The Postal Service, On The Verge Of Collapse, Is Begging For Funding

Huffington Post ^ | 4/10/20 | Sara Boboltz

[hardspunned]

Better check with Bezos, the most significant thing the USPS does now is delivering Amazon. The last two Christmas seasons Bezos had our mail carriers working seven days a week. Of course if Amazon paid the rates you or I do, the PO would be in better shape.

[Theodore R.]

Weekly would be enough for me, as 80 percent of what I get is called “junk mail,” which is promptly placed in the recycle box.

[dp0622]

That’s a great post :)

I haven’t seen an actual fight where words like mick/wop were used in 35 years.

And even at that point it was ridiculous.

I had Irish friends and we would poke fun but there was Never anything mean or vicious.

even my pop poked fun at his In Law uncle Joe.

And pop was born in 1920.

I think circa the early 1900s was the real hatred.

Should be LONG GONE by now

And yeah there are people I know in their 90s still very sharp.

biden went downhill at a young age.

It’s nice you still think of your god-mom :)

[Sacajaweau]

By the same token, I believe that we farm out packages to Fed ex and UPS....and they’re HUGE contracts.

[Leep]

I blame global warming.

[Leep]

“The Postal Service, On The Verge Of Collapse, Is Begging For Funding”

I blame global warming.

[Undecided 2012]

I called her about once a month, now every week. Our 2 families were/are real close.

[Ron H.]

When is the postal system not ever running out of money for the past 30 or so years?

[MV=PY]

"Yet because the Postal Service technically operates under the executive branch, and President Donald Trump has displayed a bizarre hostility to it since taking office, it seems likely that the agency will receive some pushback."

Trump is a man who understands what a successful operation looks like. He's spent his life building them.

The USPS ain't one of those. Why is his disrespect "bizarre?"

While he is fully capable of fixing it, it isn't worth his attention in the scope of things.

[dp0622]

I think that’s great.

I think you can tell a lot about a country by looking at how folks (not government) treat the older one in their lives.

I’m not saying government should treat them badly but too much these days, one actually has to distinguish between the people and the government when making a point because too many think the govt IS the country.

It should represent the country’s values.

It isn’t, however, the country.

[captaincaveman]

Number of USPS employees:

1960 = 408,987
1970 = 548,572
1980 = 536,373
1990 = 760,668
2000 = 787,538
2010 = 583,908
2014 = 488,300
2019 = 496,934

[McGavin999]

Shoot you could deliver every other day and they could cut half their costs. Most of what you get is crap. If you need your mail daily get a post office box and pick it up yourself.

[cnsmom]

The Democrats are in the real estate confiscation business. The USPS and education department have great real estate and the Democrats are going to take it.

[Fresh Wind]

Another thing the USPS does is deliver packages coming from overseas (mainly CHINA) for free. This is why CHINA sellers on eBay can sell items for one dollar with free shipping to the US.

Supposedly this problem is fixed, but the fix won’t take effect until later this year.

https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/upu-postal-rate-change/564615/

We shall see.

[KarlInOhio]

Where is the actual biggest cost for the Post Office? Is it in initial sorting, long distance hauling, last mile door-to-door delivery, all of the real estate for their buildings, old costs for retirees or something else? Does Amazon getting a good deal on delivery fees cost the post office or is it profitable because Amazon only used the last mile by delivering boxes to the local post office? Does junk mail pay for itself because it comes in perfectly sorted and ready to send cross country or is it a loss because the rates are too low?

I've never seen a full analysis. Twenty years ago I received and sent a lot more first class mail but got fewer packages. Are the packages killing the PO? I know most of the big shippers have zero loyalty to the shippers. A small store might use USPS or FedEx for everything, but the big ones like Amazon will have their computers figure out for each package which shipper is cheaper and faster or for Amazon just deliver it themselves.

[KobraKai]

Amazon really put the screws to the USPS (and UPS, FEDEX) when they decided to just start their own Prime delivery service.

[MayflowerMadam]

“Where is the actual biggest cost for the Post Office?”

Once I think I heard that it’s the extravagant pension program. Not sure, though.

[Chickensoup]

I really do.

I love everything about mail and the post office.

I love the idea of it.

And they do a really good job.

[gunsequalfreedom]

If the post office is at risk of financial collapse, get it funding is my view.

I may be in the minority view, but I find it to be very useful and a good deal.

[McGruff]

Trump shot down this gotcha question very well in one of the press conferences this week. “The Post Office has always lost money. The on-line companies use it to deliver their packages for much less than it would cost them to do it....”