Which would give you better mail service a private company the U.S. Postal Service?

Myself | Myself

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

Okay enquiring minds want to know :

Which would you prefer a private company delivering your mail or the U.S.P.S.?

[muawiyah]

USPS hires the handicapped. You should too.

[MRMEAN]

The actual history of the Post Office and it's 19th Century competition is very interesting, the Post Office delivered a high-cost limited service, useful for political patronage and subsidizing politically important constituencies. Its private competitors pioneered improved methods, low-cost postage, and delivery to rural areas. It only stayed in business by enforcing its legal monopoly.

Today the USPS pays excessive salaries to members of politically powerful postal unions and fat manager salaries. It mostly delivers "junk" mail. I have no doubt that if the monopoly was lifted, we would see improved postal solutions.

[Grut]

I don't think it matters much, if there's only one of them. A private monopoly would be just as non-self-correcting as USPS; what's needed is competition, whether it's public-private, private-private or even public-public.

[muawiyah]

You really ought to read the private express statutes and check out the USSC rulings on the matter.

It is an exclusive authority.

[Gordongekko909]

USPS operates without a direct government subsidy.

That's an argument in favor of privatization. If it can operate in the black with no subsidies, it's not a natural monopoly. Which means that the most efficient way to get it done is through a private entity.

Still, they don't pay taxes on the properties owned by the US government. Even if they were totally privatized you'd find the successor companies making deals with states to avoid taxation.

I have no argument with the facts of what you just said, nor do I have any problem with those facts as they stand.

Now, when it comes to leased facilities (owned by private parties), USPS pays property taxes.

Yeah, indirectly. The owner of the facility pays the property taxes, which the USPS pays through their lease payments. State agencies can't tax federal agencies directly. McCulloch v. Maryland.

[Gordongekko909]

USPS, BS entitlement, what's the difference? The money is still being taken from you and being allocated inefficiently.

[muawiyah]

It would undoubtedly be Constitutional for CONGRESS to establish post offices however it wishes. It would be Un-Constitutional for a State Government to do so.

The dispute here is between State authority and Federal authority.

Private parties can, of course, provide their very own mail service ~ and do so. What they cannot do is offer those services for sale outside of their internal structures without permission.

This is well established law.

[Gordongekko909]

The USPS is a creature of statute. It exists because Congress says it does, pursuant to Article I Section 8.

[muawiyah]

Those "fat manager salaries" are less than those paid to other manaagers with comparable responsibilities.

Sure wish my salary had been "fat".

[RightWhale]

Give the franchise back to the Church.

[Gordongekko909]

I'm definitely not arguing in favor of State-run postal services. That would probably be worse than what we have now. I'm arguing in favor of privatization.

[muawiyah]

USPS actually writes checks to pay taxing authorities. That way you don't run into the problem of a property owner neglecting to pay those taxes and the USPS finding out later that the sheriff wants to seize the building for a tax sale, and all that sort of stuff.

[Gordongekko909]

Rapacious? I advise reading posts 62 and 63.

[teenyelliott]

The money is still being taken from you and being allocated inefficiently.

True, but our current bloated greedy inefficient government will never allow it to leave their hands. So, I'd rather it go to the post office than a crack whore who has a kid every ten months.

Not really pertinent to the current discussion, but . . .

[muawiyah]

You are speaking of postage, right? The only money USPS collects from anybody is postage, not taxes. You think postage should be spent somewhere else than on postal operations?

[muawiyah]

The post office is a pretty big operation. Odds are you'd need corporations to run it. A handful of private individuals might have enough wealth to own outright a portion of it, but not the whole thing.

So, let's say we end up with one or more private corporations owning USPS. Where do they get their authorization to operate as corporations?

The answer is THE STATE WHERE THEY ARE INCORPORATED.

So, the Constitution presently gives Congress the exclusive right to establish post offices. Now, let's discuss the federal governments law on corporations ~ how to find them, how to get them, how to use them.

[Gordongekko909]

USPS actually writes checks to pay taxing authorities. That way you don't run into the problem of a property owner neglecting to pay those taxes and the USPS finding out later that the sheriff wants to seize the building for a tax sale, and all that sort of stuff.

The USPS definitely would not have its operations hindered by a property owner neglecting to pay his property taxes. First, the seizure and sale would not affect the lease under the law of any state; in my home state of Louisiana, the result would be something called a "real subrogation," which means that the lease continues as is, just with a new entity collecting the rent checks.

[Gordongekko909]

Actually, no... I've recently been informed that the USPS hasn't needed a tax subsidy in decades. I was referring to tax subsidies (which apparently aren't a problem anymore) in 66. So it would seem that it's moot.

[muawiyah]

That's nothing. First off, I'd raise your first line supervisor's base pay to a MINIMUM of twice the highest pay of any bargaining unit position.

The history of the USPS, and the Post Office Department before it, has been that first line supervisors are usually paid LESS THAN the top 25% of the bargaining unit.

That still wouldn't bring USPS into line with manufacturing, but it'd be a start.

Then we'd start shedding load.

How about Saturday delivery?

[Casloy]

Overnight delivery was considered impossible till Federal Express started doing it. While the Post Office doesn't do a bad job, now that first class mail is becoming more and more obsolete it's time to consider if we really need a US post office.