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To go Postal or not to go Postal
Townhall.com ^ | August 14, 2011 | Paul Jacob

Posted on 08/14/2011 7:36:22 AM PDT by Kaslin

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1 posted on 08/14/2011 7:36:26 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Dump ‘em...


2 posted on 08/14/2011 7:39:09 AM PDT by gunnyg ("A Constitution changed from Freedom, can never be restored; Liberty, once lost, is lost forever...)
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To: Kaslin
The Constitution allows the federal government to do only a few things. As the article points out, the government is not really required to do all of those things.

We need a federal government to do about 10% of what it is currently doing. Let the individual, sovereign states decide what they wish to do, and let the people do the rest.

Government is the problem, not the solution.

3 posted on 08/14/2011 7:40:16 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (The USSR spent itself into bankruptcy and collapsed -- and aren't we on the same path now?)
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To: gunnyg
I'd prefer a reorg.

They need to retool. They do and have done a decent job for me. Has to be cost effective and self sufficient, though.

My wife and I discussed it and we could start doing all bill paying on line and probably save ourselves money and lower our security risks. We are prepared to do this.

However, there are still a lot of people who don't have a computer or online access or wouldn't be able to figure out how to pay bills on line.

4 posted on 08/14/2011 7:47:03 AM PDT by dhs12345
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To: ClearCase_guy

10% of gigantic is still a sh!tpot of power!


5 posted on 08/14/2011 7:47:56 AM PDT by gunnyg ("A Constitution changed from Freedom, can never be restored; Liberty, once lost, is lost forever...)
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To: Kaslin
“Since 1970,” reporters Alec MacGillis and Lisa Rein inform, “the Postal Service has operated as a quasi-private monopoly that receives virtually no taxpayer support but is hamstrung in competing with companies like FedEx and UPS because it cannot raise prices above a certain level, must maintain minimum levels of service and must now make the annual retiree payments.”

It can't compete because it can't raise its prices. Now that's a new one to me.

6 posted on 08/14/2011 7:49:06 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: Kaslin

This is the question I ask myself frequently.

/s?


7 posted on 08/14/2011 7:54:07 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Yes I backed over the vampire but I swear I didn't see him in the rearview mirror.)
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To: Kaslin
If the unions and their pensions were not part of the deal, Fed-Ex could buy the Post Office pare them down, close down many locations, change frequency deliveries, {twice a week} more post office boxes and less rural deliveries, and become profitable with no tax dollars or gummint bs.

This night happen but only after much wailing.

8 posted on 08/14/2011 7:55:01 AM PDT by USS Alaska (Nuke the terrorist savages.)
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To: Kaslin

I don’t run a business and so don’t need 6 days a week of delivery. Once a week is fine with me. Even once a month, but I’m afraid they’d need a dolly to haul that much junk mail.


9 posted on 08/14/2011 7:58:31 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: Kaslin

Thanks for the posting

Our legal sustem and government depends on the integrity of the USPS as does many other aspects of our lives. The author of this piece however dumps on the latest congress which took office this January.

The problems have been building for years finger pointing to the reformers for inaction is undeserved.


10 posted on 08/14/2011 8:00:03 AM PDT by mosesdapoet ("To punish a province Let it be ruled by a professor " Frederick The Great paraphrased)
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To: USS Alaska

Rural deliveries are part of why the post office is an essential government service explicitly mandated by the US Constitution and not a business.
In my coastal community of about 35,000 people UPS is open from 3:30 to 5:30 PM. Fed Ex doesn’t even have an local office.
The post office would be much better off financially if the private firms were not skimming off the high profit markets around the big cities and leaving the rest of the country high and dry.


11 posted on 08/14/2011 8:13:25 AM PDT by rogator
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To: ClearCase_guy

Congress has 18 enunerated powers under Article 1. The post office is not an optional duty. It is specific ad precise. There is no dicussion about this.


12 posted on 08/14/2011 8:21:26 AM PDT by DownInFlames
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To: ClearCase_guy

Sorry clear, just re-read article 1. Congress has the power to post offices which you are right, it is not mandated.


13 posted on 08/14/2011 8:28:20 AM PDT by DownInFlames
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To: DownInFlames

It’s the economy, stupid. Fix the national economy, fix the post office. Businesses hoarding cash, not advertising? New businesses NOT being started up, due to uncertainties of the current administration? Lack of consumer spending due to unemployment?

Seriously, fixing the Post Office is a band-aid on a broken leg. Fire Obama and the Democrats, cut taxes and regulations, and the economy will roar. The Post Office difficulties will be history.


14 posted on 08/14/2011 8:28:37 AM PDT by Big Giant Head (Two years no AV, no viruses, computer runs great!)
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To: rogator

Great post. That’s exactly why the post office needs to be saved. The best reform would simply to end the excessive congressional oversight and let the CEO make the needed decisions without having to lobby congress for permission to make simple and obvious business decisions.


15 posted on 08/14/2011 8:30:13 AM PDT by Valpal1 ("No clever arrangement of bad eggs ever made a good omelet." ~ C.S. Lewis)
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To: rogator
I think rural deliveries are important....

I think stopping Saturday deliveries would be okay, if needed...but the unions would have to agree to a much smaller work force and to changes in their medical and pensions...

I would even pay more for stamps if there were substantial savings elsewhere....

the postal service is important, especially for the smaller areas...

16 posted on 08/14/2011 8:49:37 AM PDT by cherry
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To: Kaslin

The Post office needs to quit being a bank for those who can not or choose not to have a bank account or just to launder cash. It is disturbing to wait in line to mail a parcel when those in front of you are buying thousands of dollars in money orders to send who knows where.


17 posted on 08/14/2011 9:19:38 AM PDT by granite (The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left - Ecclest 10:2)
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To: cherry

Correct me if I’m wrong too but it seems the post office does most of the APO work as well (delivery of mail and packages to troops overseas).


18 posted on 08/14/2011 9:47:49 AM PDT by chargers fan
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To: Kaslin

The truth is that the Postal Service has been and remains a bargain, much maligned by the public and Congress every time stamp prices rise. The Postal Service prepays billions into the retirement healthcare pension fund. Money that’s not there five minutes after it’s deposited. Why? Because Congress takes the money out and spends it on other things.

They’ve looted the Postal Service for years, they sold off profitable parcel business, refused to allow them to employ new and innovative moneymaking schemes....because FedEx and USPS lobbied Congress and said it was unfair competition. Nothing about this is simple. And Congress certainly won’t stand up and point the finger of blame where it belongs. If the Postal Service of all the federal agencies, quasi or otherwise, have to prepay billions into a fund that’s siphoned off in a blink of an eye, they’d be profitable and make money.


19 posted on 08/14/2011 10:47:48 AM PDT by hershey
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To: DownInFlames

Not necessarily. Congress is authorized to “To establish Post Offices and post Roads”. There’s nothing that requires the Postal Service to make actual delivery. They could satisfy their Constitutional responsibility by handling interstate transport, and allow the states to do the rest.


20 posted on 08/14/2011 10:54:00 AM PDT by Mountain Troll (My investment plan - Canned food and shotguns)
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