-
The Perils of Intervention in Syria
May 7, 2013 | 37 comments
-
America on Welfare
April 25, 2013 | 46 comments
-
Thursday Is Tax Freedom Day
April 17, 2013 | 5 comments
-
Time for Real Federalism
April 8, 2013 | 23 comments
-
Stalin Died 60 Years Too Late
March 29, 2013 | 73 comments
The Public Policy
Postal Bankruptcy
Washington is broke: why a monopoly government post office?
(Page 2 of 2)
Roughly 80 percent of the agency’s costs go to its workforce of more than 700,000, which trails only Wal-Mart in numbers. Postal employees enjoy staffing levels and wages set by a politically potent union rather than productivity in a competitive marketplace. Union contracts bar or restrict outsourcing, layoffs, part-time and contract work, and employee assignment outside of narrowly defined crafts. Hence an estimated wage premium of 30 percent. The average USPS salary is $83,500, which makes postal employees among the highest paid semi-skilled workers around. The problem may grow even worse as postal contracts with the four largest unions come up for renewal over the next two years.
There are 36,500 post offices in America, more than the combined number of Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Walgreens. Yet the average number of weekly postal customer visits was 600, one-tenth the average at Walgreens. Consequently roughly 26,000 of the post offices lose money.
Yet mail demand appears to be locked in a permanent decline. America’s population continues to rise, but the number of pieces of mail delivered was down 17 percent from 213 billion in 2006 to 177 billion in 2009. That number is expected to drop to 167 billion this year, the lowest since 1992, and 150 billion by 2020.
The USPS lost $1.4 billion last year. The red ink will be five times as great this year. And over the next decade Postmaster General John Potter predicts losses of $238 billion. The post office can’t borrow its way even out of immediate trouble, unless Congress lifts the current $15 billion loan limit, which will leave only about $2 billion in borrowing authority next year.
In short, warned a recent Government Accountability Office report: “USPS’s business model is not viable.”
IN MARCH THE USPS proposed ending Saturday delivery. But Ruth Goldway, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, doubts that “they’re going to save as much money as they think they are.” Saturday delivery is one of the USPS’s “strategic advantages,” she opines, which means dropping that service might reduce mail volume. Yet one consultant hired by the post office proposed cutting mail delivery in half, from six to just three days a week.
USPS also wants Congress to eliminate the requirement to prefund retiree health care benefits. Most companies don’t even offer coverage for retirees, and virtually none provide such lavish benefits. Dropping the prefunding mandate likely would leave taxpayers paying the bill.
The postmaster general has come up with a number of other cost-saving ideas, but none would confront the government’s postal monopoly. And it is hard to know which steps make the most sense absent competition. Argued Dan Ortwerth, an analyst at Edward Jones: “If FedEx and UPS’s management team took over the Postal Service and were truly given free rein, man, I think they could probably do a lot to whip it into shape and take advantage of the Postal Service’s unique internal strength. But that is not how it is.”
Freer USPS management is not enough, however. The entire postal market should be set free.
Although most postal employees are horrified by the idea of shifting to market mail services, former postmaster general William Henderson disagrees: “Privatization may seem far-fetched, but it’s not.”
Admittedly, privatization still wouldn’t be easy given legacy costs and labor contracts. Nevertheless, this is the only realistic option. Observed the Washington Post: “If Congress gives management the tools it needs to meet the crisis, and if management uses them effectively — two big ifs, we admit — the Postal Service will have a chance to get its house in order and one day attract private capital, as European postal services have done.”
Despite its manifold failures, the postal system has its loyal defenders. The New York Times asserted: “all Americans should not have to rely solely on private businesses for anything as fundamental as mail delivery.” But why should they be forced to rely on the post office, which loses money while performing badly?
Indeed, in attempting to defend his health care “reform” proposal, President Barack Obama noted that “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine.” In contrast, “it’s the post office that’s always having problems.” So why preserve the latter’s monopoly?
“We intend to be around for decades and centuries to come,” Postmaster General Potter announced in March. Not likely, at least in the postal service’s current form. My Cato Institute colleague Tad DeHaven warned that “the USPS will likely continue to bleed red until policymakers run out of band-aids and are finally confronted with the choice of either privatization or direct taxpayer funding.”
But bankrupt Uncle Sam has no money for a postal bail-out. Only privatization is a realistic option. We need real change that we can believe in.
About the Author
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author and editor of several books, including The Politics of Plunder: Misgovernment in Washington (Transaction).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (122) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Doug Bandow
More Articles From The Public Policy
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/10/05/postal-bankruptcy
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Paul H.| 10.5.10 @ 6:38AM
I use standard mail service (bulk mail). I personally spend three to four thousand dollars a year with the post office for this service.
Yesterday I went to drop off a mailing of about 1600 pieces (about $ 500), they turned me down.
They don't take mail after three in the afternoon.
This is typical of post office operations. Oh, and did I mention that they have three "business consultants" on staff at the post office who are supposed to help business mailers, ( the backbone of financing postal operations), their response is a shrug. They have no skin in the game why should they bother.
The internet and online banking are withering the postal service. The staff don't care because their positions and wages are a sinecure. If taxpayers realized the investment we have in the post office in terms of property and equipment and the poor returns we get on that investment they would demand the post office be turned over to Fedex or UPS.
My two cents.
Best regards.
Paul H.
vtwin| 10.5.10 @ 8:27AM
Instead of complaining about the Post Office why don’t you use FedEx or UPS next time?
Steve A| 10.5.10 @ 9:05AM
I could be wrong here but I think if you are sending direct mail, in bulk, for marketing purposes, the USPS is the only game in town.
Jean| 10.9.10 @ 6:58PM
For bulk mailing, you're right. The postal service does have some good rates. However, I have a small business and use e-mail marketing extensively. It's cheaper, allows the message to be more timely, gets to my mailing list faster and can generate a higher rate of direct response than paper mailings. The only reason I use the post office any more is to send samples or merchandise.
Redstateboy| 10.5.10 @ 9:28AM
Instead of you yapping!! Why don't you admit extortionary Union Pension obligations are straggling the Post Office. Why don't you admit that with-out Taxpayers subsidies.. USPS and Amtrak would be gone and better, faster, cheaper Services would come along.. OH!! But then you'd have to believe in Free Enterprise.
Kimmy Stein| 7.26.11 @ 1:22PM
The pensions are getting out of control. The entire postal system is a little screwed... At this point, I think they should reduce the delivery days to 4 or 5 and start charging more for stamps to encourage more paperless email. I was reading on this blog ( http://www.creditrepair.org/ ) that the postal service's yearly deficits are completely unnecessary and really comes down to unwise spending... We have socialized postal services, socialized police and fire, but no socialized health care. Here's how to fix the economy: Stop spending so much on defense and pensions, socialize medicine in its stead and privatize the postal service.
Dustoff| 10.5.10 @ 10:10AM
They can't you dummy... try reading the law. Jus t once.
If you can.
vtiwn| 10.5.10 @ 10:46AM
"They can't," do what?
LiveFreeOrDie| 10.5.10 @ 2:04PM
Try reading the article BEFORE making comments. Here's a word you can look up to help get you started:
Monopoly
Blackwatch| 10.6.10 @ 10:50PM
Vtwin,
Only the post office can deliver bulk mail into your mail box. Other delivery agents have to drop your parcels at your do step. They can not put anything into a mail box. Federal Monopoly law.
mulp| 10.7.10 @ 4:15AM
I get bulk mail from others dropped by my roadside mailbox or hung on a nail all the time, so delivery inside the box the USPS specifies is not a requirement to deliver bulk mail. News boys and then news delivery drivers were the primary bulk mail delivery system in the past. Newspapers often supplied a delivery tube.
But the bulk delivery competition can't compete with the USPS bulk mail option any more because that has fallen off as well.
