Posted on 08/05/2011 6:03:09 PM PDT by GQuagmire
The US Postal Service warned on Friday that it could default on payments it owes the federal government, just days after the US government itself narrowly averted a default.
The government's mail service said it lost $3.1 billion in the period from April to June, blaming "the anemic state of the economy" and the growing popularity of electronic communications over old-fashioned letters.
As a result of its mounting losses, the US Postal Service said it would not be able to make a legally required $5.5 billion payment in September to a health-benefits trust fund.
"Absent substantial legislative change, the Postal Service will be forced to default on payments to the federal government," it said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
It is a window into just how much seat of the pants posting gets done here.
The end to snail mail is coming soon.
BTW if you can’t lift an 80-100 pound box or you move too slowly, you should not be working at the post office.
Everyone needs to become familiar with Einstein’s definition of insanity, especially the USPS and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as this entire idiot-ridden administration. =.=
I applaud you and agree with everything you wrote. We also have to accept blame for some of the USPS financial woes because WE choose to pay our bills on-line instead of spending the HUGE sum of 44 cents for a stamp. Saying that it's cheaper to pay on-line is a load of crap. It's more convenient is all. We can help the USPS get back on it's feet by choosing to mail in our bills instead of paying on line. I know I'm only a gang of one but STARTING TODAY MY BILLS WILL BE MAILED IN.
They’re supposed to be self supporting. Guess they finally figured out you have to bring in more than you hand out in bloated salaries to people who won’t work and pensions to stay afloat.
Every now and then I write “Return To Sender” on the junk mail and send it back.
In the 1800s the local news paper would print the names of those who had mail at the post office. There’s one in the Shelbyville, Tn paper that names David Crockett. At the time he was on his way to Texas. Ne never picked up the letter though his family may have.
Here’s an idea! Make a law requiring everyone pay 45 cents to pay a bill online. That should run everyone back to the post office! Well, it may have to be a dollar per payment but whatever the government wants to make me do is fine with me. sarc
Sorry to break your bubble, but if it is 3rd class mail that is not endorsed, the only place it goes is into the USPS recycle bin. And the cycle repeats. Nice try though!
Actually, it was the other way around.
Since you seem to be an expert on everything USPS, can you tell me what a carrier makes and the “bloated” pensions they receive and their out of this world health benefits? Specifics please. And then compare them to FED/EX and UPS. Thanks, I knew you could.
Here’s the pay chart...they start at 40k+ which is one of the problems...
http://www.nalc.org/depart/cau/paychart.html
And here’s the benefits part...who can expect 13 days vacation in their first year of employment?
http://www.postalemployeenetwork.com/usps-benefits-info.htm
There are things that USPS is good at..mostly nothing but some of their services are beneficial for small biz.
Which is being taxed out of existence while companies like Amazon and Best Buy are conspiring with our congress critters to slap legislation requiring the collection of sales-tax on internet purchases to kill that industry that gives the USPS a reason for being.
Saying that it's cheaper to pay on-line is a load of crap. It's more convenient is all. We can help the USPS get back on it's feet by choosing to mail in our bills instead of paying on line. I know I'm only a gang of one but STARTING TODAY MY BILLS WILL BE MAILED IN.
I got a tutorial on "paying the bills" by the Minister of Household Finance. What I was told is that many credit card companies, as a result of these mandates from Congress, will do all sorts of nefarious things to get long time, good, solid customers in the high risk pool.
One favorite trick is to move around the grace period. No big deal, just don't do automated bill paying dates and monitor the fine print on all correspondence from these entities.
Another trick is to say that the payment must be "credited to your account" before such-and-such date or they will throw you in the high risk pool and you watch your interest rate shoot up into pawn-shop usury levels. No big deal for those who never run a balance, until that one payment is "lost" in the mail room.
The point being, and I am trying to be respectful here, you are a complete fool if you mail in your payments. There are just too many points of failure along the way. The USPS can lose or delay your mail since there is no guarantee of delivery; the brute animals these companies employ to tear open envelopes and type into data terminals is a huge point-of-failure that can be easily avoided by going on-line.
It has been long known that mail-room employees at certain credit-card payment reconciliation centers will deliberately delay the recording of a payment. The date for when the payment is "registered" might be the 15th and your mail was received on the 7nd yet a couple days might go by before that mail-room clerk actually gets around to typing in the account data and then there is a delay as your bank actually clears that check. A credit card company might lose a couple days of float holding your check, but in return for this "investment" they get a late payment and now you watch your interest rates double or triple. Damned good ROI in a market that pays < 1%.
So it is always a good idea to manage your accounts by paying close attention to the due dates and making your transaction as simple as possible with as few human interactions as possible. You don't lose a payment check on the internet.
Why do you think it’s okay for your company to send me crap that I don’t won’t? And, it might go into a recycle bend but it’s never been sent back to me. So, nice try. In fact, now I’m going to do it more often and recommend everyone else do it. This will give the carrier something to take back to the post office. He’s obviously not taking many letters back that someone mailed.
I go into a post office to pick up a package and I stand in line while clerks take their union mandated break. I go to FedEx and I get waited on. Why? Because the guy behind the counter can be fired if he doesn’t produce.
As for UPS and FedEX, they actually deliver...ON TIME. And they aren’t asking for money from the taxpayers to fund their pension. I doubt most post office people could get hired at one of these private companies. The tests are a little harder than the civil service exam. And I have taken the civil service exam.
Expert? I’m no expert. But I have been getting lousy service from the post office since the first time my mother sent me in to buy a 3 cent stamp.
Finally, if it’s such a hard job, for so little pay, why do you never see anyone resign? It’s like the mafia. The only way anyone leaves is when they die.
Don’t you know usps is a sweat factory? It’s hard work and that’s why they have so much turnover. sarc
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