What will you do when they close your post office?

[RollingWave]

It should be noted though, that the USPS employe over HALF A MILLION people, so whatever medium / long term gain you think you can gain should be weighted against the prospect of FIRING HALF A MILLION PEOPLE .

Given the nature of the beast, think it would be much wiser to try to find a way and make the thing profitable than kililng the chicken the get the egg so to speak.

[Mainecoons]

Well, you've got a half million people being employed by running up debt by an organization that is out of sync with its market. Do you think this is a sustainable situation?

Actually, you've put your finger on the catch 22 of what will happen if there is any serious effort to cut the necessary 40 percent out of runaway government if one wants to bring long term government expense into balance with the ability of a stagnant economy to fund it--it would trigger a really big economic depression. Unfortunately, like an airplane that has flown beyond the point of no return, we've allowed government to get so big and so out of kilter with the carrying capacity of the economy that you can't cut it back substantially without triggering severe economic contraction which would trigger big drops in revenues, which would. . . .creating a downward spiral. The U.S. economy has become too dependent on wasteful, overstaffed government and like a junkie who has taken too much dope for too long, cutting it off will kill the patient.

[Stoney]

“My point was, that the businesses we all rely on, do use the USPS. And, now many Fed Ex/UPS packages are dropped at the post office. There was a time when they wouldn't even give a fed/ups driver directions. Now, they work together. “


Actually the Post Office uses and pays UPS and FedEx to transport some of the mail. Some might infer the opposite from your post.


“Fed Ex/UPS are superior to USPS for the packages. I'll ask you again what it would cost to mail a document/letter to the other side of the country?”


That seems to be comparing the price of using the Post Office versus FedEx/UPS. The problem is similar to Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. They're great programs that we're unwilling or unable to pay for as government programs while FedEx/UPS are solvent and making a profit.


“And, there will be a lot of business that Fed/UPS simply wouldn't take on, because there's no profit.”


I'm not aware of anyplace that FedEx/UPS won't deliver if at an increased rate.


“And if the 'govt is supposed to step in when the market is less effective', then once again we dump the loss leaders on the taxpayer, and let the private companies take all the cream?”


Give capitalism a chance.

[OFBUACMKA]

“My point was, that the businesses we all rely on, do use the USPS. And, now many Fed Ex/UPS packages are dropped at the post office. There was a time when they wouldn't even give a fed/ups driver directions. Now, they work together. “


Actually the Post Office uses and pays UPS and FedEx to transport some of the mail. Some might infer the opposite from your post.


“Fed Ex/UPS are superior to USPS for the packages. I'll ask you again what it would cost to mail a document/letter to the other side of the country?”


That seems to be comparing the price of using the Post Office versus FedEx/UPS. The problem is similar to Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. They're great programs that we're unwilling or unable to pay for as government programs while FedEx/UPS are solvent and making a profit.


“And, there will be a lot of business that Fed/UPS simply wouldn't take on, because there's no profit.”


I'm not aware of anyplace that FedEx/UPS won't deliver if at an increased rate.


“And if the 'govt is supposed to step in when the market is less effective', then once again we dump the loss leaders on the taxpayer, and let the private companies take all the cream?”


Give capitalism a chance.

I agree with your statement about giving capitalism a chance, but the USPS has to give itself a chance as well. It needs to trim expenses, realize there are more efficient alternatives to its service and act accordingly.


A cutback in delivery days - eliminating saturday - is a good start. The USPS disdn't always deliver on Saturday and, since it's union driven, probably (although I'm not sure) pays a premium in payroll to those who do work that day. In any event, it cuts payroll costs by 1/6th.

Cutting back on the number of locations is a good cost-cutting idea as well - NOT in rural areas where there might be one post office per town, but in urban areas.

[RollingWave]

Well, you've got a half million people being employed by running up debt by an organization that is out of sync with its market. Do you think this is a sustainable situation?

Actually, you've put your finger on the catch 22 of what will happen if there is any serious effort to cut the necessary 40 percent out of runaway government if one wants to bring long term government expense into balance with the ability of a stagnant economy to fund it--it would trigger a really big economic depression. Unfortunately, like an airplane that has flown beyond the point of no return, we've allowed government to get so big and so out of kilter with the carrying capacity of the economy that you can't cut it back substantially without triggering severe economic contraction which would trigger big drops in revenues, which would. . . .creating a downward spiral. The U.S. economy has become too dependent on wasteful, overstaffed government and like a junkie who has taken too much dope for too long, cutting it off will kill the patient.

That is correct, it is a catch 22 situation, but that is the nature of politics and government in general IMHO, it's very often trying to choose between the lesser evils and/or weighing alot of cost/benifit situations.

Again, the best solution would seem to be to try and get the USPS to run a profit somehow, and as I suggest, since they already have super many branchs if they can do some financial service as well it's one highly possible way of turning things around. obviously reforming their basic postal operations would help too, but at the end of the day they're laden with a lot of public mandates and would always have trouble in that regard.

[Mainecoons]

Do you understand what "deficit" means? Why do you think this discussion about the post office is going on? It is because they are LOSING money and unable to pay their legitimate pension costs, which are far too generous BTW, let alone the overage which is in the process of being refunded.

http://voices.yahoo.com/news-analysi...t-9095793.html

And while you're at it, kindly provide documentation about that "funding the pensions of the unborn nonsense." Forward the same to the GAO, I'm sure they'd find it very enlightening.

[Peter1469]

Often, that's fine. What about when you need to send an original? And even if you chose to pay the 7 bucks to have UPS deliver it, I'm sure you could afford that.

But, the companies that you use, still need to use the USPS. So it really isn't possible to get rid of the post office. Personally, I use 80% less mail myself in the last few years. There are, however, things that I have to mail out all the time.

There are online services that allow you to electronically sign documents. Official signature problem solved.

[Peter1469]

There is another solution. There are rural areas that really do depend on the Post Office. Cut all of the other offices in places that don't depend on them and fund only the ones really needed. Maybe Fed Ex or UPS will step in and we could close more posts offices.

[Vilifier of Zombies]

There is another solution. There are rural areas that really do depend on the Post Office. Cut all of the other offices in places that don't depend on them and fund only the ones really needed. Maybe Fed Ex or UPS will step in and we could close more posts offices.

A staggered approach to axing the USPS (?) - I dunno - isn't less painful if you rip the bandaid off as fastidiously as possible? I know I'd rather take a bullet to the head rather than bleed out slowly. Best just to go on and get it over with.

I think FedEx and UPS would gladly step up to the plate to cover every possible area - something to consider though is that the USPS doesn't even do so now, it'd be a win win for everyone (minus the 1/2 million laid off postal workers - which more than a few could apply for those extra positions that FedEx and UPS need to make up for all the extra work coming there way) involved.

[Vilifier of Zombies]

It sounds very simple, but there would still be govt. oversight, and contracts.

Oh no - I don't think it would be simple at all - but not undoable, FedEx already transports the USPS's overnight delivery (a 9 billion dollar contract, you've just gotta know that FedEx is one of those companies with a lot of political clout).

UPS zone skips all the time for USPS as well as GSA awarded UPS it's domestic delivery shipping contract, so it's not like either FedEx or UPS would be caught off guard with oversight and contracts.