USPS posts $3.5 billion loss as mail volume plunges

CNN ^ | August 5, 2010 | Hibah Yousuf

[Former War Criminal]

Was your ex-wife a postal employee?

[Cyber Ninja]

When I was 13 I had a paper route delivering supermarket ads.

I got 2 cents per paper. What my Mom called throw-a-ways.

Now the postal carrier brings them.

And, they are not addressed to the house.

So, postal carriers are doing the jobs 13yo’s can’t get.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Here's what the USPS should do.
Create a postoffice.com social networking page like Facebook.
It'll be a one-stop center for email (utilizing a @postoffice.com domain name), online bill-pay, scheduling and tracking regular mail, and again social networking like Facebook. Maybe have games too. Instead of Mafia Wars, have The Mailman who has to go through bad weather, dogs, and gangs to deliver the mail.
Charge a $19.95 flat annual fee.

In the meantime, get rid of Saturday delivery except for guaranteed or express mail.
Cut the costs of stamps and packaging across the board - stop raising prices. When you're losing business, you don't fricking raise prices. It's economic illogically.
Buy-out retirees pensions with a lump-sum payment, and make the USPS non-union.

[edh]

“I am currently using a computer that had a price of $4,500 brand new”

If you paid that much for a computer just to have an interface to the Internet, boy did you get screwed.

[NY.SS-Bar9]

The real bargain is the flat-rate box. I can get 70 lbs. of lead bullets shipped for $14.

My pet peeve with the USPS is their lame tracking system. UPS and FedEx will tell me exactly where a package is. Ever try getting delivery confirmation for first-class mail? Either you suffer through antique, arcane “Certified’ mail with no tracking or spend big bucks for priority with delivery confirmation.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

I am currently using a computer that had a price of $4,500 brand new at an Apple Store just 2 years ago.

My email is NOT FREE!

That's what you get for buying a Mac...;) I'm using a 17" laptop that cost me $400. Considering the 40-50 e-mails I get every day, my computer cost-per-email is basically zero.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Now, about government agency losses, when is the last time you saw Department of Defense bring back the loot to pay for its existence?

Every time I vote, they've earned their costs...

[muawiyah]

You are not answering the question. Admit it, DOD runs a 100% deficit every day, 365.

[muawiyah]

For paying your bills ~ maybe 10 items a month, your computer is robbing you blind.

[BooBoo1000]

How do they keep operation???

[muawiyah]

It's pretty; has a large screen; very compact and efficient operation ~ and NO VIRUSES.

At the same time it runs everything you can run on Windows.

BTW, my last half dozen computers were Wintel and we built them out of parts ~ put our own label on them too.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

The DOD returns security for this nation. According to your viewpoint the police run a 100% deficit every day, yet I value the safety and security they provide to my city.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Well then, considering I’m a technical professional who makes his living designing hardware and software for consumer electronics, and does it with this same computer, I may spend $3 per bill over the next 3 years, but I earn several thousand times that per month with the same piece of equipment.

Not a bad return on $400...

[Undocumented_capitalist]

Haha you got me there!

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

What the hell is your point muawiyah, the DOD is not in the business of making money, or bringing home the ‘spoils’ of war. It is in the business of providing for the ‘common defense’. And no, the DOD does not run a ‘deficit’. Only an entity such as the post office can run a ‘deficit’ - it is supposed to be self supporting.

[muawiyah]

You are very short on the history of warfare. It’s purpose is not defense but to raid the neighbors and bring home the bacon.

[cookcounty]

"And volume will go down even more when they cut back deliveries and raise the rates."

Oh stop. You're going to give the Democrat lurkers headaches with those brain teasers.

[cookcounty]

" My question is sincere. If the postal service is not taxpayer funded, how can they continue to operate losing billions each quarter for 14 quarters straight? They should have gone belly up years ago. Do they have some sort of slush fund they are operating out of? I am just trying to understand.

Yes they get "special temporary supplmentals" when they get behind, in other words, irregularly scheduled bail-outs.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

Pure BS, my misguided friend.

[VOA]

“
USPS posts $3.5 billion loss as mail volume plunges
“

Heck, hire that new cost-cutter Raul Castro to fix the USPS budget hole.
(/SARC...well at least a little)