A lot of good people, many military veterans, work for the USPS. And unlike some government entities, this organization performs a Constitutional function and does useful work.
agree. the PO is one of the things fedgov is supposed to do. Get rid of the depts of education and energy first.
Are the people who sort the mail worth $90K/yr? Have you noticed how many Marcedes and BMWs in the post office worker lot?
Pray for America
There are other issues at play here that are out of the control of the postal service. They can’t raise rates as needed plus the feds forced them to prefund retirement some 75 years ahead.
They’d be a lot better off if they could run it like a business but they’re in what used to be a unique position of being tied to the federal government in ways they shouldn’t be.
As far as their own fault is concerned, there are the unions, the fact that they seem to be overstaffed at the administrative levels and more service than is necessary which means excess staff.
If it were up to me I would cut Wednesday and Saturday delivery. I would allow them to set rates as needed. I would eliminate door to door service in the city and and rural delivery within a mile of the post office.
My local post office only has about 200 PO boxes and its in a rented building. Meanwhile, 25 yards away a brand new township owned building sits empty and I would make a deal with the township to move there and expand. There are another 1500 or more people within a mile of the post office on a rural route and I would move their delivery to the new PO.
That still doesn’t address the fact that the unions are taking USPS down.
I 100% agree. However, as you must admit, it's operating expenses are simply not grounded in reality. I mean, those numbers say it all... 80%.
When I was young, the postal carriers were some of the most dedicated and hard working employees and they always stood out to me because of it. Those people didn't have to even think twice about going out of their way to help a customer. Heck, we even exchanged Christmas gifts with them all the years I grew up and we only knew their first names. My dad told me that if they were willing to get out in a blizzard to deliver our mail, I needed to get my ass out there and help. On more than several occasions, I was out on the old 8n plowing a path for the mailman or pulling them out of a stuck spot.
That was 40 years ago. It's not the same now, especially in the city. I see our carriers in the neighborhood sleeping in their vehicles all the time. God forbid it snows after I leave for work and can't shovel 6" of snow in front of the box, they drive right past.
I was standing in the driveway one day at work taking pictures of the building and the mail carrier pulled up behind me and started blowing the horn? Confused, I moved onto the sidewalk so she could drive the truck 5 more feet and shut it off, get out and deliver a small box. Getting out where she was sitting didn't even cross her lazy mind.
Quite frankly, I'd rather throw rocks at them nowadays.
I agree, the service is still critical, we need them. But it really needs to be reeled in. Step 1 is busting up the union.
What does the genesis of the workforce have to do with anything? I knew a guy who retired from the NYPD with a generous pension, moved to California and took a job with the USPS, from which he also retired with a generous pension. And my guess is that there are a lot of military retirees who have done the same thing and all they did in the military is shine their own shoes for 20 years. The USPS is an anachronism that needs to go the way of the buggy whip, or at least be forced into bankruptcy so that whoever takes over what’s left over starts with a clean slate.
“A lot of good people, many military veterans, work for the USPS. And unlike some government entities, this organization performs a Constitutional function and does useful work”
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While the above might be true.. A lot of good people and many military veterans work in private industry and make no higher salaries than the postal workers, have no Cadillac health plans, and NO guarantee of not being laid off.
Postal workers ARE NOT more important to the overall economy that anyone else and thus should not be protected from its economic pitfalls.
The Constitutional requirement of the Federal Government to protect the borders is ignored and usurped by it.
So why should we care about any constitutional mandate to deliver mail?
The USPS can either justify its existence by market survival or not.
It apparently can’t.