United States Postal Service

[badger]

I loved getting mail as a kid and it's still fun to send cards to relatives on major holidays and birthdays. I send about 100 Christmas cards every December and get Netflix and Gamefly delivered every week.

But... the USPS is apparently dying. Billions in annual losses, cutting Saturday service and trying to find ways for older, unionized employees to get forced into retirement (changing dayshifts to less desirable hours).

Thoughts on the postal service?

[Lott's Bandana]

Dean in...

3...

2...

1...

[badger]

Dean in...

3...

2...

1...

Yes of course Deano will give the insider view, but from the outside, things like Netflix are relatively new and relatively popular and rely on the USPS for their biz model.

If something like Netflix could come along in the Internet age and use the USPS excessively, will other businesses (like Gamefly) save USPS from more inevitable cuts?

[Lott's Bandana]

I loves my Netflix, but even then, I watch 60-70% of my Netflix entertainment by streaming it through my PS3.

[ndpruitt03]

Fed Ex and UPS are doing pretty good as private companies. What will have to eventually happen with USPS is it'll have either be privatized or sold to one of the private companies. Government can't afford to keep it for long especially with the new health care and financial bills which will probably cost trillions to try and maintain.

[Serge Ibaka]

MAILMEN ARE SOCIALIST AND THEY MAKE ME AFRAID.

[Dio]

IBTD

[tommieharris91]

:pop:

[C&CDean]

I'm off to a meeting to keep us afloat. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

[C&CDean]

MAILMEN ARE SOCIALIST AND THEY MAKE ME AFRAID.

And you're a fag, but I ain't afraid.

[Serge Ibaka]

Faggot, often shortened to fag, is a pejorative term and common homophobic slur used chiefly in North America against homosexual males. Its pejorative use has spread from the United States to varying extents elsewhere in the English-speaking world through mass culture, including movies, music, and the Internet.

In some countries, faggot has additional meanings (all dated or rare in the U.S.): a bundle of sticks, a culinary term for herbs or seasoning added to a meal; "faggot trim", a style of embroidery in clothing; and faggots, which are a kind of meatball. Fag also has additional meanings: slang for a cigarette (dated in the US), or for hard work and chores. In some UK public schools, fagging was the name given to the practice where a younger boy (a "fag") acted as an unpaid servant for an older boy.

Dean's a hater.

[1890MilesToNorman]

I know 2 current postal workers and 3 retired ones. They all seem to be fine financially but they never buy me any beer at the bar? WTF :D

[C&CDean]

Fed Ex and UPS are doing pretty good as private companies. What will have to eventually happen with USPS is it'll have either be privatized or sold to one of the private companies. Government can't afford to keep it for long especially with the new health care and financial bills which will probably cost trillions to try and maintain.

-sigh-

For the eleventy-billionth time Nik, NOT ONE DIME of USPS operating costs comes from taxpayers. Not. A. Dime. Hasn't since 1972 when we went from the Post Office Department to the USPS. Obamacare, etc. doesn't do a thing to the USPS one way or the other. Every penny we make/spend comes from postage revenues and a very small amount comes from miscellaneous revenue generated by letting the OU football team camp out at our place every Friday night before home games, hosting their banquets (and a lot of other OU/State/County shindigs as well), etc.

Fed Ex and UPS ain't doing all that well either. They have partnered with the USPS on much of their final delivery, and we have partnered with them for airplane space (since the USPS relies primarily on commercial airlines for Express/Priority/First-class mail).

The primary thing that hurts the USPS over the other delivery companies is that we are bound by congress to deliver to every ****ing address in the US of A. The other guys? Not so much. They'll deliver to places where it's profitable. For a 44-cent stamp, the USPS has to deliver to some old coot living out on some God-forsaken island in the Arctic Ocean. There are some mailpieces that actually go on a truck, a plane, another truck, a 4-wheel drive vehicle, a boat, a bush plane, and final delivery is made on a snow mobile. That's a lot of logistics/cash.

