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The Post-Postal Service World
We understand that other government entangled entities have been losing money with such enthusiastic abandon and glee that a few billion a quarter from that traditional cash disposal unit, the United States Postal Service, seems a mere annoyance. Be this as it may, we cannot help but wonder what possible service the Postal Service serves any longer. Ironically, the Wall Street Journal penned a rather penetrating review two months ago noting, among other things, that even while pushing rates up at a pace that significantly outpaced the CPI, the Service has continued to clip routes, attenuate service and generally serve as a model of inefficient graft. All this in the face of a 20% reduction in mail volume since 2000.
About 80 cents of every postal dollar pays for employee salaries and benefits (compared to less than 50 cents for Fed Ex and UPS). What that means is that if you want to cut costs at the post office, you have to slash labor expenses. Mr. Potter has reduced Postal Service employment to 650,000 from 800,000 the past four years, largely through attrition. But he still employs 650,000 workers who have among the best wages and benefits in all of American life.
Most employees have no-layoff clauses, the starting salaries are about 25% to 30% higher than for comparably skilled private workers, and the fringe benefits are so expensive that the Government Accountability Office says $500 million a year could be saved merely by bringing health benefits into line with those of other federal workers. Mr. Potter has to set aside $5 billion a year just to pay for health insurance. Postal management now wants to "save" money by not advance-funding those obligations, and Congress is likely to say yes. But that doesn't save a dime; it simply creates even larger unfunded liabilities down the road.
Any one care to wager on the results?
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I, very strategically, place my trash can right next to my mail box. That way, when my miserable bitch post lady delivers my mail and tries to run over my beagle in the process, I can walk out, and stand next to the trash can and dispose of anywhere from 90%-100% of what she just dropped off into said trash receptacle...
put a note on your mailbox that says "no admail, please".
it works in canada.
They have advertising in Canada?
I go into my local post office to send something overnight, the line was out the door, there was one person working, and I swear she was moving like it was 5pm Friday night in an empty building.
Why is it these workers get such fantastic benefits, because of the so called service they are providing?!? And this isn't a recent anomaly, the united states postal service has been poorly trained in the art of being a human for quite some time.
w.a.s.t.e. coming soon to a trashbin near you...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crying_of_Lot_49
Junk mail is big business.
I just took my mailbox down.
Soon, the postal trucks will double as ambulances.
If they did that, they'd charge you 1000 bucks to go three blocks.
No problem. I'm sure there's a letter in that truck pre-approving me for at least that much in Credit. Heck, maybe it'll be a Post Office Frequent Service Card -- I'll get complimentary stamps (only good for mail being sent to the IRS) every time I use them to transport me to a medicaid-approved clinic, which will probably be beyond the scope the Postal service covers.
The truth is the only thing that was keeping the US postal service's head above water was bulk rate mail and first class packages. Both are now way down and the result is that cuts are coming.
One of the problems is every living person in America (including myself) feels it's our inalienable right to have a post office in every town and hamlet with a population of at least 12 persons. Thus the PO has very expensive brick and mortar all over the country.
Watch as they not only close those offices but then sell the land and buildings. Whoops, can't do that because the vast majority are leased with very long 50 year leases. After all, everyone is always going to use the mail, right? Those leases came about during the last cost cutting rounds in the 80's and 90's.
Sell all the land and buildings (to special private REIT's set up for the purpose of screwing the US out of some money. Same ole same old) and then lease it back.
The only thing keeping the Postal service in business is the bulk garbage being mailed from lawmakers!!!
Sqworl,
Each Senator and Rep gets special "franking" privileges to send "free" mail to their constituents. The amount varies based upon the number of people represented, seniority, position (committee chairetc) but the bottom line is that Congress voted themselves "free" mail from the PO, along with free health care, free on site haircuts (I kid you not), free gym, good pension after a very short time in Congress, etc etc.
I believe there is a nominal cost the PO charges to make it look like it isn't the total screwing it really is but this "privilege" has always been a very large benefit to the incumbent.
Yup, let's privatize the USPS, SS, and while we're at it, I'd feel so much safer if a private corp. was signing off on the quality of our drinking water ... not that I expect anyone at the WSJ to understand the concept of "The Commons" , I'm sure everyone on the authors Xmas list gets a card via Fedex.
Did you learn your style of argument from a cereal box somewhere or...? Your poor attempts to divert attention from the huge sucking hole that is almost every government agency one could name aside, I got plenty of holiday cards last year from the USPS. In February. (No, I'm not kidding).
Marla....do what the rest of us do. Ignore anyone with the name Anonymous. They are simply not worth getting your panties in a bunch.
Curbyourrisk,
I agree with you but I've always wondered why Marla responds to some Anons and not others. This is purely my own hypothesis but since Marla can find out the IP of the Anon, I suspect Marla is responding more directly than it appears.
