Posted on 12/14/2024 9:24:43 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
President-elect Donald Trump has expressed a keen interest in privatizing the U.S. Postal Service in recent weeks, three people with knowledge of the matter said, a move that could shake up consumer shipping and business supply chains and push hundreds of thousands of federal workers out of the government.
Trump has discussed his desire to overhaul the Postal Service at his Mar-a-Lago estate with Howard Lutnick, his pick for commerce secretary and the co-chair of his presidential transition, the people said. Earlier this month, Trump also convened a group of transition officials to ask for their views on privatizing the agency, one of the people said.
Told of the mail agency’s annual financial losses, Trump said the government should not subsidize the organization, the people said. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private conversations.
Trump’s specific plans for overhauling the Postal Service were not immediately clear. But he feuded with the nation’s mail carrier as president in 2019, trying to force it to hand over key functions — including rate-setting, personnel decisions, labor relations and managing relationships with its largest clients — to the Treasury Department.
“The government is slow, slow, slow — decades slow on adopting new ways of doing things, and there’s a lot of [other] carrier services that became legal in the ’70s that are doing things so much better with increased volumes and reduced costs,” said Casey Mulligan, who served as a top economist in the first Trump administration. “We didn’t finish the job in the first term, but we should finish it now.”
The postal system is older than the nation itself, founded in 1775 with Benjamin Franklin as its chief, revitalized with free rural delivery at the start of the 20th century, then transformed into a financially self-sustaining agency...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It’s odd but USPS First Class requires a warrant to be opened by government including the USPS. All other carriers can open their letters and packages for inspection and can if they chose to do so share the results with government.
It’s why I think we need to have the equivalent of USPS First Class Email. USPS could charge say 1¢ to seal and deliver an email. It would raise enormous money. Ironic, the government is the only one who can sell a product it cannot inspect without court order.
All the other carriers could stop warrantless openings but they are not required to do so and the contracts of carriage specifically allow them to do so.
“Reduce service levels as needed.”
Theyre hardly ever open or doing anything now.
We just got a new one last week or so. The previous one spent several years damaging boxes/posts and when she wasnt doing that she was leaving everyone little nasty grams that she didnt think that anyones boxes were in compliance. It would have probably been less work to deliver the mail.
There are two mailmen I know of first hand, close enough to know that these things are true, that the post office could have saved some money getting rid of.
One was supposed to be some kind of sorter at a central office. He would punch in and sneak out and sit at the bar up the street every day and then sneak back and punch out.
Another that seemed to feel that since he didnt know anyone upholding the rumored stereotype that he should help all the lonely women he encountered. Im surprised any mail got delivered at all.
Will the Postmaster General still be a General?
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I don’t think the Postmaster General has ever been a general. Or has any attorney general, for that matter.
Oh, I see... Thanks. I agree it doesn’t make any sense.
I’d say your experience with USPS is the norm. They carry doggie treats because they are bitten and sometimes attacked.
The same thing has been happening in other areas. The new hires quit because the workload is overwhelming.
95% of my mail is junk that goes right in the garbage without opening. Even when I check that I want paperless bills these azzholes send me paper ones.
Correct - before it was a Cabinet-level Department:
https://constitution.findlaw.com/article1/annotation38.html
“The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 dramatically changed our federal postal service. The then-U.S. Post Office Department went from being part of a President’s Cabinet to an independent agency. This gave letter carriers and other postal workers the right to engage in collective bargaining. It also did many things that the postal clause did not. For example, it clarified the role and purpose of mail services in American life. It also gave this new, independent agency the authority to set postal rates and salaries for letter carriers.”
Maybe that turn out as good as hoped...? Or would it be even worse now?
I think all they have to do is a complete audit of where all the money goes. They’ll probably find that most of it goes to places other than postal services.
The postal service has one of the most boggled up seniority programs in the world.
The workers in our state are some of the hardest in the country.
The system is screwwd up
Amtrak was a big mistake. Nixon should have deregulated the private railroads instead.
That’d be a problem with some billings. My telephone company / Internet (fiber optic) provider only gives 10 days from the time is mails out a bill, to when it is due. Literally, as in from the 5th to the 15th. That’s already a PITA.
Well, even if the Chinese companies do pay as charged, they get a super-discount rate. Which is ridiculous, even though it sometimes benefits me on eBay purchases.
“it mails out”
To expand on my prior post, just look at the time it now takes to ramp up. We can’t even get a dribble of weapons to Ukraine in a timely manner, and most of what’s been sent was old stuff in storage. Some of that ramp up time could be cut, some at added expense (such as maintaining higher ammo production capacity), but many roles in the military require lengthy training and then regular practice to stay proficient.
What are you talking about?
I hope Trump, Elon and Vivek can do something to improve the USPS. I sent a birthday card to a relative 100 miles away in the same state, and it took 30 days to get there!
The primary problem with the USPS isn’t the unions, bureaucrats, Congress, etc., it’s a lack of consequences for incompetence, inefficiency, theft, etc.
Some sources cite the First American Regiment, but, most go with the formation of the 1st trained US’ standing army, the Legion of the United States, which actually was in 1792.
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