
When you mix a shrinking business with huge overhead and massive unions this is what you get. They need to make some big changes or it's gonna crash big time. The public is tired of the junk mail, slow service, and bad attitude. Throw a "bailout" on top of that. NO WAY

USPS does get revenue from stamps and services. But its revenues are exceeded by its expenses. Unlike other businesses, instead of raising prices, laying off employees, restructuring their pension plan, etc., it is asking Congress to intercede......just like Government Motors did.......and in the process, the taxpayers will get screwed by USPS......just like Government Motors did to taxpayers.

DHL may have gone through bankruptcy at one time, but they are certainly doing fine now. At my last job before I started my own business, we used DHL pretty much exclusively to handle all of our shipping—which consisted of several dozen cartons of freight every day. But that is what bankruptcy is for: to give the struggling entity breathing room so that they can restructure their obligations and debt payments, and get themselves back on track. Bankruptcy is not something to be feared if it will save a company. It should be avoided if possible, and individuals seek dishonorable escape from their bad decision making all to often through bankruptcy. But, there are times when bankruptcy is the best decision, particularly if going through it will save the company and the majority of its employees from the bread lines.

On this, you and I are in complete agreement. There was perhaps a time when unions helped to make sure that employers had qualified qualified employees, and that those employees were paid a fair wage for their labors. But like most parasitic organizations, unions have to continue expanding their power over employers in order to continue justifying their existence to the employees they control. Nothing that an employer can do for its employees is ever enough to satisfy a union. They always want more, and like all protection rackets, they don't care if they ultimately kill the goose that is laying their golden egg. There's never an end to their grasping. And right now, there is an administration in power which has consistently put union interests ahead of investors, stockholders, managers, and taxpayers........especially taxpayers.

Congress needs to do with the USPS exactly what the German government did with its postal system in 1995: privatize it, and then let it sink or swim under its own power. If they can marshall the wisdom to do that, and if the privatized USPS gets in financial trouble and seeks remedy in the bankruptcy court, then it will survive and possibly even flourish. But as long as USPS directors keep making business decisions with the belief that they can always run to the taxpayers if they screw it up, then the system will only get worse and worse, but it will never die because they just won't let it. But it won't be living either. It will be in a vegetative coma, just another hugely expensive and failed bureaucracy hanging like an albatross around the taxpayers' necks.

[MeMelYup]

The current president will not let it die. His Union backers sould not like that and he appears to be Strong Union.

[Wienerdogtroy]

Looks like we may not have to worry about whether or not we have right to carry in a post office.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/208641/ ... onohoe.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
We can at least look forward to less junk mail.

"They are dying Jim."
"Let them die."