I appreciate your comments, but not true. Postal workers do not collect full benefits after 20 years. Also, the benefits they do collect are paid for in part by biweekly deductions from their pay, not tax dollars. Workers are paid through postal sales and the only way the taxpayer contributes is if they use the services.
As I said, it’s all been hashed out, yet so many want to believe the propaganda that’s been spread regarding employees.
Here are some of the most popular statements to post to any FR thread about postal workers, with my opinion in parentheses. Enjoy, and feel free to come up with your own. :-)
Postal workers are uneducated (Except those who are well-educated and are required to know how to draw and read schematics, know how to wire commercial buildings, repair computers, keep machinery running that is sometimes as big as a house, etc).
They make too much money (The PO could definitely use improvement there - a janitor should not make anywhere near what a skilled/educated worker makes, but the APWU won’t have that, which is another reason I despise unions!
They’re all lazy (*sigh* conservatives know better than to generalize like that. The Postal Services offers preference of employment to veterans).
They shouldn’t have a retirement/health care on the taxpayer’s back’s (They don’t. They contribute to their retirement and pay for family insurance premiums just like those in private companies).
They shouldn’t be paid with tax dollars (They’re not).
They should be privatized (Maybe there’s an argument to be made there, but then who would the other carriers contract to?) :-}
The USPS receives plenty of taxpayer subsidies. The USPS is a government monopoly able to increase postal rates to cover any shortfalls.
The USPS as part of the government has huge unfunded liabilities. The argument about liabilities is just a shell game. The taxpayer is on the hook for unfunded liabilities of the USPS just like the entire federal government. There is no portfolio to support the retirement of postal workers just like there is no portfolio to support the retirement of other government workers. The argument that the government owes the USPS money for retirement funds is completely bogus. The USPS is part of the government although with the ability to raise revenue through postal fees. This retirement argument is a ruse to curtail rational action on postal reform.