> The USPS is necessary to insure continued delivery of disability checks, government pension checks, etc. Non tax payers need the tax payers to continue to subsidize this very important role.

why on earth use checks when the $ could show up in a checking account every month?

The USPS is necessary to insure continued delivery of disability checks, government pension checks, etc. Non tax payers need the tax payers to continue to subsidize this very important role

direct deposit, and there's no reason a private company could not do that.

sarcasm alert

More bad news for the post office
_________________________
NEW YORK — Wells Fargo customers in six states who had free checking accounts will pay $7 a month starting in May.

Those customers can avoid the fee by keeping a minimum balance of $1,500 or making direct deposits of at least $500 a month. They can also get a $2 break on the fee by opting for online statements.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/wells-fargo-to-charge-7-monthly-fee-in-6-states-for-checking-accounts/2012/03/08/gIQAHwhEzR_story.html

"direct deposit, and there's no reason a private company could not do that."

Not everyone has (or wants) a bank account.

*****

"Wells Fargo customers in six states who had free checking accounts will pay $7 a month starting in May.
Those customers can avoid the fee by keeping a minimum balance of $1,500 or making direct deposits of at least $500 a month. They can also get a $2 break on the fee by opting for online statements."

How is this bad news for the Post Office?

The $1500 minimum balance/direct deposit requirement to avoid a service charge has been de rigueur for most banks for at least the past 15 years. Wells Fargo has apparently just been particularly generous in those six states (or those six states had stricter requirements that have since been changed).

The postal worker for our building (200 or so units) spends hours here each day, most of it sat in an armchair in the lobby.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443675404578060850778951388.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

The U.S. Postal Service in September hit its $15 billion borrowing limit from the U.S. Treasury for the first time in its history, leaving the agency with only the revenue it takes in from selling stamps, shipping and other services to cover its operating costs.

The Postal Service has added $2.4 billion to its debt since June 30, pushing the agency to its borrowing cap, said Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer

huntersburg
about 23 hours ago
Posts: 9440
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http://www.thepacific.com/technology/archive/2012/10/what-an-academic-who-wrote-her-dissertation-on-trolls-thinks-of-violentacrez/263631/

omg lol

i don't remember seeing any pictures of what's happening up your underaged skirt.

what's your point again?

ok, hang on. brb

cc, what exactly did you want me to take away from that article? this bit

"They are directly reflective of the culture out of which they emerge" or this one

"Whether or not the trolls are making some thought-out social or political point (active grammatical construction used deliberately) political and social statements are made (passive grammatical construction used deliberately" ??

"columbiacounty is harassing lucille "

he doesn't harass me anymore. he USED to do it all the time, followed me around this board for months i couldn't lose him. then i started sexually harassing him and he didn't really know what to do with that so he left me alone. guess he forgot. maybe some ginkgo biloba at your age, cc?

The U.S. Postal service is in a battle for its very existence and to increase income, they are doing the thing makes them cash but annoys just about every person. The USPS is poised to increase the volume of spam that clutters mailboxes countrywide. Source: https://personalmoneynetwork.com/moneyblog/2012/09/20/junk-mail/

Woohoo! Post office listens to Riversider!

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2013/02/post-office-cuts-saturday-mail/

Billions of dollars in the red, and facing a financial crisis, the US Postal Service says it plans to stop delivering mail on Saturdays, but continue delivering packages six days a week. In an announcement set for later today, the USPS is expected to say the cut, due to begin in August, would mean an annual cost saving of about $2 billion a year. One of the few bright spots for the Postal Service is package delivery, which has increased by 14 percent since 2010. The delivery of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and the internet. Last September the service reported a record $15.9 billion loss for its fiscal year. For the first time last year the post office was forced to default on payments owed to its future retiree health benefits fund.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpUqLjjKk4Y

Post office is rather efficient in terms of speed, frequency, volume and reach, not to mention public benefit including providing rural areas access to some necessary federal government services.
There's perhaps a very legit case for 5 day delivery, but that's based on volume and the changing media,marketing and communications landscape, but it has nothing to do with its retiree obligations.

