Posted on 02/09/2013 1:09:57 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The only way to solve the post office’s problems is to privatize it.
However, it is really stupid that a person who lives 50 miles from the nearest town pays no more for mail delivery than does an apartment dweller in a city. People in rural areas should either pay more for delivery or pick their mail up at a central collection center somewhere. The whole system is screwy, because the real costs of what the post office does are not factored into the prices. It’s no way to run a business.
A very high percentage of the mail I receive goes right in the tgrash can unopened - sort of like snail-spam.
Wait a minute. A farmer can raise a head of lettuce, pick it, and deliver it to the big city store where they mark it up and sell it for $.99 and the postal service can’t make a profit delivering a letter for $.45? It’s not that rural service is a guaranteed loss.
It is sad, but I suspect most journalists cannot do math. And if they were smart without math skills, they would probably be a lawyer.
So we have a bunch of dumb rocks writing stories (opinions) on subjects they know nothing about, without the intellectual horsepower to 'investigate' root cause, and is then published as news and fact.
RE: A farmer can raise a head of lettuce, pick it, and deliver it to the big city store where they mark it up and sell it for $.99 and the postal service can’t make a profit delivering a letter for $.45?
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The farmer does not to have to worry about unions, health care, pensions that are better than the private sector.
The problem is packages. They can’t fit in a box and are delivered to the door, many times requiring a signature.
Yes, the real problem is the unions and the USPS mentality. Cutting service on Saturdays isn’t going to help but it will drive down USPS total income.
Should be more places. A few years back, a sister-in-law moved to Colorado from SF area (urban city folks). They didn't understand why they weren't getting mail. The real estate agent had left them keys, one of which they didn't understand. A while later, they found out there was a drop-off/pickup mailbox quite a distance away from the property. Oh...
It’s my understanding that the junk mail is highly profitable. Bulk mail doesn’t only cost less to send — it also costs the post office a lot less to deliver. For one thing, no sorting is necessary.
There’s also a limit on what the post office can charge to deliver bulk mail. Inserts in newspapers — especially “free” community papers are an alternative service. That’s pretty stiff competition. The newspapers deliver these inserts (a major component of bulk mail) profitably; or they wouldn’t be doing it.
I’ve sent my share of junk mail - presorted by zipcode and delivered in bulk to the commercial part of the post office. I really cannot imagine how the final delivery is less expensive. Presorting is trivial in the entire process. Sorry, the post office is an archaic holdover from times gone by and should be disbanded. If newspapers want to deliver junk mail, let them. Why should I pay for our government to support a competing service?
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