With mail, bulk-junk, newspaper, and package delivery down, how more than one delivery service can afford to operate is a mystery, much less enough to provide competition.
Eric Cartman with Handy Manny!| 10.5.10 @ 10:53AM
Cut it, measure it, tap it flat
Bend and twist, just like that
Each of us has a special job
We work together -- todos juntos (everyone together)
We work together now!
Ola, everybody! We have a special guest today. Say ola to our little friend, Ereec Cartman.
Ola Ereec!
Hey Manny. Hope your cousins made it over the fence last night to help you put American handymen out of business with the slave wages you work for. Are all 47 of them going to live in your house with you?
Ooooooh, we don't talk about that here on the Handy Manny show, right keeds? Yeah!
Whatever.
You seem down in da doomp today, Ereec. What eez the matter?
Well, it's just that we have so many douche bags here in the U.S. it's hard to get anything done right anymore. No wonder even you illegal's are kicking our asses when it comes to working and business.
Oooooo, dat sounds bad! But good for me! Hee hee! So why the big, round, white frowny face, Ereec?
Well, there is this douche bag, vtwin and his gang of union asswipes and Democrat sponges. You may have heard of him from the Imagination Movers - he was even too dumb for them to help. Anyway, so we are talking about how this guy tried to bulk mail letters at his local U.S. Post office and was told that since it was after 3:00 PM, they couldn't do it - some union thug mullet-head had decided that 3:00 PM was the cut-off time for bulk mail because the union is too lazy to come up with any other solution except "Just don't accept bulk mail after 3:00 - it's just too hard to work after a few beers" business model. I mean, they advertise how business friendly they are and the guy said they have THREE people who work there who handle business clients and they STILL can't do anything. They are bankrupt, they are slow, and no one likes going to the post office to do anything so they constantly lose business. I mean, they even made buying stamps difficult. How the hell do you become so stupid you can screw up buying stamps when stamps are the ONLY fucking thing you sell? Can you tell me that?
No, Ereec. Dat is pretty fucking stupid!
Exactly. So they guy is outlining a serious problem that you would think any business would try to address so customers would tell other customers how attentive and helpful that business is so they would get more customers and become successful. Instead, after the guy gets done with his story of ineptitude at the Post Office, vtwin chimes in with this:
"Instead of complaining about the Post Office why don’t you use FedEx or UPS next time?"
He said dat?
Yes. The unimaginative, useless piece of dolt shit said that.
Oh, no wonder I get so much beezness. That is the stupeedest ting I ever heard. I mean, I grew up in a mud hut weeth a corrugated metal roof and no toilet and even I know that you have to please your customers so you get more beeznis to grow your company to hire more people to serve more customers. Dis is why I am bringing up my cousins from Reynosa. I have expanded my firm and need reliable workers instead of the lazy union guy who always show up for jobs at my door every morning. Day are scaring away my customers like the day laborers at da Home Depot. Dis guy - vtwin?- he is a dumb sheet. Do you want to borrow my hammer to go hit him in dee head weeth? He is quite thee dumb sheet. It may help heem think better.
You got that right - he is a dumb sheet. But hitting him in the head with your hammer might damage your hammer. No wonder he can't get a job and has to live in his parent's basement. The guy can't even use the right "it's" in a sentence. Probably works part-time at the post office.
Hee hee. Dat eez funny, Eric. Well, join us keeds and I will show you how to work hard, please your customers, expand you beezness and become so successful you have to send for your cousins to help you because the local people are useless. AND how not to end up like dat dumb sheet vtwin! Adios, amigos!
Ned| 10.5.10 @ 11:34AM
Another gem Cartman! You crack me up.
Nate W.| 10.6.10 @ 12:29AM
LOL. Don't ever stop your creative (and on-the-money) posts, Carty.
Alan Brooks| 10.5.10 @ 4:29PM
Don't you concern yourselves with the postal system, right now worry about your deplorable skool sistem-- the laughing stock of the world.
Look not to the Indian reservation, as former Interior head Watt said, look closer to home.
Native Americans are starting to move up.
Muslim madrassas are better than American skoolz. Our private schools are too expensive, and to a lesser extent the chartered ones.
So that leaves government subsidy-- something some of you aren't exactly enthusiastic about.
And you can't, as Jonah Goldberg does, blame it 100 percent on government; parents are responsible, too.
How many decades has this been going on, four?
You rightly put me down; nevertheless the following is is an open question: who is a bigger chump, me-- or some of you?
You are sadly mistaken if you think we have to respect you.
Alan Brooks| 10.5.10 @ 4:43PM
PS,
Not that you care, but every RINO year that goes by I have less respect than the year before. Say you want to close govt agencies? let's start by closing down the Selective Service system, rely on volunteer forces, good ones that pay better so some Servicemen don't have to get on food stamps. If you need more funding, institute a defense tax. Pay more to have your property defended.
To get back to the topic of the post office system, you can do far better at reforming the PO than you can the schools.
Do what you want, but it is very surprising after all these years of Bush-league drift, you actually think we are obligated to respect you!
IMO, Vermonters are wise people, perhaps Vtwin knows some of what I am getting at; and, BTW, how much do you think HE respects you?
Why don't you ask him?
Rich Fisher| 10.5.10 @ 6:30PM
And what country are you living in that drafts people into the military? The selective service system only registers people in the event of an emergency, it does not draft anyone. Every member of the Armed forces since the 70's has been a volunteer. By the way, Marines have always been volunteers.
Semper Fi
Alan Brooks| 10.5.10 @ 6:37PM
If you want to close govt agencies, Selective Service is the agency to start with.
There is no ethical right to register or conscript anyone; especially blacks-- after what they have been through.
Muhammad Ali did the correct thing, and he was not a communist, he was not a jihadist.
Appleby| 10.6.10 @ 8:18AM
THE SIXTIES ARE OVER. THE SIXTIES ARE OVER. THE SIXTIES ARE OVER.
Paul Thiel| 10.6.10 @ 4:26PM
Please forgive Mr. Brooks. It's probably just a flashback. Those darn sugar cubes!
But I do agree closing down the Selective Service is a good idea for budgetary reasons (if we had bothered to make one this year, that is).
Roger Loger| 10.6.10 @ 9:28PM
Muslim madrassas teach fairy tales, and unimaginative ones at that, and nothing else. If "madrass" means school in their language, somethin g is being lost in translation.
TEA Holmes| 10.6.10 @ 11:19PM
Roger,
I think the Muslims cannot spell any better than Cartman - Madrassas was bad spelling - you mention that Madrass means school - I think the correct spelling is Madass - the r is not necessary, pretty much explains everything in regards to the Muslims
Roger Loger| 10.6.10 @ 9:28PM
Muslim madrassas teach fairy tales, and unimaginative ones at that, and nothing else. If "madrass" means school in their language, somethin g is being lost in translation.
Claire| 10.6.10 @ 7:42PM
Did you know that the USPS has cut over 100,ooo positions since 2008? And of those remaining, more and more are part-time flexible positions, guaranteed only 2 hours per 2 week pay period. There is great frustration that we are not sufficiently staffed to take care of our customers. There is a difference between "having no skin in the game" and having your hands tied with budget cuts and clerk excessing.
TEA Holmes| 10.6.10 @ 11:27PM
Claire,
Do you realize that 80% of the expense of running the USPS is LABOR and the unions keep demanding more? Silly, stupid and more stupid - I am close personal friends with a postmaster - non union and the most frustrated person I know - he wants to improve service at his office but due to all the union labor regulations he is just farked - he attempts to help poor 3 PM guy but there is nothing he can do - he has 3 yrs until retirement - at age 50!!! AT FULL SALARY at the time of retirement, he is working hard currently at (go figure) getting a promotion and a raise - can you imagine anyone in the private sector doing that! HAH - no wonder the USPS is bankrupt.
