Postal Chief's $384,000 Pay Sparks Call for Cut

[Captain Obvious]

Fed Ex spent 50M in lobbying between 2008 - 2010. Let's hear some theories on why.

That's a whole other ball of wax where I'm more than happy to grab my pitchfork to protest getting Wall St. and PA Avenue out of being in bed together. Whole other matter.

Am I sensing a "big companies are bad" thought process?

[Captain Obvious]

@ Captain

What do you think of what Conley posted earlier? Some have argued that the USPS has done very well but it's resources have been raided continually by the government. I gather from that that it's business model isn't poor but that politicians have interfered with its funding. I'm not really up to speed on this stuff so I defer to you guys.

The same thing can be said to some degree about Medicare.

Gives those teabaggers a lot of stage to dance on also.

[Conley]

That's a whole other ball of wax where I'm more than happy to grab my pitchfork to protest getting Wall St. and PA Avenue out of being in bed together. Whole other matter.

Am I sensing a "big companies are bad" thought process?

No, you're sensing "a big companies aren't necessarily cheaper" thought process. They're spending 50M in lobbying because they stand to make many times that if they can convince everyone that the Post Office is a financial black hole, when in fact it's the exact opposite.

[Captain Obvious]

No, you're sensing "a big companies aren't necessarily cheaper" thought process. They're spending 50M in lobbying because they stand to make many times that if they can convince everyone that the Post Office is a financial black hole, when in fact it's the exact opposite.

I'll pull out my broad painting brush on this one. Statistically, economies of scale plus the "approaching monopoly" or oligopoly creates a medium where operational efficiencies are maximized.

Having said that and at the stake of shooting another tangent into another direction, I tend to fall into a mindset that suggests that mega corps, monopolies, companies "too big" are in the long run a bad thing. It goes against fundamental capitalistic ideology but let's be honest, this isn't a true capitalistic system we're working with.

Now let me pull out my little accent brush.

In a more perfect system, we would have multiple medium sized companies, none "too big to fail". Economies would be more localized rather than nationalized or globalized. Want to reduce energy costs. Eat what you kill, locally that is.

See what you did, you got me all over the $#@!ing board now.

[Conley]

Yeah, sorry about that. I do that...still, we're all having a good discussion in this thread.

[Captain Obvious]

Yeah, and I'm doing a little devil advocating here also - don't think I have my dick hat on either.

I save that for the hacks.

I do think that ultimately privatization (in most cases, not all) is the better route to go. Given what you stated, I agree - there is too much cum swapping between the gubmint and Wall St. Companies are far too big also and we are trying to become more global which is necessary to an extent however there is, I think, some value to downsizing our economy from a National/global perspective to a regional perspective. Transportation costs money and people need jobs. People also need to be able to afford what they produce so we have to export, but why not try to keep local what's local - on a small scale mind you and export the heavy duty stuff?

A lot of start-ups, coops and $#@! like that are trying this but the too-bigs are a huge barrier. Plus they have Washington in their codpiece.

[Stoney]

The GAO in a report Thursday said the U.S. Postal Service has not made excessive pension payments to the federal government pension plan.

http://www.pionline.com/article/2011...YREG/111019934

October 2011

[Conley]

http://www.pionline.com/article/2011...YREG/111019934

October 2011

Thanks, it looks like that puts an end to that part of the argument.

[Stoney]

Again, I've been hearing the complaints for years and rather or not the funding of the pensions is what should be done, its something relatively new that effects cash flow. So from that standpoint its a factor. But mail volume drops, drastic decreases in revenue, and an inability to adjust to those decreases are much bigger factors.

It just occurred to me that interest rates are also a factor. Most of the revenue from postal services used to come from interest on postal money orders. People would typically buy the money orders and they wouldn't be cashed for some time. I've cashed some that were nearly ten years old. And as I make this point it also occurs to me that with online banking, money orders may not be as popular as they once were.