Posted on 09/04/2011 7:39:45 PM PDT by Steelfish
Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount By STEVEN GREENHOUSE September 4, 2011
The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.
“Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.”
In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts.
The post office’s problems stem from one hard reality: it is being squeezed on both revenue and costs.
As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
vaudine
So USPS and Congress have been jaw-flapping for the past five years about eliminating Saturday delivery.
It’s totally obvious that a letter carrier/mail truck/counter person/ management can work for five days, but it takes rotating shifts to provide coverage for a six day schedule.
USPS dithers!
The cost savings could be enormous, and even if critical bill payments might not be delivered on Saturday, so what, there’s no-body home to process them on a Saturday, and a bank will credit the payment as of Monday night.
How long does it take the A-holes in congress to authorize a five day per week mail schedule???
Probably about $8-16 billion dollars ago.
Then re-emerge as the new efficient post office, issue new stamps and a new marketing plan, maybe even tout how their trucks are “green”.
Wonderful, and the public will soon forget about all the swamp sludge included in the “Old Post Office. What a winnning formula for total financial success!
Oh, wait a moment! Did someone say the GM financial model??
But, it’s not comparable, the Volt auto and mail truck adaptation will be a breakthrough success - just you wait and see!
I have no option to refuse it, and am forced to sort through it to find the few pieces of mail addressed to me specifically for business or personal reasons.
The USPS raised the price of postage for all desired correspondences, and lowered it for junk advertisers, scam mailers and what we on the internet call spam.
Cut out Saturday deliveries, and increase costs for unsolicited mass junk mailers.
And yes, they are going to have to fire a large number of their bloated staffing level of union employees.
The post office needs to get out of the affirmative action hiring business, sell off all the bulk mail division and deliver mail three days a week. Damn what a mismanaged outfit.
Why not have people pay for home delivery?
Hardly anyone sends personal mail by USPS except for birthday and Christmas cards. Years ago I figured that once billing switched over to the internet for both sending out bills and sending in payments, the volume of mail would collapse. We're now to that point.
The only good thing about unsolicited junk mail is that none of it is pornographic, because that would violate federal law. Unfortunately, even if unsolicited pornographic email were illegal, it would be impossible to enforce a prohibition.
Overpaid paperboys.
The Postal Service is obsolete. The only thing they now deliver is junk mail.
Privatize it, cut salaries by half and eliminate all of those benefits and it makes plenty of money.
This should be the quintessential minimum wage workplace of last resort.
A bankrupt America cannot afford to continue financing this bloated, obsolete featherbed.
Ending the postal monopoly is not the same as ending the USPS.
If Fed Ex (or anyone) starts up in a easy-profit market, then the USPS wouldn't have to serve it. This means it could shrink while still devoting resources to areas that private companies refuse to serve.
True, but I don’t see how leaving the USPS with the money-losing part of the business helps it survive, nor does it save the taxpayers any money. The cold, hard truth is that people are going to have to start paying for what they get rather than have it subsidized by their fellow citizens.
It would have to be subsidized. It's a good point about whether there would be savings. I think there probably would as I think the USPS is losing money in places where a private firm would turn a profit.
Regardless, it shouldn't cost the taxpayer any more money than the periodic bailouts and many areas would get better service.
And it would be a first step.
Remember, there is no cost to putting the ink on the paper to end the monopoly and begin the competition.
Sounds like a plan to me!
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