I wonder if some of these Anons are posting from GS or the Fed or whatever and Marla wants to send a particularly blunt message to the sender. While it's clear that some of the comments deserve the Marla treatment (she's hit me over the head a few times and I deserved it) I just don't see Marla taking the bait quite like we mere mortals. She has such a better forum in her ZH articles.
Even if this isn't true, I still prefer to think it is. Hell, if 90% of American citizens can act like dead zombies in the face of unprecedented corruption and negligence, I can fantasize about Marla fighting the good fight with inside info.
Or, did the crack about the WSJ strike any nerves? ...
Another cereal box argument.
Everybody here is anonymous.
"Everybody here is anonymous."
Not quite. The difference is those who register have a viewable history of comments, which allows others to more easily determine if the commenter is consistent, playing both sides of the fence, or just full of crap.
There are some Anons who have distinctive writing styles and yet I've noticed them taking contradictory positions, often on the same article/comment thread. I wonder why?
...easy...they're attorneys! /sarc off/
I take it as sarcasm, but I would feel safer. Private corporations have a distinguishing feature Government does not; accountability.
With the caveat, of course, that said accountability tends to disappear when private corporations receive "most favored business" status from the government.
Only if they're not able to buy their way out of accountability.
See TBTF as an example.
Exactly. Once government has its hand in the equation, you can kiss accountability goodbye.
Private business that is paid by the government is guarnteed work and money and has no accountability directly to consumers of the provided service thus destroying free market mechanics.
So private business that functions because the government pays them only has one profit motive, and that is to get more money from the government, not to provide service either well, effectively, or efficiently.
I move between FL and VT twice a year, renting condos at each end - RESIDENTIAL condos that is - meaning I have to prepare a change of address form each time. Fine. The PO last month said I had to do the change electronically - they are doing away with paper forms. Fine. So I go online to do it. The online system refuses to accept it, says its "database" has determined that one of my addresses is a commercial address and I am a residential customer. Well, both of my addresses are residential condos. I go back to the local post office to tell them I can't process it and they didn't want to help me, said they weren't allowed to help. I asked them whether they saw the logic of a system where the manual and electronic systems both refused to help, meaning I would not be able to get ANY of my mail. The response was "ees not my chob." The terms "negative feedback loop" and "going postal" both flashed thru my mind but I finally got a paper form from them, and it processed OK. Until 6 months from now when I have to do it again.
ees not my chob...is that spanish or asian english
It's funny. We have spend considerable effort to cut down on the junk mail. Now we got no junk mail coming in except Congress, Local Pols and various very small marketing news from extremely small local business.
Once or twice a year we receive cards for holidays, official notices from Uncle Sam or the State...
Maybe 40 peices of mail in total. Oh yes the Utilities too. But those are auto drafted automatically and we dont need paper billing.
We changed banks to credit unions and that dried up the flow of paper statements.
Soon in a decade or two there will be no one left alive who knows how to write a letter.
Soon after that Ebay may die or roll over and take the Post Office with it.
hey anonymouse, care to share any tips on how to reduce your junk mail?
inquiring greenturds would love to know :)
Everything Cash. Cash is King. No paper trail.
Stop trying to sign up for sweepstakes at the corner by the walmart doorway. That 1000 dollar prize is worth many times that for your information. My spouse did this and we were buried in spam mail for 6 months until we changed to a PO Box and left no forwarded address. Everything else was cut losse except family.
We dont put anything of any value (Our information) on anything when we go out to buy something. (Cash only...)
One particularly persistent junker mailer was the recent auto warranty scam. I think the Government took the ones to court because one day that stopped.
Finally but not last. Give the spam mail back to Post Master at the counter and have it sent back stamped "Refused delivery" at the Sender (Spammer's expense)
Everything political goes straight to the trashcan at the post office (After ripping out the label with bar code) Said trashcan is in front of counter and is emptied by Post Office several times a day on mailings to the whole area.
FDIC Banks like Regions were really terrible at mailing. Every little thing you did generated a statement, some with fees due. Changing banks stopped that permanently.
Dont give any information to anyone on the telephone.
And so on. Eventually Do not call lists etc added thier weight to the fun.
We even considered opting out of Data Collection companies but realized that will stabotage future employment, credit or other efforts.
Burn the rest in the fire pit. Eventually the most persistent sender will stop.
But our personal favorite is changing PO Boxes once in a while selecting only the necessary few to receive our new address.
BLAME THE UNION.
That's like blaming the canary in the mine for dying when the area's full of carbon monoxide, with you below your quota.
No, that's like blaming the foreman for not doing his job and allowing the dig to go into dangerous territory. WE ARE the canary.
I have read, though haven't verified, that the PO pays no federal tax on gasoline, nor does it pay any real estate taxes.
Also loved it when Obama, in a surreal argument to somehow support government control of medical coverage said, FedEx and UPS are doing fine, it's the PO that's always having problems... Hello???
Marla...
Your opening sentence is a gem.
Please post pics of your brain; definitely very HOT and will outdo Robo material!
