So The Post Office...

[rickyb]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ralph-nader/an-expanding-us-postal-se_b_6879842.html

The ongoing, preventable plight of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is an important issue for those of us who have observed its steady decline over the last several years due to unimaginative management, huge prepayment obligations imposed by Congress, and a deck stacked to favor corporate rivals such as FedEx and UPS.

The USPS has impressively not taken any taxpayer money since 1971, a feat not achieved by many subsidized or bailed-out big corporations.

Where does she stand on the congressional mandate that required USPS to pay out $103.7 billion by 2016 to cover future health benefits of postal retirees for the next 75 years? No other government or private corporation has to meet such an absurd financial burden. It is the primary reason for much of the USPS's financial woes.

What about other sources of revenue? Establishing an honest notary service, cashing most checks, selling fishing and hunting licenses, wrapping holiday gifts, and accepting wine or beer for delivery are just a few congressionally prohibited proposals that have been put forward by postal activists and watchdogs.

 

[JL 0513]

..Psst... this has already been covered before, and I get that you are late to the party, BUUUUUTTT, the Government doesnt run the postal service...!

Your statement is ridiculous after that point.

The Postal Service recieves ZERO tax payer dollars.

Its run by a Corporate board with a federally appointed post master.

Congress nor the senate has anything to do with day to day operations.

Please dont make yourself sound any more foolish.

TOS.

You don't think I know this? Never said they were a government institute or received tax payer money. They are also not a private company. They are not even allowed to raise rates as needed without congressional approval. Only to with rate of inflation. Last I checked, UPS and FedEx charge what they need to to make a profit. That's why I said associated with government. They'd be doing fine without government intermingling with how they need to run.

 

[Brownslave688]

..Psst... this has already been covered before, and I get that you are late to the party, BUUUUUTTT, the Government doesnt run the postal service...!

Your statement is ridiculous after that point.

The Postal Service recieves ZERO tax payer dollars.

Its run by a Corporate board with a federally appointed post master.

Congress nor the senate has anything to do with day to day operations.

Please dont make yourself sound any more foolish.

TOS.

You think you're right but you are really wrong.

There are many laws in place that effectively run the post office.

You can't say the post is independently ran when federal laws dictate so many things about how it must be ran.

 

[oldngray]

Post office doesn't get tax money directly but they are exempt from paying taxes and fees that other companies have to pay. So, yes they are indirectly supported by the government.

 

[The Other Side]

You don't think I know this? Never said they were a government institute or received tax payer money. They are also not a private company. They are not even allowed to raise rates as needed without congressional approval. Only to with rate of inflation. Last I checked, UPS and FedEx charge what they need to to make a profit. That's why I said associated with government. They'd be doing fine without government intermingling with how they need to run.

You said this "Should we be surprised. Anything associated with government equals loser. Good thing governerment keeps reaching deeper into everything. Apparently that's what people want as we keep voting for it."

Which makes you fundamentally wrong.

Government interference or governornance has nothing to do with the postal service woes. The postal board makes all day to day decisions, congress only approves or disapproves rate hikes.

The postal service is plagued with bad decision making, low productivity, extreme costs, and products and services that are outdated in todays business climate. Not to mention employees who are unmotivated, constantly injured and performing a job that is no longer practical.

For example, walking from mailbox to mailbox is a pointless operation in todays business climate. MBU's or community mailboxes is the future. The days of street walking are over if the postal service wants to survive.

You are incorrect when you state that the government somehow interferes in the operation. The postal service failed to build an infrastructure that could carry it through tough times. They have no airplanes to carry expedited services, and they have to rent commercial airspace on planes at a higher cost than they are charging for the service. In other words, they lose money on every piece of next day type air service they sell.

They have no ground operations to carry parcels. They have to contract with independent truckers and companies to transport pkgs, only to suffer losses when these trucks break down or crash which happens often. The lack of discipline by the independent truckers leads to lost mail, or delayed mail or damaged mail.

As for raising rates, you have to comprehend that raising rates ISNT the solve all to their problems.

The first class stamp has a ceiling, and that ceiling is .50 cents. After .50 cents, the product is no longer practical. People will not spend 1 dollar to send two envelopes when they can go onto the internet and pay a bill for free.

Bill pay and online billing has effectively killed the first class stamp. Mostly old people are currently paying bills through the mail.

Each year, the post office loses 15% of its customer base to the internet. First class stamps has always been the cash cow that kept the postal service out of the black.

Everything other than first class mail has been operating in the RED for decades and those loses were always absorbed by the first class stamp revenue. The first class stamp would have to be raised to .75 to make up the shortfalls of the postal service and that would the nail in the coffin.

Small parcels isnt practical either. They dont have the vehicles to handle large quantities of packages nor do they have the time to deliver them outside the regular mail.

Fuel costs would increase and to increase the size of the vehicles would add further costs.

Right now, they stand to lose another 18 billion dollars this year. Without cutting saturday service and shedding 150,000 employees, they wont last another 10 years.

These decisions have ALL been made by the postal board and the government had nothing to do with it. Hopefully you understand that.

TOS.

 

[The Other Side]

A good read...

quote:


According to the laws under which it now operates, the U.S. Postal Service is a semi-independent federal agency, mandated to be revenue-neutral. That is, it is supposed to break even, not make a profit.

In 1982, U.S. postage stamps became "postal products," rather than a form of taxation. Since then, the bulk of the cost of operating the postal system has been paid for by customers through the sale of "postal products" and services rather than taxes.

