Postal Service On Edge: What Would A World Without Mail Look Like?

[eyeonyou]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...6pLid%3D185479

Except for when it was briefly displaced after a pair of long-ago fires, the post office has occupied this same spot inside the general store since 1898, according to Jim Graves, the general store's owner. In a village where many residents still don't have internet access, the Syria post office -- like so many post offices around the country -- remains not only one of the few fixtures in town, but also a primary link to the outside world.
So it came as a great shock when the postal service told residents of Syria last year that the small outpost would soon be closing, the victim of budget cuts emanating from Washington.
As Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), who pushed a plan to privatize Amtrak service, said at a hearing last year: “The postal service is becoming a dinosaur and will soon be extinct ... I usually use FedEx or UPS.”

Those shipping giants may have a combined U.S. workforce comparable to that of the U.S. Postal Service, but they probably wouldn’t fill the void left by the agency. It’s doubtful that UPS and FedEx would be interested in delivering letters, postcards and bills. With web-centric people winnowing down their mail piles, the profits to be made on first-class mail are dwindling.
Besides, they don’t have the universal network that the postal service has in place, and it wouldn’t make sense for them to try to start going door to door,,,,

“You get back in the hollows down here, some people would have to go 15 or 20 miles,” says Gene Pells, 75, a retiree in Syria. That means some residents might have to drive more than a half hour to mail a package, pick up some stamps, or buy or redeem a money order. According to Pells, some locals who can’t read also come to the post office to get help paying their bills. “A lot of people here are pretty well in the dark,” says Pells. “We have no access to cell service where we are, and no access to high-speed internet until fairly recently.”

To save the postal service, lawmakers and the agency’s own leadership want to dramatically scale back its workforce and operations. Postal workers and some public advocates warn that such moves will send the agency off a cliff, destroying a service as old as the republic itself, not to mention hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Patrick Donahoe, the U.S. postmaster general since 2010, has put himself in an unusual position for a civil servant. He’s essentially pleading with Congress to allow him to put his own agency through significant cuts.

Cuts I can understand since we are paying for the policies of the last decade or so. Go to 5 days a week, but make it Wednesday or Thursday and Sunday off for delivery and figure a sound business plan.

The Internet has disrupted this system, however. Though the volume of package deliveries has shot up with the rise of e-commerce, it’s not enough to replace the huge losses from the decline in first-class mail. Online billpay, in particular, has sucked business away from the agency, as has the worst recession in decades.

Without a doubt, the Internet has hurt the Postal Service as stated. Many of us use it to get and pay many bills. But many can't be done this way.

What about the ones who cannot afford it or have no access to it short of using satellite? Is the government going to require you to buy a computer and Internet service? Are they going to require a Private company deliver my mail/bills to me?

Ohio Democrat Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a staunch supporter of postal workers, has gone so far as to argue that small-government advocates in Congress created the mandate in order to deliberately cripple the agency and create an excuse to push for cuts. “That was a move that was designed to deal a death blow to the U.S. Postal Service,” Kucinich said at a press conference last month.

Given time, research that!

“We need to do some major, thoughtful restructuring of the postal service so it can survive in the long run,” says Bloom, “But we don’t need to rush to judgment and slash and burn the very asset the post office has, which is its network. Then it will never recover.”

AGREED.

“The post office is being pushed to the cliff, into the abyss,” Ralph Nader,,,,, “The ultimate goal is shrinkage -- continual shrinkage and private businesses pick up the cream.”

Yeah, research that and see who might get that cream from the end of the Post Office!

Diminished service aside, a slimmed-down postal service could have a dramatic effect on the wider economy. As an American employer, the U.S. Postal Service ranks behind only the federal government and Walmart, with roughly 550,000 career employees on its payroll. (Postal service employees often aren’t counted among the federal workforce since they aren’t paid by tax dollars.)
That’s to say nothing of the wider mailing industry, which would include catalog printers, envelope manufacturers and direct-mail advertisers to name just a few -- an estimated 8 million workers and more than $1 trillion in business annually.
If the mail slowed, so could a good chunk of the economy.

Congress is expected to soon pass legislation that will overhaul the postal service, likely leaving a much leaner agency in its place.
While Donahoe has requested permission to cut 150,000 jobs, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a bill in April that would free up money to phase out around 100,000 positions. It would also lighten the pre-funding burden, limit overnight delivery in some areas and allow the agency to start shipping wine and beer like private shipping companies already do.
The plan that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is pushing in the House is more severe. It would allow for the phasing out of more than 150,000 jobs, facilitate a quicker move to five-day delivery and bar no-layoff clauses in labor contracts. It would also establish a commission tasked with cutting costs if the agency wasn’t hitting its benchmarks.
“What we have in the Senate is not perfect, but it’s a very good start,” says Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), one of the most vocal lawmakers on the issue.

“The public perception is that we’re overpaid and the taxpayers are paying us,” says Detrick. “People in my family, who I’ve known my whole adult life, still think taxpayers [pay our salaries]. No, you don’t pay my check. The stamp you put on this letter pays my check. But the taxes you pay the federal government do not.”

