Save tax payer money. Close the Post Office
Started by Riversider
over 14 years ago
Posts: 13572
Member since: Apr 2009
Discussion about
596,000 full time workers acording to wikipedia, has 32,000 post offices can't run a balanced budget , has borrowed $12,000,000 from Treasury and has underfunded pension liabilities. Now compare that to what we use it for? We now pay our bills on-line and when we order from Amazon get a delivery via UPS or Fed-Ex. This is a business that should be wound down. A private solution would be more cost... [more]
596,000 full time workers acording to wikipedia, has 32,000 post offices can't run a balanced budget , has borrowed $12,000,000 from Treasury and has underfunded pension liabilities. Now compare that to what we use it for? We now pay our bills on-line and when we order from Amazon get a delivery via UPS or Fed-Ex. This is a business that should be wound down. A private solution would be more cost effective and allow free-market pricing. Most of us could get along with three day a week mail delivery or go to the super-market to mail a letter. Most mail should be digitized and delivered over computer anyway. http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/11_23/b4231060885070.htm [less]
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
this discussion is less useful than a window in columbiacounty's shower.
Absofuckinglutely. Although you really need to move on from the shower window. You've managed to overcome your obsession with my toilet seat, so you seem somewhat capable.
wait a minute, exactly what happened with your toilet seat? Did you create a thread about your toilet seat that you could link to? Certainly I hope your toilet seat had a window.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/what-an-academic-who-wrote-her-dissertation-on-trolls-thinks-of-violentacrez/263631/
http://www.thepacific.com/technology/archive/2012/10/what-an-academic-who-wrote-her-dissertation-on-trolls-thinks-of-violentacrez/263631/
I just clicked on columbiacounty's link only to find it was sponsored by Goldman Sachs.
outsource to india
and outsource the military to india too please
huntersburg
about 23 hours ago
Posts: 9440
Member since: Nov 2010
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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
a little nervous?
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/what-an-academic-who-wrote-her-dissertation-on-trolls-thinks-of-violentacrez/263631/
i don't remember seeing any pictures of what's happening up your underaged skirt.
uh oh.
you're confirming my point.
what's your point again?
read the link....then get back to us.
ok, hang on. brb
hmm
lucille is a woman
columbiacounty is harassing lucille
columbiacounty's article link was about an idiot who mistreated women
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?
>maybe some ginkgo biloba at your age, cc?
Sounds like something that will get stuck in his dentures.
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
ups and fedex employ half their work-force as part-time, providing no benefits and lower wages to those employees.
usps employs nearly all as full-time with reasonable wages and benefits for lower middle class existence
if ups and fedex (or any private corp entity) were forced to treat their long term liabilities, associated with benefits, the same way usps has been forced to, they would be insolvent--and even with the aggressive accounting for these liabilities, many corps use bankruptcy to evade them, ultimately--and then they do a "workout" and remain in business, while taxpayers pick up the slack re the employees who assumed the corp they'd loyally worked for their entire life would make good on their pension obligation
not so different us taxpayers providing food stamp to a large percentage of the working poor at our countries largest employer, walmart
ya--all our troubles are caused by lazy teachers postmen unions--nothing to do with our democracy-for-sale to highest wealthy or corp bidder--it's these lazy leaching rank and file workers who are putting our country down
and thugs like trayvon!
oh shit, i posted to a redbaiter thread--mean not to bother with that
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???
privateers' deceitful manipulation is shameful
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?
you should run for office on your special platform:
ME>>>ME>>>>ME>>>>
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 operating loss at the pentagon?
What was the loss caused to columbiacounty's business partners, family and friends based on his own misconduct?
oh look.
its hfscomm1 lying again.
and again
and again
Still covering up your past, huh?
hfscomm1
just keep lying
makes you look bad
bad boy C0C0
keep lying.
you're looking worse and worse.
show us more of your true colors.
go for it, hfscomm1.
bad C0C0
pathetic.
show us more.
hfscomm1.
ok you win, good C0C0. Such a good boy C0C0.
you're disgusting.
"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?