Be that as it may, the whole "the USPS is dying" statement is total codswallop. The USPS cannot maintain the past business model based on two major things. First, and foremost, the USPS is the only government agency that is self-supported (and has to turn any profits over to the government) and has to pre-fund retiree benefits - to the tune of several billion a year. Secondly, there are 4 separate unions within the USPS, and these POS scumbag **********s need to go the **** away. On a positive note, these leeches are fighting amongst themselves for ownership of certain work/crafts and hopefully they'll all strangle one another. God I hate me a union.

All that being what it is, the USPS will be around for many years/decades to come and will probably be around until the USA ceases to exist. Some of the things mentioned will help the USPS survive. 5-day delivery (which ain't happening anytime soon) and dropping the pre-funding requirement for retirees will help tremendously. The USPS still delivers tens-of-billion pieces of mail every year (more in a single day that Fed Ex and UPS do in a year combined). The USPS still has the largest fleet in the USA (other than the armed forces) with over 200K vehicles. They are voted the most trusted government agency every year, and would be a top-10 Fortune 500 company if they were private.

The USPS ain't going anywhere. They're still gonna be delivering Netflix/Ebay/Amazon/etc. for a long, long time. And yes, they'll still deliver your Christmas card to aunt Betty too.

[C&CDean]

Dean's a hater.

Only on obnoxious dip****s.

[Lott's Bandana]

-sigh-

They're still gonna be delivering Netflix/Ebay/Amazon/etc. for a long, long time. And yes, they'll still deliver your Christmas card to aunt Betty too.


And my nondescript, plain brown packages too?

[C&CDean]

Yes, they'll still deliver your porta-*****, **** enlarger, and semen-flavored breath mints without batting an eye.

[Serge Ibaka]

So one page says this:
Until adoption of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the U.S. Postal Service functioned as a regular, tax-supported, agency of the federal government.

According to the laws under which it now operates, the U.S. Postal Service is a semi-independent federal agency, mandated to be revenue-neutral. That is, it is supposed to break even, not make a profit.This article says the postal service is operating in the red.

But another article says that the USPS is operating in the red.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94E7IMG0&show_article=1

If that's the case, where's the money coming from? I smell socialism, and I'm getting really afraid!

[btk108]

-sigh-
For a 44-cent stamp, the USPS has to deliver to some old coot living out on some God-forsaken hill near Wister, OK.


Fixed :D

[C&CDean]

So one page says this:

But another article says that the USPS is operating in the red.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94E7IMG0&show_article=1

If that's the case, where's the money coming from? I smell socialism, and I'm getting really afraid!

I smell troll-**** and it stinks.

[Serge Ibaka]

I smell troll-**** and it stinks.

Minus the troll-bit about Righty fear-mongering: it was an honest question. How does an independent and non-profit agency fund itself if they are operating in the red?

Where's the money coming from if they aren't getting it from tax-payers?

[GottaHavePride]

Personally, I think the USPS should up the bulk mail rates. ESPECIALLY for unsolicited junk mail. They'd make more money and I'd receive less junk mail. Win-Win.

[C&CDean]

Personally, I think the USPS should up the bulk mail rates. ESPECIALLY for unsolicited junk mail. They'd make more money and I'd receive less junk mail. Win-Win.

Ahem, the term is Bulk Business Mail. One man's junk mail is another man's beans and cornbread. All you gotta do is trash it. It ain't like phone marketers who disturb your supper or coitus.

[C&CDean]

Minus the troll-bit about Righty fear-mongering: it was an honest question. How does an independent and non-profit agency fund itself if they are operating in the red?

Where's the money coming from if they aren't getting it from tax-payers?

How does the government fund itself with your lord and saviour spending like a thousand drunken George W. Bush sailors? ****ing magic I guess.

[badger]

Sorry to start a USPS thread then bolt for the football forum discussions :D

Deano, I want you guys to succeed, be a viable government operation, etc. I just don't know how you're all going to with everything that's going against you now :(

[Lott's Bandana]

Yes, they'll still deliver your porta-*****, **** enlarger, and semen-flavored breath mints without batting an eye.


Eeeeeew. How did you even think of that?
I wouldn't even want the opposite either...not in mint form.

[tommieharris91]

So one page says this:

But another article says that the USPS is operating in the red.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94E7IMG0&show_article=1

If that's the case, where's the money coming from? I smell socialism, and I'm getting really afraid!
Since when did dirty socialists like you link to Breitbart?