GOP governors across the country have blamed public-sector unions for their budget woes. In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker (R) survived a recall election after championing legislation that stripped most of the state’s public-sector workers of their collective bargaining rights. Gov. John Kasich (R) shepherded similar legislation into law in Ohio, although it was eventually overturned by voters. Many House Republicans in Washington have shown sympathy for rolling back the bargaining rights of public-sector workers.

“To destroy public unions, they would just as soon destroy the government agencies as well,” says Cliff Guffey, president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents many of the workers who aren’t carriers. “There’s a sanctity of the mail that’s important to a lot of people in this country. But there are people who want to dismantle it.”

When it comes to postal reform, Tad DeHaven, a budget analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, argues that lawmakers cater too much to the postal unions, as well as to their own constituents. Even self-avowed small-government types have a way of losing their convictions when it’s their own post offices on the chopping block. “It’s supposed to run like a business, but ultimately it answers to 535 people in Congress,” DeHaven says. “They make decisions on the basis of parochial concerns.”

The unions seem to fear Rep. Darrell Issa the most. As chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Issa holds the key to postal reform on the House side.

But Issa cast postal employees and their unions as a primary obstacle to financial stability in an op-ed he wrote for the Washington Times in 2010. “Thousands have less than a full day’s work, and some are even paid to sit in empty rooms,” he wrote of workers.

So who do you know Issa, who profits from your attempt to do away with the Postal Service? RESEARCH!!

And Mica-fool,

Asked where UPS stands on postal reform, Kara Ross, a company spokeswoman, says, “We think it’s important to have a strong postal service. They contract to us, and we contract to them.” Maury Donahue, a spokeswoman for FedEx, echoes that sentiment, saying in an email that the company “support[s] efforts to ensure that the Postal Service is able to successfully manage its business. We believe that a healthy Postal Service, the largest postal operator in the world, is important to America.”

Ellen Dannin, a PSU Professor says, “If you are going to have one country, then you have to take actions that help keep you knitted together as a country,”

So who cares about America?
So who has cost America the majority of jobs?
Who keeps eliminating jobs in America?

Easy to see...........At least for me....This is just one part of it...

[MrJim]

World without the mail, huh?

Kind of like the world without the typewriter. How will we all go on without a mailbox full of junk, trying to get us to upgrade our internet service and buy magazines (also obsolete)? The post office is the only business I can think of that attempts to stay alive by hiking prices. Let's embrace the 21st century (or at least the latter half of the 20th) and bid the post office a fond farewell.

[eyeonyou]

I have no issue with technology, but it is not affordable or even available to all yet. No one should be required to buy a computer and pay for Internet service in my opinion. Neither should all businesses be required to do business that way with their bills. Computers are affordable for most of us, and we made the decision to get one. When the Model T became the first real affordable car, was everyone required to buy one? That created jobs even but eliminating the USPS makes no sense from an economical or a convenience factor.

Name one business that has been in business as long as USPS and never raised prices.

Is the cost for someone to pick up a letter/bill at my house and mail it across the country fair? Yes!

There is fat to trim as in all levels of government and all private businesses.

Someday maybe, but the loss of a million or more jobs in the U.S. if it were to cease this year, because that is what would happen. No, not even 1/3 of those jobs would be replaced. All speculation on the numbers on my part, but reasonable.

Below is NALC President Fredric V. Rolando’s letter to the editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) was published on Thursday, August 11 (2011).
http://postalemployeenetwork.com/new...t-let-it-keep/

Post office makes a profit Congress won’t let it keep
Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Robin Beres’ Commentary column eloquently discussed the value of the U.S. Postal Service but incompletely depicted its financial status. Let me provide some context about an agency that doesn’t use a dime of taxpayer money and hasn’t for more than a quarter-century. Its revenue comes from selling its products and services.
USPS financial problems have little to do with delivering the mail. In the four fiscal years since 2007, despite the worst recession in 80 years, despite Internet diversion, revenues from postal operations exceeded costs by $611 million.
The problem lies elsewhere: the 2006 congressional mandate that the USPS pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and do so within a decade — an obligation no other public agency or private firm faces. The more than $5 billion annual payments since 2007 — $21 billion total — are the difference between a positive and negative ledger. That’s the elephant in the room . . . not Saturday mail delivery, not labor costs — which have been declining for years. Postal management has consistently praised the unions for their cooperation.

Remove this onerous pre-funding and the Postal Service would have been profitable even during this economic downturn. But we’re not even asking that it be removed. What USPS management, unions and key Republican and Democratic legislators seek is to let the Postal Service stop depleting its operating funds to make these payments and instead allow an internal transfer of funds from its pension surpluses. This transfer, with zero taxpayer involvement, would leave pensions and retiree health benefits fully funded while restoring the USPS budget to financial soundness.
While waiting for Congress to act, letter carriers will continue the dedication that has led the country to name us the most-trusted federal workers six years in a row.