CLOSE IT DOWN!! Stop the BILLION dollar theft from taxpayers - I will drive anywhere and do whatever is necessary to get my catalogs and political advertising and commercial BS that the USPS delivers daily to my garbage can!!
RuralRouter| 10.7.10 @ 7:38PM
Where did the author get the $80,000 average salary. I am a rural carrier and make 41,000.
East Texas Rancher| 10.5.10 @ 6:51AM
The Post Office in my town lets patrons stand in line for wasted minutes when they could call another clerk from the back. The other issue I think is contributing is the fancy mailers and commercial things they sell in display windows. No one buys that merchandise and it ends up costing wasted tax dollars.
The one thing I do like is flat mailing rates. With children in the military it is so nice to send packages often and not be constrained with costs.
djt| 10.6.10 @ 4:21PM
Love it! The problem in a nutshell. Hate the post office but love that there are flat mailing rates. Would a private mail service run this way? No. So why do we expect the USPS to be profitable when run this way. If it costs $20 to mail a package to Iraq(n), then pay up and stop free loading!
1776blues| 10.19.10 @ 11:10PM
There is no other clerk in the ack. Window Clerks are scheduled each day, one may call in sick, one may be on lunch, but the clerk in the back is not authorized to work the window nor should he/she be. Each Window Clerk has a till and is responsible for that money and I think a certain amount of stamp stock. Another problem is with tight budgets some offices schedule fewer employees. But standing in line is not restricted to the USPS, I find them in many businesses including Doctor offices (not standing, just waiting), the one that burns me is the grocery store. Oh and my pharmacy that always has one person taking in new prescriptions.
What tax dollars are wasted? It is not subsidized or it wasn't before I retired in 2005, but I heard they do have a credit line from the Treasury dept (which I swear is part of the Federal Reserve) who borrows their money from the private Federal Reserve. But, that is new to me and contrary to popular belief the USPS did enjoy more than a decade of operating in the black, what they sold supported the service and profit went back into equipment. There was a time when the USPS was subsidized by tax payer money its just not your income tax, that goes to the Federal Reserve.
How do you know no one buys that stuff? The USPS is trying to drum up more revenue as they are required to run like a business but as usual they are always the agency people love to beat up.
But I definitely would not want several companies with access to my mail box because who will you go to if a check never arrives and the company said they mailed it and they used Jack's speedy mail service and after his service put it in Rudy express comes along and his company is struggling so he in order to secure more customers decides to take the other letters, after all once it is privatize all federal protection is gone.
If they really want to stream line the USPS they need to get rid of the non-essential personnel at the top who come out of the wood work every six months to justify their assistant to the assistant of the main assistant.
wodiej| 10.5.10 @ 6:58AM
I have experienced similar problems as well as clerks chatting at length w a customer when there are long lines. Most clerks are none too friendly nor seem to be in too big of a hurry. Guess not when your job is guaranteed regardless of performance.
This debt they have is unacceptable.
Bram| 10.5.10 @ 11:33AM
Amazing what we will tolerate at the Post Office or the DMV that we would never put up with at the local Fed-Ex office.
Let the PO go public, lift the anti-competitive laws and let them compete. If they make it great, if not, that's okay too.
mulp| 10.7.10 @ 4:23AM
How much more do you pay to ship Fed-Ex?
As an individual dropping off at UPS or Fed-Ex store, it is at least twice the USPS rate for the same parcel for the same service.
Petronius| 10.5.10 @ 8:07AM
Doug Bandow has obviously not read my earlier posts on my erstwhile employer. He should go into the archive and do it. We are still waiting for Congress to return our retirement money Bob Dole looted from us during our good years to hand to ADM for the ethanol scam we now have to subsidize every time we fill up. If we could just get that money back, our retirement and medical benefits would be sound on an actuarial basis and not 1 penny from the Treasury would be needed to pay our annuities in perpetuity. The House Subcommittee on Postal and Government affairs has also determined that our retirement fund is owed money form the days of the old Post Office Dept. when profits from postage were taken and appropriated for other federal spending.
The U.S. postal Service will go on so long as most Americans write checks and put them into reply envelopes to pay their bills. The security issue of that alone is sacrosanct. And there will be no changes until the banks and credit carriers make some.
Saturday delivery will remain because any attempt to reconfigure every delivery unit in this country with businesses folding, foreclosures, and population shift in constant flux would never be complete.
If the public really wants our service to improve, they should team up with the carriers to bury the horseshit Dickensian work rules that slow us down by having to sort three bundles of mail on every doorstep. I complained every day that my job was to deliver the mail, not juggle it. But then a lot of supervisors would be unnecessary and their union would never stand for that. Right: our managers have their own union too, and it exists to proliferate their jobs while our routes get added deliveries or eliminated. My union, the NALC responds in typical Luddite fashion by refusing to comprehend the changes wrought through information technology and accept the fact that you don't need to write a letter when you can Twitter. All in all the solution is generational. And the passing of the U.S. Postal Service will coincide with mine.
One last thing: I challenge the producers of Undercover Boss to camp on Postmaster General Potter's tail. Not only do I want to see him case and carry a 600+ stop park and loop route in 8 hours by himself, but work a culling line, bulk mail slide, parcel breakdown, retail and accountable window clerk details, box section, first class outgoing dispatch, and registry section.
I could sure use a laugh.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.5.10 @ 9:09AM
Petronius,
Thank you for that.
You know, I have NEVER heard a bad word about the God blessed letter-carriers. They do a splendid job day to day. Their bosses suck.
coal carrier| 10.5.10 @ 8:34AM
How much does a paperboy make delivering newspapers? And remember he also has to return to collect.
Jim O'Brien| 10.5.10 @ 8:37AM
For starters, the new Congress should dismantle the USPS, Amtrak, Department of Energy, Department of Education, Obamacare, and the IRS. The latter can be accomplished by enacting the Fair Tax legislation already introduced. www.fairtax.org
Federal spending should be cut by $2 trillion ASAP.
Redstateboy| 10.5.10 @ 9:31AM
Ding! Ding! Ding!... The most truthful comment of the day... and Ooooo.... how the "Establishment" would fight this tooth and nail.
Melvin| 10.5.10 @ 8:42AM
We all know what the answer to the Postal Service is.
PRIVATIZE. UPS, FEDEX are living proof that they can make this type of system work and still make money.
edo| 10.5.10 @ 9:19AM
It is one thing for UPS to bring a box down a dusty road once in awhile, but the Postman delivers to every house every day.
Bram| 10.5.10 @ 11:37AM
And if the Post Office was privatized, and UPS allowed to compete for letters - they would both offer letter service at a price where they make a profit. Maybe higher than now, maybe not. Either way, they wouldn't be blowing through billions of tax dollars annualy.
Ned| 10.5.10 @ 12:00PM
Yes, the Postman delivers to every house, every day... but WHY? Because the Royal Post did that in the 1800s? So frickin' what? I do NOT need a pile of pulp-paper bulk mail dumped in my box every day. None of it ever gets past the front door anyway, so 'timely delivery' of more trash is a joke. Nor do I *need* to get fan mail from Macy's and Shell every day... they could easily wait until the next day, or the following Monday. I already get most of my bills electronically, and the ones that aren't delivered that way are either companies that are hard to do business with, or have otherwise annoyed me.... Comcast being the prime example of both - I make them send me a paper bill just to cost them time and money.
The guy that puts the junk in my box is nice, and seems to do his best. The folks at the counter downtown seem to have taken lessons (at the union hall?) in s-l-o-w. Privatize the whole mess, cut delivery to every other day, close half the offices and put ATM style machines in every mall and be done with it.
Alan Brooks| 10.5.10 @ 8:59PM
"and put ATM style machines in every mall and be done with it."
Plus high priced security guards to watch the expensive machines.
