Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount

The NY Times ^ | Sept. 4, 2011 | STEVEN GREENHOUSE

[caper gal 1]

Removing unions from government period would be a huge improvement.

[rfp1234]

On Obama’s watch, no less: he’ll forever be known as the Post Turtle.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

I will EVER do electronic payments. Way to easy for someone to hack you account and drain you of everything.

I agree. So true.

[blue state conservative]

I had a friend once whose job was to sort mail into bins in the backroom of the post office. He said he could easily do 5 bins on a shift but the “union standard” was 2 bins so that’s the most he was allowed to do.

[caper gal 1]

That’s EXACTLY the sort of waste I’m talking about when I rant how unions are destroying this country.

[DManA]

“Stabilize its finances” sounds so much nicer than “bail it out”.

[DManA]

Seems to me it gives them the power, if they choose to exercise it, to establish a post office. I don’t see that it mandates them to do it.

“To establish Post Offices and post Roads;”

How many post roads are there?

[Nucluside]

Been paying bills on line for years. Take precautions and it’s a lot safer than putting things in an outside mailbox.

[conservativeimage]

Kirk: Let them die!

[Olog-hai]

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How many post roads are there?

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Very few so named; the most famous named one in the country is the Boston Post Road (aka US 1 nowadays, which is the "lower" post road along the shore line).

Arguably, the interstate highway system is the culmination of the "post road" edict. The notion was certainly supported by the old Commission on Post Offices and Post Roads in the early half of the century. The total cost to the public for building that system comes to about half a trillion dollars, and like every federal "trust fund" meant to support such things, there's no self-sufficiency in it.

[NautiNurse]

Maxine Waters agrees with you. She is calling for a trillion dollar job stimulus that will protect government employees.

[Rome2000]

Do you still get ice delivered to house by horsecart?

[DManA]

I suppose you could argue that if you like to argue but that's not the argument was made when they were built.

Arguably, the interstate highway system is the culmination of the "post road" edict.

They were built for defense, not to speed the mail.

[Olog-hai]

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They were built for defense, not to speed the mail

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Yes, I've heard that excuse before. Kinda doesn't hold up in the face of the fact that Germany's Autobahn system ended up being a liability instead of an asset, what with the Allies using them to penetrate the Fatherland far easier than without.

The current use of the interstates for transporting mail does mark them as post roads. They along with the airlines killed the railway post office system.