[Serge Ibaka]

How does the government fund itself with your lord and saviour spending like a thousand drunken George W. Bush sailors? ****ing magic I guess.

Oh, come now, Dean. Don't evade the question if you know the answer--I really want to know! Until today, I had know idea that the USPS was supposed to be self-supporting, and I'm interested. You insist the USPS doesn't take tax-payer dollars.

How does an independent and non-profit agency fund itself if they are operating in the red? Where's the money coming from if they aren't getting it from tax-payers?

[C&CDean]

Oh, come now, Dean. Don't avoid the question if you know the answer--I really want to know! Until today, I had know idea that the USPS was supposed to be self-supporting, and I'm interested. You insist the USPS doesn't take tax-payer dollars.

How does an independent and non-profit agency fund itself if they are operating in the red? Where's the money coming from if they aren't getting it from tax-payers?

We're mind-****ing you and you don't even know when you send us cash on the innerwebs.

Can't honestly answer your question. Don't know. And it's not me saying we're self-funded, it's fact.

[C&CDean]

Sorry to start a USPS thread then bolt for the football forum discussions :D

Deano, I want you guys to succeed, be a viable government operation, etc. I just don't know how you're all going to with everything that's going against you now :(

It's all cyclical. Besides, 2-years and 15-days from this very second I shall cease to be a USPS employee. My $$ will then come from the Office of Personnel Management which is a federal dealio not attached to the USPS. Weird how we're still quasi-government...kinda.

[Serge Ibaka]

We're mind-****ing you and you don't even know when you send us cash on the innerwebs.

Can't honestly answer your question. Don't know. And it's not me saying we're self-funded, it's fact.

(from 2005): http://www.dmnews.com/usps-funding-request-at-odds-with-administration/article/87425/


Postmaster General John E. Potter went before Congress yesterday to argue that the postal service needs more funding from the government than what has been proposed by the Bush administration.


The USPS wants $101.2 million more than would be appropriated under the administration's proposed budget, Potter told members of the House Committee on Appropriations. The money would be used to support postage discounts and free services mandated by the government and postal security, he said.

Government spending!!!!? The USPS is COMMUNIST!!

I'm super-duper afraid of Dean and his evil organization.

[C&CDean]

$101M??? Are you ****ing kidding me? Your boy takes vacations to NYC that cost more than that. And this is proposed there comrade.

[Frozen Sooner]

Since when did dirty socialists like you link to Breitbart?

Meh. The article is probably edited in such a way as to completely distort the source material anyhow.

[Serge Ibaka]

$101M??? Are you ****ing kidding me? Your boy takes vacations to NYC that cost more than that. And this is proposed there comrade.

Well, that's 100 mil in addition to what was already budgeted. But that's neither here nor there. I was simply saying that if the USPS is operating in the red, the money has to come from someplace--mailmen can't gas-up their jeeps with IOUs.

And I doubt I've expressed very much support for Obama's spending on this board; you're merely using Obama as empty rhetoric to divert attention. Obama has nothing to do with any of this.

Also, this: http://www.lewrockwell.com/alston/alston21.html




"We commenced operations on July 1, 1971, in accordance with the provisions of the Postal Reorganization Act (the Act). The equity that the U.S. government held in the former Post Office Department became our initial capital. We valued the assets of the former Post Office Department at original cost less accumulated depreciation. The initial transfer of assets, including property, equipment and cash, totaled $1.7 billion. Subsequent cash contributions and transfers of assets between 1972 and 1982 totaled approximately $1.3 billion, resulting in total government contributions of approximately $3 billion."

So even without the (apparently) semi-annual infusions of "government appropriations" the USPS received something like $3 billion in "start-up" capital. That is about as far from "no taxpayer support" as one can get!

Dean supports a socialist regime! Hooray!

It's not so bad, buddy; become enveloped within the warmth of collectivism. Cheers, comrade!

[C&CDean]

All before you were born comrade. From wiki:

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution. Within the United States, it is commonly referred to as the "Post Office", "Postal Service", or "U.S. Mail".

