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Posted on 07/26/2011 8:15:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The problem with bloated central planning is that when austerity hits, the bloat goes away, and millions of government employees suddenly find themselves trying to enter the private sector, realizing they have absolutely no real competitive and marketable skills (more or less like investment bankers and hedge fund managers). And while America has yet to even remotely sniff austerity, the unemployment rate is already set to spike, after the USPS just announced it was preparing to close 3,653 out of its 32,000 total post office sites.
Per UPI: "The U.S. Postal Service is expected to announce a plan to close 3,653 post offices, mostly in small communities, in a cost-cutting measure, officials said. A USPS spokeswoman said the post offices were chosen because they get the "least amount of foot traffic and retail sales," The Wall Street Journal reported Monday." Trust the bureaucrats to try spinning this bad news as good: "They also were selected because there may be local businesses that could provide some postal services to the community, spokeswoman Sue Brennan said."
Well by that logic there are private businesses that cover every aspect of the government's "job" much better, and much more efficiently, up to and including that of the Fed (sorry, that already is private). Does that mean we should outsource every aspect of the bloated centrally planned economy that America has become? Of course the answer is yes, but that just does not jive with the current iteration of kleptofascist socialism.
More:
The list of the closures, amounting to about 11 percent of the USPS' post offices nationwide, will be made public Tuesday by Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe,
The Postal Regulatory Commission would have to approve the widespread closings, as the USPS prepares to file a request for a "national change of service," Brennan said.
Donahoe also will announce "a replacement strategy" involving third-party retailers, she said.
"If you're a community and there is a local convenience store, for example, we might be reaching out to these organizations to see if they would be interested in providing limited postal service for the community that might be affected," Brennan said.
So between corporate and now public sector layoffs, expect the unemployment rate to resume climbing steadily to double digits, hitting it some time in Q4, at which point QE3 will be inevitable, as Goldman predicted yesterday.
And hopefully 3,700 “Postmasters.”
That will save gobs of cash.
The other thing they could do is stop delivery on saturday’s they’ve been talking about doing that for years.
Except for delivery, most post office transactions could be handled by a kiosk-ATM type machine................
The Post Office should have been systematically downsizing in an orderly way for a LONG time now.
As I understand it, Congress forced USPS to maintain current operations as a way to continue to fund its pension plans as long as possible.
Mail is going the way of the Pony Express — and that was completely foreseeable. The need to have this function fulfilled by government was overcome by events long ago.
Will do wonders for those unemployment numbers. Prayers to those affected. Regardless of what people think here, there are some wonderful folks working at the post office. They are pretty smart to some of them. They have to take an exam to get the jobs. Oh and guess which post offices will be affected? The conservative areas. You get what you wish for.
It's a shame, but you cannot keep all the projects, and keep all the workers AND cut the spending.
Pain is coming. But we need a smaller government.
And hopefully 3,700 “Postmasters.”
And when did you ever see any of them cut from the top down?
"If you're a community and there is a local convenience store, for example, we might be reaching out to these organizations to see if they would be interested in providing limited postal service for the community that might be affected," Brennan said.
How will that affect those of us who have a CCW license? When I drive to the local post office, I park at city hall, lock my firearm in the car, and walk a block. Will a post office in the "local convenience store" have the same firearms restrictions?
No, don’t let ‘em....Then it will be Monday, Wed and Friday next.
I fully expect the Øbama administration to end mail delivery to the Lone Star state altogether. Øbama has had Texas in his cross hairs since the beginning of his reign.
And delivery could be outsourced to other carriers who would love to take on first-class delivery.
the local school was planning to run school 4 days a week. Nope, not to save on employee costs, but the savings on heating and cooling as well as transporting the kids would save the school about 1% a year.
Just the year before they built a $10 million addition onto the school building.
Imagine if a business made cuts like government did.
I went to the relatively new local UPS store for the first time in our small town. Family managed. The managers 16 yr old daughter was working, knew the business inside out. Friendly as could be. Bent over backwards to help. I had to mail several framed pictures. They took them and said don’t worry, we’ll do all the packing, labeling, etc. No waiting.
Contrast to the local US Post Office. The uniformed workers there struggle to get out a smile. Getting anything extra is like pulling teeth. Move slow as turtles. No wonder it’s losing money.
Over in Hollywood where I work, I could literally travel in each direction for FIVE minutes and hit a USPS office, no kidding.
The bad part is that most of these clerks have worse attitudes than my GF with PMS.
I know of rural communities that have less than 10,000 people within a 60 sq mile area that have five or more post offices.
the Sam Drucker model!!!
The reason you've only heard 'talk' about it is that it takes literally 'an act of Congress' to do it. The USPS has been asking Congress for about two years now to allow them to eliminate Saturday delivery, and thus far, Congress has not allowed it...
the infowarrior
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