The Post Office

Thaught I would explain it as I know it why the post office is so called loosing money.

A few years back congress mandated that the USPS prefund their retirees health benifits to the tune of 75 years into the future. You can currently retire from the post office at age 57 with 30 years of service. With that being said do the math. They mandated that the post office do this for people who are not even born yet. The cost of this is $5.6 billion a year for 10 years. Now the kicker of it all. When congress moved the postal retirees benifit programs money from one program to another they undervalued the postal workers contribution to the plan by an estimated $75 billion dollars. They did this to keep the federal employess retirement program solvent. If when they moved out the postal workers portion from the federal employees system into its own and they didnt undervalue it then every other federal employee would have lost thier benefits because congress robbed the coffers.

This is just one expample of how congress has screwed over the post office. 2011 the post office lost a reported $5.1 billion. Now take away that stupid prefund obligation that congress put in on the post office of $5.6 billion and the post office made $500 million dollars last year.

Make a long story short congress robbed the post office coffers by pulling them out of the combined retirement fund and putting them into thier own and shorting them $75 billion that they paid in. In order to keep the program solvent for every other federal employee than on top of that made them prefund retirement benifits for employess not even born yet so that congress could once again rob peter to pay paul.

You say unions are the problem? I think politicians who have no clue on how to run a business let alone a country are the problem.

Thats why private business should be allowed to succeed or fail without government interference. I have believed that since knowing postal employees starting in 1967 that they and the post office would have been far better off as a private enterprise. Sorry you and the other employes are again being abused by those employed to protect our rights. Mike.

Originally Posted by Caveman

Isn't maybe it time for the post office to just close it's doors for good? The private sector could now do the same job. Something that could not be said a couple three hundred years ago or whenever the USPS started.

Call fedex or ups and ask them how much it will cost to mail a single letter.

usps is no longer owned or operated by the federal government. It was sold to a private enterprise not long ago for over $500Million.

They sold it, as it was draining most resources.

Here is my 2 cents. They need to close more locations and cut the employees pay and hours and benefits just like all other government operations. That way they can be competitive with independently owned shipping companies. Closing the doors is not the answer, if that happens i am gonna have to pay alot more to mail small packages/letters 13 ounces or less. USPS also needs to provide freight shipping to compete on that level or atleast raise the current package weight limit from 70 pounds to 150 pounds.

Originally Posted by Caveman

Isn't maybe it time for the post office to just close it's doors for good? The private sector could now do the same job. Something that could not be said a couple three hundred years ago or whenever the USPS started.

I disagree. I think that the Post Office still has it's place. Think about bills and magazines. I don't have an iPad to read magazines and other stuff on, and I know that a lot of people don't either. I still get most of my bills and other stuff from the Post office rather than email because I like feeling that I know the person the bill is for will get it, and that there is low risk of my information getting out of the envelope. I know UPS and Fedex don't want to deal with envelopes, they have better things to do. I also prefer getting small packages from the post office because it's cheaper, and I know that it will get handled with a little more care than UPS or FedEx. (The Fedex guys either throw the packages onto your doorstep from the middle of your yard, or they put the package under your doormat no matter how big it is.) IDK, It would'nt be the same without the post office. I also would hate to get any more of these than I have to, especially just for an envelope:

Originally Posted by GeorgeB

usps is no longer owned or operated by the federal government. It was sold to a private enterprise not long ago for over $500Million.

They sold it, as it was draining most resources.

LOL geo where do you come up with this stuff?

I think that there is alot more stuff that needs to go long before the post office is even considered.The entire government needs to be cut by atleast 50%. There is no point in paying people salaries that don't contribute anything to the economy. I can name atleast 20 programs and organizations that should completely disappear. The gov needs to get there hands out of private industry and concentrate on making a balanced budget. I am sick and tired of market manipulation and corporate bailouts.

So what if it costs 50 billion a year to keep the post office open. What about the 3 trillion dollars that were losing every year because of poor economic practices and excessive government? I think its time to take a step back and look at the whole picture.

There are a lot of problems most people are unaware. Just some:

1. Delivery to very remote areas
2. UPS/Fedex etc using USPS to delivery stuff that is not cost effective
3. Franking - Congress and certain groups (ie: Blind) can use USPS services free (UPS, Fedex etc would charge them)
4. Out of date technology
5. Political appointees for upper management
6. Does not take advantage of developing technology. For instance; Thirty years ago, USPS was perfectly placed to develop use of email. It was totally ignored.
7. Labor/Unions and management are the most distrustful of each other I've ever seen. The Post Office should be one of the best places to work. Instead, it's one of the worst atmospheres there is. Most people spend their dreams thinking how to get out. Few do - fortunately, I did.

These are just a few. A thorough discussion of the USPS problems would take a book.