USPS death imminent

I was just thinking the other day how it would be a good idea to bring back the Pony Express. It'd be for a more luxurious shipping thing and might need to hold off till the economy gets a little stronger but who wouldn't pay a little extra for your package to be delivered by someone on a pony?!?

The problem is, for every person the USPS employs, there are a bunch more that are sitting at home receiving pensions. What the gov needs to do is remove these sorts of employment benefits to bring government jobs in line with non-government jobs. Maybe then, cost wouldn't be an issue.

I've been hearing rumblings about privitizing the postal service for years. I'll believe it when I see it. Seems like an institution that will be supported by the government despite it running a loss.

The postal monopoly isn't exactly my issue, since I have limited knowledge of the particulars, but my short answer to solving any and all problems its establishment has created is to simply allow competition. Following Friedman's Law, (that gov't is half as efficient as the market, and everything costs at least twice as much) FedEx or UPS may be able to match daily deliv prices of first class mail even with gov't subsidies.

One of my heroes did it back in the day and was forcibly prevented from continuing his business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Letter_Mail_Company

Spooner's counter-economic experiment could be deemed a success in that it did force the USPS (USPO back then) to lower prices, which I consider more evidence that competition is vital to non-coercively enforce efficiency.

Did anyone ever see that Seinfeld episode where Kramer decides he's going to opt out of mail and all the crazy shit that happened? Classic!

The idea that the USPS is losing money is laughable at best. Try to look at it as 'not making as much profit as they want' and not as 'losing money'. This is in line with many large businesses that report an operating loss for a specific quarter when what they are really reporting is that they didn't make as much profit as was initially reported in earlier predictions.

I have read that most of the 'profit' from the USPS is funneled into other areas of government. This is why the recent decline in the amount of mail shipped is such a huge deal -- you can't steal the profits from a company and use them to fund other areas of government if that company isn't making as much profit.

Also, keep in mind that we don't need to privatize the USPS since the USPS isn't exactly a government agency. It is an 'independent' agency of the US government. The USPS makes record profits off each letter mailed and uses the profits from letters to supplement the cost of shipping packages. That is why there is a constant rise in the price of a stamp. This is also what is killing them. The more they raise the price of a stamp the more people are turning to E-mail and online banking.

They are pricing themselves out of business, but it will be a long time before they even have to cut back the number of days that they deliver. MSN is riding the 'scare' wave the same way Michael Moore rides a chocolate sundae.

You just made an interesting post that I'm trying to figure out...

Again, I'm not up to speed on the particulars, but this assertion is contrary to everything I've heard about the USPS' profit-making abilities. Do you have a source?

Makes sense, gov't general-fund's all revenue it can to get around being responsible and making things self-sufficient. But its the whole idea behind the post office, or tolls, anything not made to stand on its own...give the impression that you're covering it with your fee, when really it's run on subsidy.

We? Who is 'we'? I won't be doing anything about this. Will you?

/Anti-collectivist linguistics. Starting over...

That's like saying the Irish hit man is not to be confused with La Cosa Nostra's made men, even though he's still taken care of by La Famiglia. Or that roads can be defined as private once you put a toll on them because its sorta like a user fee.

Huh? Record profits? What record did they break?

You mean inflation? Also, why would making money be directly correlated with raising prices?

Correct me if I misunderstand, but they're making money off of the thing that they're losing money on?

I'm under the impression that cutting Saturday delivery is a very current proposal.

Did you really find the article to be fear driven? I didn't get that impression at all. If anything, it had the vibe of a cool, collected whiz pointing out that some major change has been a long time coming and the next stage will be nothing but an evolution.

Also, props for dissing Moore.

I believe it is Tuesday they are looking at. I think by law, much like banks, they cannot go more than one day without being "open". I could be wrong, because much like you I have a cursory knowledge of the subject of what has been in the news in the past six months or so.

That said, my bills are paperless and my packages come FedEx and UPS, both more reliable. I dread going to the post office. Never shorter than half an hour in line even with only one or two people in front of me.

Houston movers is hiring?! He-cession my ass...

Ironmans is working for a spam company now?

Funny coincidence that this was bumped, I was considering looking for it to point out that I learned something recently; USPS on paper receives no tax dollars for the operation of postal delivery, but everything not directly related to getting mail from point A to point B is constantly congressionally vied for funding (like conferences, perks, etc).

They keep raising the postage every year cutting jobs and closing offices and hours yea i dont see them lasting much longer i think a telemarketing list is going to cost less then sending mail out pretty soon.

oh man, imagine if the USPS did go under all of a sudden all the millions of letters and packages that'd be just dumped off before they got delivered to where they were supposed to go. I think i got an idea for a little short story out of that!