Each class of mail is also expected to cover its share of the costs, a requirement that causes the percentage rate adjustments to vary in different classes of mail, according the costs associated with the processing and delivery characteristics of each class.


http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/consumerawareness/a/uspsabout.htm

According to the LAW....

the postal service is to remain revenue neutral and not make a profit. There goes your argument.

TOS.

 

[The Other Side]

You think you're right but you are really wrong.

There are many laws in place that effectively run the post office.

You can't say the post is independently ran when federal laws dictate so many things about how it must be ran.

No brown, you are incorrect.

The postal service is a semi independent agency, set up by the congress.

Quote:

The Modern Postal Service: Agency or Business?Until adoption of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the U.S. Postal Service functioned as a regular, tax-supported, agency of the federal government.

The USPS is created as a government agency under Title 39, Section 101.1 of the United States Code which states, in parta) The United States Postal Service shall be operated as a basic and fundamental service provided to the people by the Government of the United States, authorized by the Constitution, created by Act of Congress, and supported by the people. The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities. The costs of establishing and maintaining the Postal Service shall not be apportioned to impair the overall value of such service to the people.

TOS.

 

[worldwide]

..Psst... this has already been covered before, and I get that you are late to the party, BUUUUUTTT, the Government doesnt run the postal service...!

Your statement is ridiculous after that point.

The Postal Service recieves ZERO tax payer dollars.

Its run by a Corporate board with a federally appointed post master.

Congress nor the senate has anything to do with day to day operations.

Please dont make yourself sound any more foolish.

TOS.

American taxpayers give an $18 billion gift to the post office every year

http://fortune.com/2015/03/27/us-postal-service/

 

[The Other Side]

American taxpayers give an $18 billion gift to the post office every year

http://fortune.com/2015/03/27/us-postal-service/

Did you read the article??

In theory. There is no actual cash being handed over. These are exclusions from taxes and a small portion of costs covered by the government for the poor, deaf, blind and some old republicans. (thus the deaf and blind)

From your article, the writer explains that laws prevent private companies from delivering the mail, and this makes up the majority of the 18 billion dollars you are trying to claim as a gift.

14 billion dollars is gained from eliminating competition the writer explains. This isnt a tax break or a bailout. Its a theory.

By not paying state or federal taxes, the postal service saves approx 2.5 billion dollars.

The post office is allowed to borrow money at extremely cheap rates and if forced to pay commercial rates, the interest alone would top 500 million on a loan.

These dont represent gifts.

The writer used the term GIFT when he meant subsidies.

Using the word GIFT just makes it sound appealing to people like you who dont read past the headline.

TOS.

 

[JL 0513]

The Other Side, you're are posting articles describing the USPS as a government agency having to abide by non business rules, not make a profit, and having to get congressional approval for "business" decisions and yet you continue to argue the opposite of those very quoted articles you are posting.

I was being conservative when I said "associated with government". As a declared "government agency", it seems they are more government than not.

Saturday delivery would be gone if they could make their own decisions. The Post Master tried last year. Congress said no. Would've saved 100's of millions a year.

I fully agree about all of the other fundamental problems you mentioned. Yes, their model is doomed no matter what but it doesn't hide the fact that government rule has accelerated their fate.

 

[Brownslave688]

The postal board makes all day to day decisions, congress only approves or disapproves rate hikes.


TOS.

No brown, you are incorrect.

The postal service is a semi independent agency, set up by the congress.

Quote:



The USPS is created as a government agency under Title 39, Section 101.1 of the United States Code which states, in parta) The United States Postal Service shall be operated as a basic and fundamental service provided to the people by the Government of the United States, authorized by the Constitution, created by Act of Congress, and supported by the people.

TOS.

The Other Side, you're are posting articles describing the USPS as a government agency having to abide by non business rules, not make a profit, and having to get congressional approval for "business" decisions and yet you continue to argue the opposite of those very quoted articles you are posting.

I was being conservative when I said "associated with government". As a declared "government agency", it seems they are more government than not.

Saturday delivery would be gone if they could make their own decisions. The Post Master tried last year. Congress said no. Would've saved 100's of millions a year.

I fully agree about all of the other fundamental problems you mentioned. Yes, their model is doomed no matter what but it doesn't hide the fact that government rule has accelerated their fate.

It's pretty amazing isn't it?
How one can contradict ones own self.

 

[The Other Side]

It's pretty amazing isn't it?
How one can contradict ones own self.

There is no contradiction.

the government itself calls the post office "a semi independent" agency.

This doesnt mean the government runs anything. They wouldnt have a board made up of elected members if congress ran the postal service.

You people are so desperate to sound important, you dont bother to research anything.

Try harder next time brown.

TOS.

 

[rickyb]

many banks wont give poor people accounts. poor people have to use payday loans with 300% interest. the post office could start public banking again. governments also get gouged on wall street interest. could use public banks to save on the cost of interest.

By contrast the federal government has taken money from the USPS and owes our Postal Service between $50 and $70 billion dollars in excess retirement benefits payments. The other overpayments to the federal government are for the unprecedented advanced payment of health benefits of future retirees of the next 75 years by 2016, amounting to $5 billion a year (Congress is considering a bill to rectify this problem). Without corrective legislation, the Postal Service says it would have lost $8.5 billion this year. (By comparison, in addition to lost lives and destruction, the Afghan War quagmire costs the U.S. taxpayer over $2 billion a week.)

If all this sounds bizarre to you, it is. No other public department is a defacto creditor of the federal government. The USPS is a hybrid public corporation, created in 1970, from the old Post Office Department. It has been run into the ground on the installment plan by commercial competitors aggressively taking advantage of a weak-willed, unimaginative succession of postmaster generals ruled by a corporate Board of Governors ideologically rooting for corporate privatizers.