TEA Holmes| 10.6.10 @ 11:38PM
Hah - love this one - I agree that the poor bloke who stops every day at my mailbox should instead venture a bit further to my garbage can and deposit anything that has been sent BULK - I would even pay him half my hourly rate to only stop if he has something that might remotely be of interest (my hunting magazines of course!) - at my hourly rate I estimate that 100 dollars a day goes to sorting and tossing BULK garbage that arrives DAILY - just deliver that once a week on Saturday bundled so I can easily toss in my garbage can and thus further support the PRIVATE business of WASTE MANAGEMENT!!
Paul H.| 10.6.10 @ 8:06AM
Someone with business acumen would see this as an opportunity and not as an unfortunate circumstance as you do.
Claire| 10.6.10 @ 7:27PM
Living proof? Both Fedex and UPS are raising their rates over 5% this year. They are not mandated to go to every home, every day, whether they have a package or not. Both companies also use USPS for the "final mile" in unprofitable areas- meaning they pay the postal service to take their packages to places that cost more to deliver than there is a profit for.
Skip Walter| 10.5.10 @ 9:15AM
Mr Bandow is obviously misinformed regarding"bulk mailers" when he states they enjoy artificially low rates. These firms prepare the mail in "walk sequence", whereby the mail is completely automated and no manual sorting is requires unlike 1st class single piece mail. Since the only handling required is the act of putting it in the mail box, why shouldn't there be a discount? It is unfortunate to read such nonsense from a learned individual such as Mr. Bandow. Care to guess how much 1st class mail would be if it were not for Standard Mail?
Sandra| 10.5.10 @ 9:25AM
I don't know about many of the "other" post offices in the USPS. The three closest to me (my little town's, the one on the Army Post, and one the next town over) All have three counters for accepting parcels and other business. Very seldom are all three open.
There is a Postmaster, (manger/supervisor) that is supposed to be in the office. Usually that person is working the counter, trying to fix broken equipment, "pitching" mail, loading/unloading mail, or is doing one of the routes.
There are usually about a dozen or so route people that drive/walk and deliver the mail. There had been more, but as people retire, more are NOT being hired.
There are also in addition to four or five "counter people" another 4 in the back, sorting mail going out or coming in, or pitching to the mail boxes.
I remember back when there would be something like 30 route workers and another crew of up to 10 in the Post Office building. (Back when a neighbor was working for the Post Office when I was a teen).
All the equipment is rapidly aging, the printers (at my local Post Office) are from the late 1990s. And their vehicles are behind on preventive maintenance. the Postal truck HAS given up the ghost in front of my house once, while waiting for a replacement my Mail-lady was telling me about the problems and troubles. She loved her work, liked her co-workers, hated the equipment that they had to 'make-do' with, that often, broke down and then the "excuses" from on high about why it can't get fixed or replaced.
In the mean time the waste at the upper levels is appalling! Lots of what Petronius has said, I have heard from my friends that work for the USPS.
Rmm| 10.5.10 @ 9:26AM
As one of the foot soldiers in this organization, I can honestly say that in a 40 yr. work history the USPS is the most one directional in terms of communicating with its "blue collar" workers, that I have seen.
Letter carriers are never asked about their input before changes are made about the way we do our jobs. We are dictated to by some unknown manager type. Therefore you go with what works and ignore the BS.
It is through threads like this one and other business journals that we learn about the dire straights the USPS is in, not from the company itself.
Sam Vaughn| 10.5.10 @ 11:37AM
Rmm, thank you for that. That's what we can expect from the "ruling class" towards the entire taxpaying population. Vote out all liberal/progressives in November!
Petronius| 10.5.10 @ 11:26PM
Rmm
I hope you can see retirement from here.
When I asked my Branch officers who the Hell wrote the F***ing rule that we couldn't case the DPS letters, Advo's, and whatever else they demanded we balance on our noses, they said they didn't know. I retorted that they better find out and tell me, otherwise, what on earth was I paying them dues for? Somebody had to write that damned rule, therefor he or she must have a name. I never got an answer. And so long as our officers don't have to carry a pouch and pick through the stuff in all weathers, it's not their problem. Carry on Brother.
Anthony| 10.5.10 @ 9:27AM
The USPS is and has been the private fiefdom of congress to use and play with as they saw fit. It was also a job center for friends and political cronies. Add to this the cushy relationship congress has with the postal union, and you can imagine the farce that would pretend to be labor negotiations between the two. The only item of contention would be what restaurants to eat lunch at, paid of course by the taxpayers.
The USPS is the poster-child for what is wrong with government and how inept our elected officals are at the most simple of tasks. Why so many Americans want government to run any other aspect of their lives is the mystery of the decades.
Too bad we can't make all the upcoming congressional losers take jobs at the USPS and walk the route, especially in the dead of winter. I'd love to see Harry Reid carry a mail bag and do something useful for once in his pathetic life.
Bag men is an appropiate image for these whores.
Retired USPS| 10.8.10 @ 1:37AM
SOME OF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE INSIDE
You guys who never worked in the USPS don't have a clue of what goes on. You can glean a little from some of these ex-postal workers who are writing comments, but none of the true horror stories are coming out. If you worked in a large installation, you either saw violence or it was somehow prevented. You saw young girls, who had a child but were not married, get subjected to extortion (sex for their jobs). Unions "teach" the workers to hate Management. Management teaches their people to hate labor. No fratenizing between the two. Therefore, Union is always needed. Outside the building, the carriers are good hard working people, inside the building, they are harassed, bullied, intimidated, timed on their breaks and even going to the bathroom, belittled, cursed at, and their jobs threatened continually. It makes for a very explosive workplace. You have many Viet Nam veterans working there who do all they can physically and mentally to hold their temper and not kill everyone in sight. You see a 50 year old woman screamed at and cursed on the work floor by Management until she breaks down crying. That's why I say these carriers are much better people than what some of you try and portray them as. It seems that the bottom of the barrel was used to find all of the Managers. To be a Manager, you had to have no morals, no integrity, no respect for yourself or the people under you. Their job requirement description is that they must lie about a worker to set him up for discipline, you must set him/her up in a situation to be able to discipline him/her, and you must miserably harass anyone relentlessly if you are told to. These workers are paid high wages, but you don't know what they have to go through each and every day. The ones that really have it bad is a man whose wife works in the same office with him. Will he put up with his horrific treatment towards his wife or ...... what will he do. The Postal Service as a whole is a bad mis-managed institution. But, the workers (carriers and clerks) are good hard working people. If you see a clerk talking to a familiar smiling face a little longer than maybe he/she should, just think that this is the only tidbit of a decent conversation with a real human being after what he/she had to endure behind the scenes that the public never sees.
Redstateboy| 10.5.10 @ 9:33AM
The USPS, Amtrak, FreddieMac and FannieMae..?? I think we're seriously F'd if we don't have a Revolution and soon.
Ed| 10.5.10 @ 10:14AM
I fully agree with the statements about unmanned service counters and on and on.
I recently was an innocent victim of minor damage to my car from a postal vehicle that sideswiped the car in front of me. The debris chipped my windshield. When the postmistress arrived, she was very polite and very apologetic. She got my info and sent me a form to fill out within 1 day. My problem? The form was a typical government nightmare of line this and line that and worded only as a true government office could word it. Bottom line? I fixed it myself at my cost. I needed a consultant to figure out how to fill out the form. I shudder to think what folks would have to go through just to find lost mail and packages or get postal insurance settlements.
Sam Vaughn| 10.5.10 @ 11:41AM
Lot's of great commentary here today....it would be funny except for the fact that we can expect delivery of our healthcare through USPS officials. Wait till your gall bladder get's side swiped by government forms. Vote, vote, vote.......
Rich Fisher| 10.5.10 @ 6:42PM
You know the post office has done something about the counters not being fully staffed. They've put in self mailing stations that just about any moron can figure out how to use to mail most packages/letters/parcels. The funny thing is I'll go to the post office to mail a package and see 20 people standing in line and no one using the mailing station. Takes me about 3 minutes, in and out. If we can pump our own gas surely we can send our own package.
