Posted on 12/29/2017 5:08:35 AM PST by SMGFan
Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!
Most postal workers are under the FERS retirement program which is a hybrid 401k/ pension program. Your average postal worker isn’t going to get much more than $12,000 a year through the pension program. They rely more heavily on Social Security and the 401k. The health benefits that continue after retirement are another matter and probably constitutes a majority of the Post Office’s unfunded liability.
But then those pensions are 100% funded for the next 75 years. It seems to me there are a few tweaks that could be implemented to put the Post Office in much better shape.
I like Trump trolling Dr. Evil (Bezos).
The USPS should be totally privatized and allowed to sink or swim.
Before anyone thinks I’m anti-veteran or dismisses that some soldiers do come back home with problems, I am not.
However, I’m getting sick to death of the whole PTSD thing being used for an excuse by some (and not just by veterans) for every bad behavior or sense of entitlement under the sun. Just the other day there was a thread about some guy who happened to be a veteran whose dog was over the weight and size limit at the condo where he lived so of course now he’s claiming the mutt is an “emotional support animal” because the dog “keeps my mind off the war and everything”. The thing is that the guy is 77 years old so he’s had quite a while to work through “the war” and evidently worked until recently as a bus driver.
If the USPS has employees who can’t function well in their job because of undiagnosed PTSD, perhaps the USPS should do a better job of screening before hiring.
The USPS is supposed to be run like a business and not as a make work charity.
The USPS would be profitable if they were not forced to prefund their retiree health fund at a 49% rate. The federal govt does not do this and the military only does it at a 35% rate. That rate does not allow them to invest in infrastructure and improvements. In the private sector this prefunding is voluntary and about 1/3 of the fortune 1000 companies do this prefunding. It is a complicated accounting gimmick and is not putting the USPS on a level playing field with any other company or govt agency for that matter. Now, having said all that, if they were to only prefund at the military rate, they would actually be a profitable entity and NOT have to raise prices at all. They would be even more profitable if the USPS were to be privatized. The USPS had ZERO debt in 2005 and because of this prefunding they carry a 15Billion debit - which just so happens to be their max that they can carry by law. If govt would just leave well enough alone things would run so much smoother. (see tag line)
Everyone is missing the point. Crony capitalism is that Trump is pointing out...
Bezos big donor to Dems...Dems big in upper echelon of USPS...let’s see which stocks those post office directors and such own!!!!
Transparency!!!
Thank you. No one seems to understand that.
In 2006, the Republican congress decreed that the USPS must pay $5 billion/year to pre-fund the health care and retirement benefits for future employees. The Postal Service is the only government or private entity required to do so.
This is the cause of the deficits.
The USPS breaks even on current operations.
I am glad you mentioned eBay. I have a friend who has a rather large and high volume eBay store and ships exclusively via the USPS.
As to Amazon, why single them out alone? Why not Wal-Mart, Apple, Target, Macy’s, QVC, or any of the other stores who now do very well selling on-line?
http://wwd.com/business-news/business-features/amazon-wal-mart-apple-biggest-e-commerce-retailers-10862796/
Random comments:
Deliveries from USPS have been on time or early.
We get USPS all daylight hours all days of the week. More often than the others.
A domestic fedex ground to us took almost two weeks recently. Not acceptable.
USPS has some decent rates for very light parcels. Like 2 or 3 bucks. Good, and why not?
Letters are too expensive but becoming obsolete anyway.
Our delivery guy is real nice remembers our name, calling us Mr and Mrs old-ager.
We do receive mail (usually junk) for nearby addresses maybe once every couple of months. Not good.
I don’t love UPS and Fedex any more, but why don’t they have an antitrust case against USPS?
> As to Amazon, why single them out alone?
Totally agree, but can any large customer get similar deals from USPS, or is there actually political favoritism?
I don’t see it. I think USPS has made tremendous strides (just from observing prices, tracking and delivery time) and I favor them greatly over UPS and Fedex, even for retail rates (no special deal to an individual, right?)
So some of the anti-USPS stuff here is probably really stupid.
Even we extreme right-wingers still buy stuff from Amazon, though I can tell you that I now am able to get stuff other places cheaper pretty often since Amazon started charging sales tax here.
Check out the wikibuy and ebates extensions for Chrome.
Wow. I did not know this.
USPO and Amtrak need to be sold they haven’t made any money in years just another stone on the backs of the tax payer.
“IIRC, Amazon has been looking at going into the delivery biz.”
Amazon already has its own service that delivers many packages, including what appears to be an Uber model of outsourcing to individuals.
One of the things Trump should have fixed on Day 1. Stop taxpayer subsidies to Unions.
The bill requiring that, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, passed in 2006 when Bush was president and when the GOP controlled both the House and the Senate. An EO cannot undo it.
Actually, the Post Office hasn’t made a payment into the retirement fund since 2011.
Put a greeting card in a colored enveolope with cash or a gift card through the US mail and see what happens.
What I see as someone who receives a packages at least every week and probably more often is innovation from USPS more than the others.
And here’s something to think about: who else is obligated by law to stop at every address, every day?
What’s the marginal cost of dropping off one extra box?
There’s a good reason USPS is cheaper.
USPS haters are not thinking straight.
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