Posted on 09/04/2011 4:49:11 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
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.
The post office’s problems stem from one hard reality: it is getting 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.
At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
>>You’d be surprised. Millions of eBay sellers, Amazon book sellers, and other small online sellers, use USPS First Class Parcel rates, Media Mail, and Priority Mail Flat Rate. They depend on these sales for much and, in many cases, all of their income. UPS and FedEx are much too expensive for parcels of 2 lb or less. Close the Post Office and you will add not only the postal workers, but also these sellers, to the growing list of unemployed.<<
BINGO!
We also have Ebay and Amazon seller accounts and it kills me that the general talking point that USPS IS EVIL-nonsense.
Their Express mail packaging system with free insurance and tracking has saved our company hundreds of thousands every year. Our domestic is UPS but international? Fedex and UPS are the rip-offs! We have lots of Japanese and Europeans clients that if we did not use USPS, our overhead would have killed us.
I think I paid my salary, and a bunch of other people's with the first postal project I handled after getting out of the Infantry.
Still paid up too.
Since the government is not now supporting USPS with taxpayer dollars just what do you think you are talking about?
Its also important to remember that the USPS can’t raise their rates to keep up with fuel costs. They face legal hurdles that FedEx doesn’t have. It might take a year for the postal service to get approval for a rate hike when UPS, FedEx and others simply raise their rates as needed.
There are union issues at play but the fact that UPS gets by with union employees (teamsters) tells me that the postal service problems aren’t the sole fault of unions.
AH HAA HAA HAAAAA, YO HO HO, Laughing So Hard I am Spitting. First the PO forces out every clerk employee they can, then they agree with the union to bump up all remaining Level Five Clerks to Level Six with raised salaries of course. So many friggin rotten deals and now the PMG Postmaster General is trying to shake down Congress, also trying to hurt the very people they forced out by telling Congress they cannot afford to fund their retirees while the SOBs continue to award themselves big bonuses. SICK, SICK.
Eliminate the TAX and they're OK.
LOL. I didn’t say they did.
To put this in perspective, UPS workers belong to the Teamsters Union.
I work at UPS(Teamster). They bring in ex - USPS workers for "peak". Their work ethic gets them laughed at by fellow employees. None of them can make the cut to get a permanent job here.
I am a Teamster, but I make sure I earn my money and benefits and work very hard.
I am a proud conservative to the very sweaty muscular skinny bone.
The part was repaired and shipped back to Ca. by UPS on Thu of the same week....I'm not scheduled for delivery untill NEXT Fri.
Looks to me like USPS is better service
My bank is PNC. They seem to be doing okay. Here are the hours at the branch I use:
Hours of Operation: Sunday: Closed, Monday: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM, Tuesday: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM, Wednesday: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM, Thursday: 8:30 AM - 6:00 PM, Friday: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM, Saturday: 9:00 AM - 2:00 PMThey used to only be open 9AM to 3PM on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and until 5PM on Thursday and Friday. They were closed on Saturday.
The Post Office around the corner from the Bank used to open at 8AM and close at 5:30 PM on weekdays. Now it is open from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM on weekdays. (But don't bother ringing the bell at the Box Mail Window because the Box Mail Attendant is deaf, so a sign there tells you to go to the regular windows on the other side of the building if he's not standing by the Box Mail Window when you want something which is most of the time. And there is no more access to Post Office Boxes on Sunday.)
I think your real question is would the NYT distort the record even though they only manage to steal $1 million a year?
I wasn't defending the NYT or any subsidy they might get. Of course, I'm against subsidies. But this isn't a thread bout subsidies. It's a thread about the solvency of the USPS. You bring up Newspaper rates as if they were the main threat to that solvency which is why you are a laughing stock around here.
No the real question is: Why do you blow smoke here every time there is a thread which calls the wonderfulness of the Postal Service into question?
ML/NJ
Show me anyone who makes 90k sorting mail at the PO? Do you work there? Just like a lib, make it up as you go.
This adds up to more than $100,000,000,000 (100 billion). Your boy Geithner turned around recently during the debate over the national debt and BORROWED ALL OF IT to pay non-postal federal expenses.
So, they stole it, and then they stole it again.
There is no subsidy TO the USPS. There is a subsidy FROM the USPS TO the federal government, and to you. It pays your income tax refunds, your Medicaid, your EITC, your food stamps, etc.
Actually, USPS is much better and cheaper for parcel deliveries than UPS - I do some business via ebay and I know whereof I speak. Way fewer hassles and online postage systems make it an essential part of the mail-order model.
A lot of on-line vendors would be crippled without it, particularly the smaller ones.
I would be happy to get mail delivered to my house ONCE per week
Maybe your local newspaper guy said it was a private company, but it's never been a private company.
The fact the federal government is stealing money from USPS is the real issue here. They need to stop doing that ~ and give back what they stole.
Frankly, this has been going on long enough that it's probably worth doing a criminal investigation of OPM and start hauling some of the staff people out of there and putting them on trial.
A more deserving bunch never existed.
Did you know when Postal Headquarters burned a few decades back it burned out PERSONNEL and the LAW DEPARTMENT.
People cheered! You can imagine how they'd feel if OPM and DOJ were both busted down and their cadre of useless drone personnel specialists and lawyers were sent off to prison where they belong.
Woweee!!
Get a PO box and check it once a week. problem solved.
Are you sure that's what you want? One of my sales paid for my recent contribution to FR.
USPS rates are the only way that small sellers can compete with mega-sellers like Amazon and Overstock, who get dirt cheap shipping deals from UPS, On-Track, etc.
Look at it this way: Millions of small sellers, by providing work for post office employees, are subsidizing the delivery of your electric bill. Maybe it's time you show some appreciation.
A group of Post Office Department Headquarters employees left their fat government jobs with nifty retirement benefits and BOUGHT UPS.
The first thing they did was bring in the Teamsters Union to represent a previously non-union operation.
Jimmy Hoffa and his gang ran the Teamsters in that day, however the new UPS managers from the former POD(now USPS) didn't want to put up with any union cr*p from the workers and they wanted a union that had thugs available to void out attempts at WILDCAT STRIKES ~ then a problem throughout the freight industry.
Now, do you feel better? The discipline worked, and you'd best keep that in mind or you could end up disabled and with no retirement!
Bwahahahaha!!!!!!!
Laugh at the former USPS guys if you want. Your job is still a gift to you courtesy of some former Post Office guys.
What monies has the federal govt stolen from a federal govt agency? I’m not up on this aspect of the saga here.
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