Paul Thiel| 10.6.10 @ 4:21PM
Are the mail stations unionized?
PattyMor| 10.5.10 @ 10:36AM
The postal service should eliminate Saturday delivery PDQ. We can no longer afford it and the mail volume doesn't support it. Then the US government should auction off the USPS franchise to the highest bidder. Then proceed to auction off the TVA and other similar services.
Rich Fisher| 10.5.10 @ 6:45PM
Patty, you are assuming of course that there would be some cost saving by not delivering the mail on Saturday. Think again. About the only savings would be for the part time carriers who get stuck with Saturday delivery. Nothing else would change. Then the union would ask for overtime pay for the regular carrier since he would have to deliver Saturday's mail on Monday, thus taking longer to cover his route. The law of unintended consequences tells me that we would end up spending more, not less.
Petronius| 10.5.10 @ 11:57PM
Pay attention class
With a 6 day delivery week and 5 day standard work week, the carriers have a rotating schedule beginning Saturday and ending Friday. If I have the last day off in week 1 I have the 1st in week 2; Fri, Sat, Sun. Then I work 6 days straight: off Sun and Monday next, then Tue, Wed, Thur, the following 3 weeks.
This year the Postal Service refused to hire summer casuals and drafted full time regular carriers not on the overtime desired list for forced overtime. Our Branch filed an avalanche of grievances for management's willful violation of article 8 which the union claims they are powerless to stop without a favorable ruling from the arbiters of the NLRB. So the carriers continue to have their lives stolen from them with no hope of relief from this abuse inside of 5 years. Add to it the carriers who want the work are also grieving this idiotic practice. This means that the Postal Service will be forced to pay them also for the work the carriers not on the overtime desired roster were forced to perform. Talk to your Mail Carrier when they have a few minutes. They'll tell you about crap they have to put up with for no other reason than to inflict misery on them. And to this day managers can't or won't understand why a substitute took his 45 to his office in Edmund, Oklahoma back in '85 and emptied 2 clips into his supervisor and coworkers he didn't like. I said before, both sides could have labor peace in 5 minutes by letting us carry our routes the best way we know how. Neither side wants that.
RichTex| 10.6.10 @ 10:40AM
If working for the Post Office is so gosh-darned terrible, why don't you just quit?
Paul Thiel| 10.6.10 @ 4:20PM
Are all postal carriers such whiners?
Sharen Marie| 10.6.10 @ 10:52PM
I thought your comment was very interesting as is the comments from the other post office workers. Don't listen to the complaints - thank you for the information, which is what I wanted from this article and the commentators.
Paul from SA| 10.5.10 @ 11:11AM
Postal workers are overpaid and unproductive. There is but one solution: privatization (yes, a for-profit organization).
If no privatization, gov't solutions:
1. eliminate the union.
2. cut pay, benefits and pensions 10% per year for three years.
3. cut delivery service to Monday, Wed, and Fri.
4. drug tests for all who receive gov't benefits, including all the people sitting at home with fake back injuries.
TEA Holmes| 10.6.10 @ 11:50PM
I agree with Paul - I have slaved 15 years in private corporate working environment - I do not have lazy union rules of work 3 days a week, I have to work 5 days a week, mostly 8-12 hours a day sometimes with no lunch or other break (there would be lawsuits if a union member had to do that) - also the corporation considers my pay compensates for carrying a cell phone so I can respond to emergencies during non-working hours including all holidays, and every other moment of every day where I am not in the office - I also have to carry a laptop everywhere I go for an entire week every month for support activities - that includes ball games, kids activities, visiting sick relatives, whatever the corporation does not care - it is glued to me 24/7 - can you imagine a union person doing that? HAH!!!
michigander_sandusky| 10.5.10 @ 11:22AM
Where's Cliff Clavin when you need him?
Rich Fisher| 10.5.10 @ 6:46PM
Out getting a bowl of soup with Newman from the Soup Nazi.
GavInTucson| 10.5.10 @ 10:35PM
In that case, could you ask him if I can have my electric bill? I know it's in one of those big white bags of his.
Sheila| 10.5.10 @ 11:23AM
Many moons ago, when my spouse and I were niggardly-paid government employees serving abroad, we were given a list of health-care plans to choose from. About a dozen of the best (lowest cost, most care) were reserved solely for Post Office employees. Perhaps that's why a number of my thick-as-two-short-planks older relatives are all retired and living more than comfortably on their overly-generous retirement and fully-covered medical expenses. Meantime, on those rare occasions when I am forced to visit one of the three local post offices, there is always a line out the door, while the Chinese and Indian clerks stand and chat with the Chinese and Indian customers, while the few sucker Americans wait and fume. As far as those supposedly hard-working mail carriers, our carrier (who changes at least twice a year) drives a truck, often delivers neighbor's mail to our box, and rarely gets it to us before 5:00 p.m. We have never had a black or white mail carrier - always Asian, and on numerous occasions I've seen Chinese women at the library getting books to prepare for the Post Office exam. This is a government union boondoggle job now reserved for "typically under-represented minorities" and I only buy stamps out of duress. Decline and fall.
CalMark| 10.5.10 @ 11:23AM
In Vallejo, CA, windows always shut down, leaving just one, as customers pile up. I have never (outside hospitals) seen anyone move as slooooowly as the clerks there. USPS Vallejo is like a Monty Python parody--except less believable.
The automated mailing machine in the town where I live (not Vallejo) is much easier and more pleasant to work with, and--yes--friendlier (a machine!) than the postal clerks. Best of all, the machine doesn't snarl at you out of general cussedness while doing the hard-sell for stamps.
Jester143| 10.5.10 @ 1:25PM
And just think, these are the people and the mindset that will be running Obamacare.
Pat| 10.5.10 @ 1:30PM
Like an old and very dear friend, the Post Office has always been there, how many of you reading this can remember when the Post Office wasn’t around, go ahead, raise your hand. FedEx, UPS, email, electronic bill paying, cell phone texting, facebook – the Postal Service has become as obsolete as whalebone corsets and custom made buggy whips, but it’s very hard to let go and imagine a world without funny little postal trucks and guys or gals walking between mailboxes wearing those baggy shorts.
And, it’s not like the USPS hasn’t tried its best to make money – they’ve cut sweetheart deals with every local and national advertiser but still they’re losing money. Your monthly letter to Aunt Martha goes first class, costs the most to send but the bulk of the mail actually goes much cheaper – and it doesn’t make a bit of difference in how your friendly postal worker treats Aunt Martha’s letter nor does it affect the velocity it reaches during delivery – but, still, it’s a darn good excuse to charge you more than they charge The Weekly Shopper, the Victoria’s Secret catalog folks, the Safeway Grocery Store chain. And, let’s face it, the mainstream media is dying (for which we’re all grateful I’m sure), so how do you find out there’s a sale on nectarines, or on catfish fillets or learn that a 4-Pack of Charmin is 30% off starting tomorrow? Huh, how? You don’t take the newspaper any more so they stuff your mail box full of circulars and for a lot less cost per pound than they charge for your letter to Aunt Martha.
Recently, the Post Office has begun earning substantial revenue indirectly from the paper recyclers. Here’s how it works. The grocery store is offered below direct cost mail rates, the Post Office delivers the Charmin sale circular to your mail box, you march over to your recycle bin and dump it in. The recycler charges you to pick up your recyclable paper and, in turn, sells it to the pulp mills, the pulp mills turn it back into bulk paper to print more circulars and the post office raises its charge for a first class stamp while receiving a healthy kickback from the recyclers. It’s one of those circle of life things, everyone wins – well, except maybe you.
