Its the fault of the bitter clingers....again.
Haha, no, that’s not the answer. Why nothing mentioned about the bloated pension funds? (Someone had to bring it up in the comments section of that article; another commenter posted about heavily-discounted junk mail rates.)
The Constitution only “empowers Congress “To establish Post Offices and post Roads”. It does not say it must run the Post Office!
I am not sure how this would work. If you live in the country and want to mail a letter somewhere, how could you possibly know how much it would cost? Every letter would have to be taken to the post office to determine the cost.
The postal service would be making a profit if it hadn’t made big promises to the union. Had they paid normal private sector wages there would be no problem. Idiots like this writer should do something productive for a living.
If everyone used the post office to send each other first class letters instead of sending emails or text messages, the post office might even break even. My neighborhood letter carrier told me that about 85% of his mail volume is bulk rate junk mail. As he put it, “Without the junk mail I wouldn’t have a job”. And bulk mail rates are way lower than first class.
Time to just disband the post office. Person to person communications have moved on to other technologies. Want to send something physical? Then pay FedEx, UPS, or someone else to deliver it. Delivering “thoughts” via email is cheap. Delivering real tangible stuff isn’t.
I would support cutting delivery back to, at most, twice per week. Even one delivery per week wouldn’t really impact me, other than perhaps to make the occasional birthday card late depending on timing.
I wonder whether the current rate of 46¢ for the first ounce is too low. To deliver a one page letter to the next town, UPS quotes $11. To send it to NC costs $16.
The real problem: the USPS board of directors (whatever called) refuses to set prices at viable rates.
I don’t understand why the post office needs to deliver to each residence address. Delivery to a neighborhood dropoff should suffice, with residents going there to pick up their mail. This can save a lot of money. If a dropoff point is within six to ten blocks, that is walkable. For those who argue on behalf of handicapped or others stuck in a residence, same rules apply as to how they obtain food and other goods via secondary help.
I also agree that the business model should change, charge more for expensive delivery destinations. And charge more for junk mail; I hate the stuff.
You need the post Office. I worked for overnight delivery. You do not want them running the post office. Your in la la land. Politicians screwed the post office by allowing Fedex boxes in the post office area by corrupt officials. You do not put your competitors box in your business property. You have no idea all the little tricks. These big companies will run it for expensive profits. Do not think they are going to charge cheaply. Once the post office is gone your screwed.This is their master plan orchestrated by powers that be to get rid of the post office. There is a step by step plan to slowly piecemeal till it does not exist. Save the post office.
The real problems began with the US Postal Service when the Postal Union was allowed to form.
That was back when virtually employees were US military veterans.
Try to find a Postal employee today that is a Vet and/or a real American.
Good Luck!
The problem is that the postal service has morphed into a jobs service for otherwise-unemployable drones that aren’t really up to the task. They give extra points on the exam for characteristics that have NOTHING to do with the ability to deliver the mail.
If you think postal subsidies are bad, wait until you learn about the “high-cost” component of the Universal Service Fund. The Universal Service Fund collects taxes from your phone bill (about $7B per year) and “redistributes” them to a variety of “worthy” causes. One recipient provides subsidies to “high-cost”, mostly rural, telephone companies. The most egregious is the subsidy of phone service in Maui — as much as $13K/line/year.
See http://www.capthefund.org/learnabout.cfm
Agree with the sentiment that the govt is NOT enumerated to actually deliver mail... only to provide for infrastructure so that mail can travel across state lines.
Indeed, the USPS is only treading water because they are paid by the RNC to deliver wasted and meaningless fundraisers to millions of conservatives who go.... “meh...” and then write a check directly to some tea party candidate anyways...
The easy answer is simply to limit mail delivery in remote areas only to once or twice a week.
When the USPS declared the end of Saturday mail, they thought the People will rise up in indignation.
They didn’t.
Now the Union has to scream bloody murder to save their phony baloney jobs. Big screw-up by the USPS politicians.
I delivered the mail for seven years in college and medical school, which helped pay the bills and taught me a lot about work, good and bad.
Yes, the USPS is a mess. But, delivering the mail IS one of the few actual Constitutional responsibilities of USG, and delivering it the last mile to a cabin in the mountains will never be profitable.
Fold the USPS, restore the POD, and put the Postmaster General back in the cabinet.
It’s the conservative thing to do.