Thanks!
deadhead,
When Kellogg's was pouring two scoops of brains into each and every infant on Earth, the machine malfunctioned for a few seconds and Malra unfairly got four scoops.
Such is life. Beauty and brains, all in a compact and mobile package. Cray Inc of super computer fame has been following Marla around for years trying to duplicate what Kellopp's did by accident. Their best results to date has been the Cray Jaguar, a very poor second to Marla.
http://www.cray.com/Products/XT5/Product/ORNLJaguar.aspx
"Ironically, the Wall Street Journal penned a rather penetrating review two months ago noting, among other things, that even while pushing rates up at a pace that significantly outpaced the CPI, the Service has continued to clip routes, attenuate service and generally serve as a model of inefficient graft."
Perhaps not so coincidentally, our university system works the same way.
What you may not realize is that USPS personnel get free (completely) health care and a generous pension for life. Like ford, gm, and others, the largest draw on the postal service is the post-retirement entitlements. These plans were developed when people retired at 65 and died at 70. Now that people are retiring at 55 and living until 100, the cost of these plans are enormous.
" Private corporations have a distinguishing feature Government does not; accountability."
Seriously!?
GS, C, JPM, BAC, MS, WFC, Wachovia, LEH, BS, COUNTRYWIDE Financial, etc. ad infinitum
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
It is my belief that if someone really wants to know why the post office still exists they consider the fact that it is actually illegal for anyone other than the US Postal Service to deliver first class mail to a mailbox. In fact, if one looks at the legalize embedded in the legislation they would find that their mailbox is in fact property of the USPS. Ever wonder why your cute country mailbox says US Mail on it? My guess is that the entire thing was initially an effort to make sure the government still controlled the mail system so that it could bring criminal charges against people for mail fraud. Additionally, they are keenly aware that if they expose mail delivery to the free market, FedEx and UPS will compete USPS into bankruptcy faster than an overnight shipment gets delivered.
So, I have an interesting "funny" from my recent trip to the local graft center. My receipt from the painful experience had the following URL for filling out a questionaire about their service:
https://www.postalexperience.com/Pos
The "funny" was the chuckle for trying to infer what the POS stood for.
BTW, In waiting in a 15+ person line, I wanted to shout at the other people in the line: "If you like this wait and service - you're just going to love Obamacare!"
For a long period of time in the United State's history, the Post Office was THE source of federal government patronage.
Not satisfied with the cost/service? Too bad!
Want to try to COMPETE with the government (the idea sends shivers down the rubber spine of our elected officials)?
Not going to happen. The government will prosecute you until you are destroyed.
That is why you never heard of Lysander Spooner and the American Letter Mail Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysander_Spooner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Letter_Mail_Company
The USPS is advancing state of the art in queueing and customer annoyance. They are pushing the limits as to how deeply service can be cut without angering customers to the point of shooting clerks. When the murder rate of clerks goes up they dial back the parameters and leave them there until another tune-up is required.
(US)PS. USPS is required to deliver junk mail. Of course, they say that, which is true, but the real truth is that that is what is paying their pensions.
I am Chumbawamba.
My fire department charged me $700 to go eight blocks. Post office took out the automated machines to save money. Unfortunately the average wait time is thirty minutes. Nothing much works well in America anymore.
The wsj article referenced here contains an omission with regards to postal service pricing. Using 1950 as a base ignores the fact that prior to 1973(?) postage rates were subsidized by the federal government. The withdrawal of the subsidy distorts the rate of increase over time substantially. Not saying they shouldnt be privatized just that facts should be adhered to.
Beat the lines by moving South. Go to a tiny town, population...300 that has a PO.
If memory serves, Butler Co has a pop of two and a PO.
> 650,000 workers who have among the best wages and benefits in all of American life.
O_o
The one smart thing Japan did the past twenty years was privatize their mail. (Maybe there were other smart things but who's counting?) So by thing logic, we are not privatizing our postal system. :(
PS very handy "New" identifier for the stories!
The full-court press the US and its assets in Japan put on to get that through was to take the money in the Postal Bank and deliver it to Wall Street and DC. They did not care at all about cutting post offices in the countryside, as there was no booty to plunder.
Not that the theory of privatization can never be right, it's just that all too often it's just piratization.
Privitize it, cut their benefits & perks. Whatever they do, I just hope like heck they don't close more offices or drop more routes - if only b/c Ebay is the only thing keeping some of us going, and UPS is 20 mile drive.
Yes, some of us are quite dependant upon the USPS.
At the Post office in Valley Jucntion, West Des Moines,Iowa, the female worker was braging to the other female worker on how she screwed up a package !!! She also told me my priority mail package would be there in 3 working days ! It took 4 working days !!!!!!
i like going to the lowell,indiana postoffice they are so friendly and helpful.
i have known them for many years now and have never walked out unhappy.
i want to thank them and god bless them.
i like going to the lowell,indiana postoffice they are so friendly and helpful.
i have known them for many years now and have never walked out unhappy.
i want to thank them and god bless them.