Jose Montoya, a California postal employee, received a $10,000 bonus check the other day for his Suggestion Box idea that the recyclers begin selling the shopping circulars directly back to the Postal Service and they deliver it all over again. With this brilliant idea, you are actually receiving the same circular you threw away last week, look closely, notice they’ve eliminated all the dates. Everyone wins once again (except you maybe), the grocery stores save money on printing more circulars, the postal service gets to charge the grocery stores for delivering the same circular a second or third time, the recyclers get paid by both you and the postal service, the pulp mills receive a federal subsidy to stay in business and, once again, they raise the cost of a first class stamp. Hundreds of pounds of useless mail is efficiently delivered to you each year but no one thought of this blindingly obvious idea until Jose had his brainstorm. And, before he quit his previous job as a baggage handler for American Airlines, Jose had another brainstorm. Why not charge passengers for sending their luggage to the same place they’re going instead of sending it for free to a different airport? Who says American ingenuity is dead?
TEA Holmes| 10.6.10 @ 11:59PM
Hah - I fool them both, I shred the BULK mail (at much expense to myself - buying shredders) and put it into my worm farm where I then sell the biggest and fattest worms to fisherman for mega bucks compliments of all the bulk mail I receive (just donate to any charity or the Democrat party and you too will be able to get enough paper via the USPS to have a MASSIVE worm farm) and I guess which airport my FREE luggage is going to and I arrive there to receive it
Esse Quam Videros| 10.5.10 @ 2:07PM
Jim-
For me the attractiveness of the Fair Tax has nothing to do with how much tax I or anyone else pays, it's the liberty that comes with the Fair Tax System. The system we have now is an ever growing chain that enslaves more and more of our lives.
Jim O'Brien| 10.5.10 @ 3:32PM
That's right. The Fair Tax is on consumption, not production. Federal income tax regulations, estimated to fill 67,000 pages, go in the trash can. No tax "returns" to fill out. No payroll tax withheld, no SS tax withheld, no cap gains or estate taxes, no tax on dividends or interest. No taxes on retirement account withdrawals. No taxes on Social Security payments. Just a simple national sales tax collected by the states and forwarded to the federal government. This tax applies to new goods (not used) and services. Illegal immigrants, other tax evaders, and tourists would pay the Fair Tax too. ETC.
fwb| 10.5.10 @ 4:20PM
And of course those who can read and comprehend written English know that the federal government was never empowered to provide and maintain a post office.
It is as simple as reading the Constitution. The Congress was delegated power to "establish post offices". This was taken to mean build, operate, and manage a postal service. But that take is so absolutely incorrect.
How can one determine that the power to establish post offices is not the power to provide and maintain post offices?
Simple. Read Article I, Section 8. In this section of the Constitution, Congress is specifically delegated the power to provide and maintain a Navy. Had the Framers considered allowing Congress to provide and maintain post offices, the Framers would have used those precise words, words that appear in the Document 5 delegations of power later. To Establish is not to provide and maintain.
This is just one more errors on the part of the People, one more part of the usurpation of authority by the government. Until one understands the language and the use, one cannot grasp the true control the Constitution placed on the government. By not knowing how limited the power of the government really is, We the People have failed in our duties to maintain the Constitution, the Union, our States, our liberty, our lives, and our G-d-given Rights.
mulp| 10.7.10 @ 5:23AM
If you studied history, you would know that city direct delivery began only in 1863 while a Republican was president - in some places private messengers delivered between address and post office. RFD began only in 1891 and wasn't fully rolled out until after Parcel Post service began in 1913, again under Republican presidents.
The combination of RFD and Parcel Post unleashed a mail order boom like that of the Internet, Amazon, and eBay in the 90s - the post office became hugely profitable by 1920, roads improved to serve the daily mail, standard mailing addresses were assigned everywhere.
For a century, private parcel delivery to all of the nation could have been set up by a private carrier, and they could have picked up and delivered letters to/from the Post Offices, but no one saw that as a way to make money. Farmers were especially badly served by the private services like Railway Express and others with poor service and very high prices.
The Post Office was the real innovator with low cost service at a profit everywhere to every address, something no private company had ever attempted in the century before the Post Office did it, and made a profit.
Thom| 10.5.10 @ 4:38PM
In Sept 2009, five bill payments arrived late at their destination via the Post Office. Four took from 10-21 days to travel about a day’s trip by car. The fifth arrived Christmas week at the place it was mailed to. I got two of them back and both had been opened. I had at first thought it was just my hand addressed envelopes but it turned out to be pre addressed and coded envelops too.
When I took this to my local Post Office the Assistant Post Master said I would hear back from him or the Post Office Inspector General’s office the next day. That was Dec 1st. I guess that call got lost too. I made the point to the Ass Post Master that the late fees and stop check payment alone exceeded the cost of the bills and thankfully none of my billers charged me for the bills being late. A little research found that I had had several bills late the preceding months along the same amounts of time.
To Wit, I did what the rest of the world is doing and established electronic Bill Pay with some e-bills replacing mailed bills and cut the Post Office out of about $4.00 a month. Between this and all the hours spent standing in line at my local Post Office over the years and finding the stamp machines empty most weekends when the Post Office is closed I figure the Post Office deserves to simply go out of business. Between it and Amtrak which I rode in the summer of 2008 for the first and last time you get a pretty good idea what happens when you let government employees unionize. As I remember, one or more of the Postal Unions had threatened to go on strike during Christmas 2008 but I guess Congress threw them a bone. If government can strike then clearly it isn’t really necessary after all. $83,000 average wage is an outstanding wage for the level of service provided and semi-skilled nature of the work.
Nothing like a government run monopoly to remind you why guilds came about in the first place and when you combine a guild with a political payback system of “jobs” for those that vote for those that stand behind the Post Office losing money decade after decade you get a better idea why the Post Office won’t do what any private enterprise employer would have to do, cut the labor force and cost to match the demand for their services. The Post Office and Amtrak are just the government version of Government Motors. All share a common disease.
KEVIN| 10.5.10 @ 6:40PM
THE AVERAGE SALARY FOR A LETTER CARRIER OR A POSTAL CLERK IS MUCH CLOSER TO $45,000. I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THE AUTHOR GOT HIS NUMBERS, BUT HE IS WAY OFF OUR ANNUAL SALARY.
mia| 10.5.10 @ 10:12PM
yes he is!!! ive been a carrier for 18 years and make 50,000
MarkO| 10.6.10 @ 4:24PM
I have been with the USPS for 18 years; 3 as a carrier and 15 as a supervisor. Unless he is counting the cost of benefits as well, the author is way off with those salary figures. Even as a supervisor my salary is nowwhere near 83K.
Jim H.| 10.7.10 @ 6:28AM
Really? Just how near then. And let us all hear about your educational background. Also, what are your taxpayer paid benefits such as healthcare and retirement. Include all that stuff in your response. Hell, you probably don't even know, or, too embarrassed to put it out for public scrutiny.
Aachen| 10.6.10 @ 4:27PM
The plural of anecdote is not evidence.
TEA Holmes| 10.7.10 @ 12:07AM
50,000 to DELIVER paper!! Yikes overpaid, excessive etc - my paper boy delivers paper too and it goes into the same location as the majority of what you deliver and I know he does not earn that much - matter of fact because he works as a PRIVATE business person he works for what you should earn! No way a job that does not require an education should pay 50,00o a year - I need my coffee maker at Starbucks more than I need my postal employee and that person works harder, longer and makes far less!
Wow - no wonder none of the postal employees ever try to get a private sector job! HAH
Jim H.| 10.7.10 @ 6:25AM
$45,000 plus probably another 10% in benefits, and retire at age 55 (or less??) with 60% of your high 3 years avg salary. You ought to be on your knees thanking God you're on the public dole mr. unskilled $45k plus benefits plus retirement. Where else can unskilled labor make that kind of money? I hope you answer, fool.