Fredric Rolando,
President, National Association of Letter Carriers

Congress was the failure here, again as with most of the serious issues we face today. Want to save TRILLIONS per year, just eliminate everything that has to do with that bad joke. That is where nearly all the waste comes from. I used to think Monarchies were the countries run by the rich for the rich and screw the little guys. I know better now. The Congressmen we make rich by allowing them to screw us year after year are the Rich Rulers of our world here in the U.S. Of course there are the Presidents who allow these kind of things to happen without a wimper............A Great President would at least Veto a mistake anything like this and scream to the American public that Congress is fixing to screw you again if they had the required override so that the average citizen who doesn't have time to follow every minute of Congress's dirty dealings and moronic decisions could have a chance to react to, or at least hold accountable the fools that do pass these stupid laws that we can't afford.

Additionally, their health care is funded to the penny for eternity, and some of them want to bitch about funding an insurance program for the USPS? Even if it was wrong? It's time those freeloaders get the same cost/coverage/benefits as we do.

I know we can't eliminate Congress, but boy we sure let them stick it to us for their profit usually. Just check into the worth of the former and the current Speakers of the House, Pelosi and Boehner. Just check to see how much Boehner has made off "ObamaCare" even. He said he made wise financial decisions about that when interviewed on 60 Minutes when his profit off it was only around $2,000,000. Pelosi's was around $1,000,000. It's easy to be wise with insider trading isn't it?????????????????????????????????

Of course right after that they passed some new Legislation about them doing "Insider Trading". Yeah, right...............Oh and the portfolio's were diversified, well the holders names were changed on those stocks or something now....Surprise???? Shady the crooks are....I mean they don't want to appear as they are crooks now....They are, far worse than Richard Nixon's cover-up for sure.

[hitekredneck]

The biggest reason the PO is going down is because it's run by the same idiots we elect every two to four years. End of story. As for the "insider trading", Eye, you know this is the biggest reason people run. Not to be leaders or serve their country but to serve their own selfish interests.

[eyeonyou]

The biggest reason the PO is going down is because it's run by the same idiots we elect every two to four years. End of story. As for the "insider trading", Eye, you know this is the biggest reason people run. Not to be leaders or serve their country but to serve their own selfish interests.

I unfortunately have to agree! Sadness, as even when we put a good one in, they turn far too often to be exactly the same as the ones that intend to do it from the start.

[hitekredneck]

Well I suspect it all comes back to the billions it takes to campaign. This only allows those with money or close to money to run. Look at the choices this gives us.

[MrRee]

New Stamp

The Postal Services created a stamp with a picture of President Obama on it.
The Postal Service noticed that the stamp was not sticking to envelopes.
This enraged the President, who demanded a full investigation.
After a month of testing and $1.73 million in congressional spending, a special
Presidential commission presented the following findings:

1.The stamp is in perfect order.
2. There is nothing wrong with the glue.
3. People are spitting on the wrong side.

[PeaceuntoU]

The biggest reason the PO is going down is because it's run by the same idiots we elect every two to four years. End of story. As for the "insider trading", Eye, you know this is the biggest reason people run. Not to be leaders or serve their country but to serve their own selfish interests.

Actually this is the reason:
"The problem lies elsewhere: the 2006 congressional mandate that the USPS pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and do so within a decade — an obligation no other public agency or private firm faces. The more than $5 billion annual payments since 2007 — $21 billion total — are the difference between a positive and negative ledger. That’s the elephant in the room . . . not Saturday mail delivery, not labor costs — which have been declining for years. Postal management has consistently praised the unions for their cooperation"

Show me another corp. in the U.S.A. that prefunds for the next 75 years! This was started in 2006, I just wonder how big a payoff this Congress got. No business model could withstand that rule!! They want to save the USPO, change this law and they'll become secure. Honestly, I believe this law was devised just to destroy the USPO and make it private .
Only problem is no one wants to take over the operation! Too much work , with too little payoff.

[hitekredneck]

Again, anything run by the gubment will decline. You actually reinforced my statement.

[eyeonyou]

Actually this is the reason:
"The problem lies elsewhere: the 2006 congressional mandate that the USPS pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and do so within a decade — an obligation no other public agency or private firm faces. The more than $5 billion annual payments since 2007 — $21 billion total — are the difference between a positive and negative ledger. That’s the elephant in the room . . . not Saturday mail delivery, not labor costs — which have been declining for years. Postal management has consistently praised the unions for their cooperation"

Show me another corp. in the U.S.A. that prefunds for the next 75 years! This was started in 2006, I just wonder how big a payoff this Congress got. No business model could withstand that rule!! They want to save the USPO, change this law and they'll become secure. Honestly, I believe this law was devised just to destroy the USPO and make it private .
Only problem is no one wants to take over the operation! Too much work , with too little payoff.

Yep, you posted exactly what hitek and eye had.