Very slanted article from abcnews.com

This is a HORRIBLE move. They are killing the USPS with this blasted Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, forcing them to pre-fund pensions -- by *75 years*!!!!

Under the PAEA, Congress is forcing them to make pension contributions *today* for future workers who AREN'T EVEN BORN YET!!! If it weren't for this impossible pension pre-funding scheme (that no other government agency has to comply with), the USPS, instead of having a $20 billion shortfall, would have a $1.5 billion *surplus* No layoffs. No post office closings. And certainly no cuts to Saturday delivery. So why the PAEA?

As is usually the case, follow the money. It was created and implemented by members of Congress (and signed by President Bush) trying to push the U.S. into total privatization (Wall Street cronies) by crippling one of the last great public services.

And it's much, much bigger than just letters. The USPS is a public service that benefits EVERYBODY -- particularly the poor -- as well as the rich elitist white guys who insist they don't need post offices anymore.

Most people don't realize that UPS and FedEx couldn't exist -- at least with their current business models -- without the infrastructure that the Post Office built and cultivated for the past 200 years; our entire system of street addresses and ZIP codes, already in place, prevented them from having to reinvent the wheel (without which, it would be akin to starting up your own railroad and having to build your own track, stations, crossings, etc. rather than using the existing railroad infrastructure).

They also piggyback off the USPS and rent space both in their retail locations and on their planes, trucks, and train cars. The services the USPS provides would not exist without a PUBLIC mail system. People who live in rural areas, high-crime areas, or any other local that's not "financially profitable" to deliver to would be SOL under a completely privatized system.

A public system like the USPS is required by law to provide mail service to *everyone*, no matter how inconvenient. There are other crucial services -- particularly for those on the low end of the economic scale -- like postal money orders.

At the end of the day, when critics unfairly compare the USPS to UPS and FedEx (apples to oranges), consider ... would you be able to get away with mailing a letter -- just a single letter -- via UPS or FedEx for just 45 cents?? Can you get ANYTHING there for just 45 cents???

The postal service should be setting aside a fund equivalent to a present value of its future retirement costs but given where interest rates are discounting doesn't do very much. This is how most businesses operate.

Riversider, show me which businesses have pre-funded pensions for 75 years.

Instead of cutting the Post Office, I would eliminate 3 federal departments, Commerce, Education, and ... ,

Dept. Of Energy.

How about simply abolishing that stupid act? That would solve the whole problem.

That's right, thank you.

And while we're abolishing stupid legislation, let's also:

-- re-legalize the 7-gallon-per-flush toilet;
-- re-legalize the incandescent light bulb;
-- re-legalize marijuana

Matt, what kind of shit are you into?

Common sense. That's what I'm into.

That certainly explains your toilet request.

Most of us pay our bills on line, technology has come a long way since the pony express days, Do we really need the gov't to deliver what for most of us is largely unwanted catalogs and credit card offers?

In the last two large buildings I have lived in (200+ units), the mail man seems to spend hours hanging out in the lobby doing nothing. Is this typical in NYC, and what is the reason for this? Is there maybe a union restriction on how many houses/apartments a mail man can have on his route, and some NYC mail men luck out by reaching this quota in just a couple of buildings?

Matt, the USPS made an operating loss of $2.4B in 2012 according to their financial statement. http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/integrated-financial-plans/fy2013.pdf

This loss excluded the effect of the pre-funding.

What was the loss caused to columbiacounty's business partners, family and friends based on his own misconduct?

Still covering up your past, huh?

bad boy C0C0

bad C0C0

ok you win, good C0C0. Such a good boy C0C0.

"The postal worker for our building (200 or so units) spends hours here each day, most of it sat in an armchair in the lobby."

My mailman used to sleep in our mail area. Good to know his pension is fully funded.

Socialist
about 2 years ago
Posts: 2258
Member since: Feb 2010
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>So you are endorsing the idea of the govt. opening your mail and reading it? You know they are going to read it if they open it.

Socialist, how did you know that?