Retired| 10.8.10 @ 2:02AM
TO JIM H.
Nobody wants to hear your sarcastic crap. All you've done is bitch about everybody and everything. Why don't you just tell everybody that you are UN-EMPLOYED and broke, you're mad at the world because you think businesses should be begging you to come to work for them. They probably fired you so they wouldn't have to listen to you whine, cry and gripe about everything. Give it a rest or go somewhere else.
andy| 10.5.10 @ 11:27PM
The USPS is a classic example of how easily the public is misled by dramatic sounding headlines,no matter how wrong. Oh, I'm not saying it's efficient, but it was an experiement in quaisi private/government operation that almost worked. It is not government-run. It was innovative (parcel delivery, overnight delivery, expedited delivery) but through burdensome government oversight of its rate-setting methodology, and extremely poor management negotiations with unions, lost its lead in those areas. Its monopoly on First Class is meaningless today, and it has NO monopoly on any other class of deliverable material. It competes head to head with UPS and FEDEX, and guess what. They are a lot more reasonable than they would be without USPS there.
Jim H.| 10.7.10 @ 6:35AM
Quasi operation that almost worked. My God, you're brilliant. Almost worked, and cost you me and the rest of America BILLIONS. Why don't you go experiment with someone else's money, you friggin mo'ron. And by the way, it IS government run.... USPS.GOV fool. Pull your head out and smell the postcards. It doesn't have to COMPETE - America pays and pays and pays and funds their unskilled labor salaries, their healthcare and their retirement. Head to head with UPS and FEDEX, you are a friggin ignoramus.
RETIRED| 10.8.10 @ 2:06AM
JIM H.
You just can't help yourself can you. Your wife probably left you too and your kids don't want you around. You never brag on them, you always put them down and nothing they do is good enough for you. Get some professional help jim.
Laurie| 10.6.10 @ 5:44AM
How is it that the U.S. supposedly a world leader is so backward at modernising its institutions. Answer - Politics. Businesses operated by Government should not be political issues. Political interference fails taxpayers. No doubt fear of Unions is the problem. One day the U.S will have to show political courage. Lets hope it is soon.
PerryM | 10.6.10 @ 4:00PM
Who knew? Government run business are a failure?
Wow, does anyone care?
Government isn't going to ever give up the Postal service - never.
Let it be an example of what Dummycrats do to things - ruin them.
How about health care? The Social Security system that Bernie Madoff would be proud of (A Ponzi scheme that will implode)
Dummycrats just are too stupid to realize that replacing free market forces with political forces is a 100% recipe for disaster.
Paul Thiel| 10.6.10 @ 4:13PM
Hey everyone, this is GOOD news. It means that when China wants their money we can just tell them the check is in the mail.
Problem solved.
grant| 10.6.10 @ 4:22PM
Sometimes, obsolescence strikes. The people who manufactured horse-drawn wagons, codpieces, manual typewriters, garters, men's dress hats, slide rules, women's white gloves, white wall tires and rotary dial phones were all nice people. They didn't do anything wrong. The world just passed them by. Why isn't the USPS in the net/email server business? Why didn't they develop their own version of skype? Where are the innovations? Are they doing anything differently since 1945? If not, one should not point the fingers are politicians (who NEVER help anything) or the buying public. They simply failed to adapt. It happens. Goodbye.
B.C. H.| 10.6.10 @ 6:14PM
Typical of the USPS is seen in their "flat rate shipping" commercial. They have to send three employees to the merchant's conference to answer three questions. Of course, one must be a woman, and the third must be black.
Paddy| 10.6.10 @ 6:37PM
As I recall the Postmaster General and other high ranking managers received substantial bonuses last year. It is "claw back time" for those incompetent but well connected bureaucrat-weasels. Yeah!
GDI| 10.6.10 @ 6:53PM
Cut the average salary to 50k, eliminate Saturday delivery and let the employees know that all profits will be distributed evenly among all employees according to hours worked.
Every year the postal service works great for 2 weeks (right before Christmas.) I sent a package regular mail from the West Coast for $9 on Tuesday the 22nd and it was received on Thursday the 24th BUT this is the only time of year when that would work...
claire| 10.6.10 @ 7:34PM
I can say that in the entire state of VT, there may be a handful of Postal employees that make 83K. I also know that the USPS is the only govt agency required to pick up the full retirement for former military (If a man retires from the military after 25 years, comes to work for the PO for 5 years, then the USPS must pay, from it's coffers, the entire 30 year retirement.
George B| 10.6.10 @ 8:58PM
I can't help but think about the Seinfeld episode where Kramer attempts to cancel his mail service.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpUqLjjKk4Y
I wish I could cancel mine too. Have to waste time every day looking for the occasional envelope I want in the flood of junk mail I don't want. Doesn't solve the sorting problem, but I wonder if I could heat my house burning junk mail and other waste paper?
TEA Holmes| 10.7.10 @ 12:13AM
George,
I have an external sealed burner outside of my house that pumps the heat into the house - installed last year, I feed it what USPS delivers daily (minus the couple of small letters I really want) - cut my heating bills in half last year! Now I am soliciting my neighbors to get their BULK mail delivered to my box so I can further reduce my heating bills!
waldo| 10.6.10 @ 10:24PM
What are they going to do about all those former employees and those pensions and benefits they are getting
NYSmike| 10.6.10 @ 10:36PM
The article has so many inacuracies. Fact check would be very helpful instead of speading misinformation.
sub| 10.6.10 @ 11:27PM
what's inaccurate? that the post office is a broken, money losing entrenched bureaucracy? that couldn't be truer. that unionized employees have an evident marginal attitude, low work ethic, low standards? again, spot on. liberals can't stand to witness example upon example of what happens when employees fear no consequence, money is "endless", and chains of command are a veritable laughing stock. private enterprise works, government bureaucracies are an occasionally necessary evil, but in general are anti-productive bastions of entitlement philosophy.
JB| 10.6.10 @ 11:28PM
I am the manager for a company that can have a one lb package delivered to San Jose Costa Rica within 48 hours for $5.00. Service is fully track and traced. We helped another broken postal service south of the border change their portafolio of services, and within four months they increased their revenue by 15% . The miracle of the free markets. If only our socialist USPS service would follow suit!
TEA Holmes| 10.7.10 @ 12:19AM
Love the posts that say don't deliver on Saturday to cut costs - FREE enterprise solutions would deliver on Sat and Sun and charge the customer if the wanted such service, but all the dolts at USPS can think of is CUT service - why not offer multiple delivery services to customers and charge accordingly? Personally I would pay for once per month delivery - I would also pay to have my BULK mail delivered to the person I so chose and detest!
mulp| 10.7.10 @ 4:41AM
You mean like Fed-Ex and UPS do?
Actually, USPS does deliver on Sundays - ExpressMail - Add $12.50 for Sunday/holiday delivery
Jim H.| 10.7.10 @ 6:11AM
I have absolutely no sympathy for the USPS. Let them go under. I remember back in the 80's when they broke away from the rest of the US gov pay system because they were "special" and they demanded to "bargain" with their own union(s). In a little over 20 years they've bargained themselves into a corner with high paid employees who think very highly of themselves and receive the best benefits in the country. All on the taxpayers nickel, of course. Then when you visit a post office, they take their sweet azz time helping you and look down their collective noses at the little people waiting in line. They create a monopoly and bargain for some of the best wages and benefits in the country from the pocketbook of the American Taxpayer. To hell with their service and to hell with them. Unfunded liabilities.... unbelieveable.
KyMouse| 10.7.10 @ 10:25AM
I seem to remember that the postmaster general was criticized for changing the postal service's logo some years back. The change, from an eagle that seemed just to be sitting, to the current "windswept" version, cost around $1 billion. If memory serves, he said (in part) that the change would be great for employee morale. I'm hoping that he is no longer at the helm. What a wise use of funds that was!
