Posted on 05/19/2019 2:38:39 PM PDT by Patriot777
OPINION | FINANCE May 17, 2019 - 04:00 PM EDT Financial collapse of the United States Postal Service is coming
BY KEVIN KOSAR, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill TWEET SHARE EMAIL
The United States Postal Service (USPS) will run out of cash in five years. Postmaster General Megan Brennan shared this news in testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee earlier this month. The immediate consequence of USPS becoming insolvent would be that the world's largest postal system - which moves 150 billion mail pieces per year, or 412 million pieces per day - would be dead in the water. This is something that has never occurred in the Postal Service's long and storied history.
If you think these primary effects would be devastating, the secondary effects would be catastrophic. More than half a million postal workers would be without wages. Magazine companies, which send millions of glossies per month, would be stuck trying to find local deliverers. Retailers - particularly those that sell via catalogs - would see their main advertising medium vanish. The paper and printing companies they work with would see their revenues plunge. Prescription drug deliveries would be disrupted as sellers scrambled to find alternate means for delivery. Jury summons, voting materials (including ballots for overseas troops), and international mail and shipments would stop flowing.
During the hearing, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) demanded USPS produce a turnaround plan by July that would save the Postal Service. To date, the agency's plan has consisted of trying to trim costs, mostly by reducing the hours worked by employees, and reaping more revenue by delivering more.
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Our postal carrier seems to have become an Amazon delivery person in addition to junk mail duties. Her car is usually filled with Amazon packages. There are are arguments as to how lucrative that is for the USPS - https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/for-every-amazon-package-it-delivers-the-postal-service-loses-146
Turn the system over to McDonald’s. They’ll have everything automated and priced cheap within those 5 years. Done.
Roger that !
Mom, Wed, Fri one week, Tue, Thurs the next, no Sat. That should get rid of nearly half the crew.
All I know is:
1) If I order something it is normally at my house within a week - even if it is coming from the other side of the country.
2) Wife just got a letter from Japan in less then 10 days.
3) My local carrier is very nice and leaves her vehicle to drop a package at the front door when it doesn’t fit the mailbox.
4) The Postal inspectors I’ve dealt with for identity theft and lost packages were useless and basically despite evidence failed to following up on my case(s).
Things I haven’t verified:
1) I’ve heard that China and commercial entities gets preferential rates that don’t cover cost.
2) It’s a union location so I’m sure there is redundant bureaucracy and waste that should be eliminated.
3) There are contracts for Fedex and others to much of the transport - I doubt we are seeing the savings that such a contract should provide, and would guess we are actually subsidizing their normal ops.
It’s not run like a business because it’s not a business. It’s an arm of the government. A mail service is essential, even if it runs at a loss.
Money can be saved by eliminating those welfare-payments-disguised-as jobs, and not letting politicians appoint people as favors.
"Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) demanded USPS produce a turnaround plan by July that would save the Postal Service."
You can produce all the "turn around plans" that you like, but with 1/3 of all your revenues being sucked away, you are going to fail.
Nice going, Fed.
Yay!
Obamacare next, please!
Put the stamps on your EMAIL
Three words:
Pri Va Tize
Second, end the pension system and go to a 401(k) based system.
Very easy to divide the country into two zones. Zone 1 is Monday, Wednesday, Friday deliveries. Zone 2 is Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday deliveries. Then alternate every other year or so. License retailers to deliver post services like Staples used to do before the postal workers union objected. It was nice to be able to park, but stamps and mail packages during hours convenient to working class folks. Well, I can still ship packages from Staples if I use UPS instead.
Bookmark
It’s my fault. For years I’ve been mailing everything with 1 cent stamps. It cost the PO the same to print one of them as it does the forever stamp. I just use 50 of them at a time. I like the taste of the glue...
“The big reason for insolvency of USPS is that 1/3 of the money they garner goes back into the Federal General Fund.”
I’ve never heard that claim before.
I do know that beginning in the Bush 43 years Congress required the USPS to pre-fund all of its estimated future retirement and health care liabilities, which is a huge expense. No other government agency or private business is required to do this.
I think in time it will be possible. Bulk mail and package delivery has been being done better by UPS, FedEx and others for years. Who writes letters anymore? Text messaging has virtually eliminated that.
The post office is not constitutionally mandated. Article One, Section Eight, Clause Seven states that Congress “shall have the power” to establish Post Offices and post Roads. It could contract private companies to do so, or declare the post office obsolete if it wanted to.
When I go to other countries...the post office is like a mini 7-11. They sell everything. Phone sims to boxes.
A little old fashion capitalism would help them.
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