Jim H| 10.8.10 @ 12:29AM
He should be PROSECUTED!
1776blues| 10.19.10 @ 11:22PM
The whole Government has a we the people last attitude!
But before I retired the service in my area was great and my carrier today is excellent and I pretty much know what time she will be here. UPS and Fedex; you have to guess and UPS could not deliver a package the mailer addressed incorrectly even though I called them and gave them the correct address. They said it had to come from the sender which delayed my package 3 days. Fedex, hmmm twice they gave packages to people standing at my front door while I was out of town and another time they did not deliver my overnight because they were too lazy to read the instructions.
If I have a concern about a package or letter I can reach the USPS and get answers, UPS and Fedex have no clue where their drivers are, the USPS has a good idea where based on the time they left and the order of delivery. I think everyone who complains needs to spend at least a day of doing that job!
ron| 10.23.10 @ 8:54AM
This is the real reason the Postal Service is in a financial mess :
The Government screws one of their own .... that's right, The OPM overcharged the U.S. Postal Service...one government agency screwed the other ....read on:
Should the $75 billion be returned to the Postal Service, (which is rightfully theirs) it will be used to help cover current fiscal year deficit and beyond ...... I would like to blame this fiasco on the Post Office, but they did nothing wrong. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) actually manages the federal government and civil service. It (OPM) is another branch of the US Government . They (OPM) are responsible for the Postal Service retirement funds. OPM tells the Postal Service what amount is necessary for this funding and the Postal service pays it... which they did. Eventually, they (Post Office) ran an audit which discovered OPM overinflated the payments using the wrong calculations based on projected pay & future inflation. The audit was presented to the Postal Service, Management, OPM & Congress and all agreed the $75 billion was overpayment. It's hard to believe that one branch of the Government could do this to the other, but that's exactly what took place. Now it will take Congress to return the money. If they don't, all taxpayers will in some form or another have to cover the Post Office current shortfall. most likely by raising postage rates again & cutting services. If or when that happens, at least we will know why. Raising rates is bad, it has a big trickle effect, a chain reaction... Post Office charges more- customer pays more-advertisers pay more- so stores charge more for product , the trucker's delivery charges increase on & on..you get the picture ...in the end we all pay. Now I understand the postage rate increases for the past few years, I often wondered why they needed to do it. That $75 billion would have had the Postal Service in the black every year. The reality here is that there never should have been increases over the past few years, and probably wouldn't have if OPM calculated things right... looks like Government bites themselves in the _ _ _ on this one! Silly me to think that Social Security would do the Government in, their doing it to themselves!
Mark| 10.25.10 @ 3:32PM
" Hmmm. I work for a Fortune 500 company as a manager, and the problems with the USPS lie in the management. How can an organization with a MONOPOLY that touches each and every business and residence in this country 6 days a week NOT be profitable? The ONLY answer is management. The USPS manages their business as if it were the military, and NOT a business. When did the military EVER make a profit? Postmaster General? Give me a break!If it takes privatization to oust all the bureaucratic fat cats running the Post Office... so be it... BUT it doesn't have to be so. What so-called postal management is not utilizing are the 700,000 resources they employ. It is obvious that postal management treats these resources as lazy, non-productive, idiot unionized labor... how you treat your employees is how your employees will act.. I have never been in a situation where this is not true. We(my company) used to treat our people like that, and guess what??? We almost went out of business!!! A lot of our competitors did go out of business! Because we all thought of our unionized workforce as lazy and non-productive... only when we were on the ropes and had no choice(union and mgt) but to work together were we able to thrive! And guess what, our "huge" labor costs were no longer an issue.. because working together, we figured out how to make money using the resources we had... not jettisoning the workforce you NEED to conduct business. Those remaining work harder, but make more money, and are happier as a participating component of the business, not an adversarial expense. Unfortunately, with no competition, the USPS is doomed to behave as a Quasi-Military outfit that will NEVER make money. BUT THE POTENTIAL IS CERTAINLY THERE, and SHAME ON POSTAL MANAGEMENT FOR NOT RECOGNIZING IT! "
Bobert Hernandez | 10.27.10 @ 11:36AM
Yo yo yo I fell asleep durin dis artcle. I needz me some cheetoz
Roberto Rodriguez | 10.29.10 @ 8:06AM
Yo Yo yo same hear mane. Diz needs some jammin musik
postal widow| 8.13.11 @ 8:02AM
I wanted to know where you got the information on the amount you qouted for postal employees salary,of the lie of average salaries being at $83,500, I was married to a letter carrier for 33 years and he worked for the usps for 17 years ( never had a sick day) and became only letter carrier due to non replacment of retired, he never made close to that amount in all the years he worked, including with benifits, or overtime, the other statement of 80 percent labor is disputed by dr. joel popkins in a congressional report in 2002 ( studies 1984-2002 published in academic journals) of the 67.8 percent of labor and that comparing usps to fed ex or ups was like comparing apples to oranges, the politcal bankructy that has come about due to a mandated congress law of prefunding retires, is what has caused the damage to the usps nothing else.
postal widow| 8.13.11 @ 8:17AM
in reply to the comment by paul, as a postal widow I have a unique perspective on if a postal worker is overpaid and unproductive since my spouse a letter carrier became the only one for a city due to non replacement of retirements, and told to improve production to gain a hire, so he went from one 40 hour route a week , added on another , and then a half auxillary route for the same pay basically, I guess he was non productive since he died a year later.
postal widow| 8.13.11 @ 8:19AM
mr potter has left the usps and gained a anual retirement package of 5.5 million, they are now closing post office because of that and prefunding of retires.
postal widow| 8.13.11 @ 8:30AM
to mr jim h, the post office has never used taxpayers money they are totally funded by sales, any arbitatration by labor dept ( which controls the usps) is usually then costing money due to the disputes by not honoring a union contract drawn by lawyers and union and labor discusssion, the collective bargaining was put in place by congress in 1917 when postal workers were being ingnored by congress, there was no break away special treatment in the 80s, if you have had a job, regular wages, time off, fmla, health benifits it is due to unions setting the standards and some people died for those laws to be passed. as far as bargaining its certainly helped my spouse get help in his office after a refusal to replace people who retired and the amount to do on a daily basis was 22 hours a day, the whole concept of doing away with collective bargaining, and union would of meant he had no legal standing to fight against abuse in america , there are no laws in america preventing the overwork of an adult on the job only child labor laws, union rules are what he was protected by , he could only legally be worked 12 hrs a day. you know nothing of postal politics, may I suggest you get an education at the awpu first area tricounty local , look in libary and stress in the workplace before you do away with your free mail delivered to you every day.
postal widow| 8.13.11 @ 8:46AM
claire, I have never heard about what you said in your comment, but I do know that when postal retire, they have to pay back their military service to get their retirement not the other way around, I even had to pay as a postal widow in order to get his insurance. so I am not sure of your information is correct. some do double dip, get one retirement and another , one from the military and one from the usps, but I do not think the usps picks up both...I am quite certain they would not be willing to do that, since now they do not want to give fers to new hires or even have new hires at all.
postal widow| 8.13.11 @ 8:57AM
tea usps workers are forbidden to carry cell phones on the job , they also work overtime on an average and are called to pivot, that means they not only do their own route of 40 hours a week but are called now currently to take on another route on the average, so that to cover for non replacmeent of retires in the office, in minneapolis alone there are 45 routes not covered, the same office where a postal worker keeled over and died and they have been fighting for defib devices in the office but been denied, since it was deemed to expensive to have them for every office, in other words its better if workers die since it is too expensive to replace them or take care of that need on the job site. as far as 3 days a week, that has never existed on postal time, unless you are talking to a casual , which is what they wanted to go for, in that case in orlando where they did try it, they hired 2 teens, who after 2 days took the mail home and the postmaste could do nothing about it, since they were not real workers.