Though postal services have existed on American territory before the United States' establishment, the USPS's first incarnation was established by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia in 1775 by decree of the Second Continental Congress. During the 1840 America's business had greatly expanded, but the United States Postal Service had stagnated. In spite of rapid advancements in transportation, postal rates remained unchanged. Other services, like Lysander Spooner's American Letter Mail Company emerged to compete, but were shut down by the United States Government. The Post Office Department was created from this in 1792 as part of the United States Cabinet, then was transformed into its current form in 1983 under the Postal Reorganization Act.

Since its reorganization into an independent organization, the USPS has become self-sufficient and has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters. However it is currently borrowing money from the U.S. Treasury to pay its deficits.[3] The decline of mail volume due to increased usage of e-mail has forced the postal service to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to maintain this financial balance.[4]

Employing 596,000 workers and over 218,000 vehicles, it is the second-largest civilian employer in the United States (after Wal-Mart) and the operator of the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world.[5] The USPS is obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. It has exclusive access to letterboxes marked "U.S. Mail." It competes against private package delivery services who cannot deliver to letterboxes and must leave packages by front doors if no one is available to receive them.

[C&CDean]

Guess that answers your question about how the USPS operates.

[Serge Ibaka]

*pouts*

Okay, the USPS is only borrowing tax-payer dollars.

And, at any rate, I seriously doubt that the tax-payers ever see that money again. And thus the USPS is something even worse: it's socialism masquerading as something else!

[C&CDean]

No sergio, unlike you and your ilk, the USPS pays back it's debts and doesn't think it deserves to be payed for doing nothing.

[Serge Ibaka]

No sergio, unlike you and your ilk, the USPS pays back it's debts and doesn't think it deserves to be payed for doing nothing.

Well they better get out of the red soon or they'll become an increasingly bigger burden on tax paying Americans.

Just like all them illegals!

[C&CDean]

You really shouldn't come to a battle unarmed.

[Harry Beanbag]

I hate trolls more than illegals.

[bent rider]

Fixed :D

Wow, just 44 cents to deliver that Sooner recliner? :)

I do sympathize about the mandate of 100% coverage wrt to the USPS costs, I don't think people fully appreciate that, specially us city slickers.

In my opinion the worst invention since the pack-mule is the FedEx-Postal Service SmartPost. It must be cheap as hell for the shipper -its commonly used for Amazon "free shipping" option -- but from the customer point of view it seems to combine the worst inefficiency with a top-of-the-line finger-pointing lack of accountability.

My understanding is that within FedEx it travels on a space-available basis and for some reason it might go back-and-forth to the same FedEx Sorting Center before it finally goes on to the proper destination Post Office. Once arriving at the Post Office, they have 5 days to deliver it to your home or business. During this period FedEx will show it delivered to the USPS and the USPS often will show it not-yet-in-system. Last time I used that, the package was at my house before it was acknowledged in the USPS tracking system.

[GottaHavePride]

One thing I will say is that USPS's tracking system (like with their delivery confirmation stickers and such) is hilariously inadequate next to FedEx / UPS. As far as I can tell the only status it ever reports is "in transit" - and it doesn't usually register delivery of an item until about two days later.

[GKeeper316]

email and other instant communications technologies have rendered the usps largely obsolete.

[NormanPride]

email and other instant communications technologies have rendered the usps largely obsolete.

I, for one, never use paper. Not even for the toilet.


What, you don't know how to use the three shells?

[KC//CRIMSON]

Meh. The article is probably edited in such a way as to completely distort the source material anyhow.

Thanks for the salary increase and promotion!

Shirley Sherrod *waves*

[delhalew]

Is troll of the day seriously comparing a constitutionaly mandated public service to tunnels for turtles, gay pron for Frisco, and cash for toyotas?

[stoopified]

USPS is a perfect example of how the Federal Government screws up everything it runs.I can't imagine why anyone thinks National Healthcare will be any different.

[Okla-homey]

Dean-o,

Us lawyers do our part for the USPS. As you may know, legal process can only be served by "certified USPS mail, delivery restricted to addressee, return receipt requested," or personally.

Just sayin'

[SicEmBaylor]

I loved getting mail as a kid and it's still fun to send cards to relatives on major holidays and birthdays. I send about 100 Christmas cards every December and get Netflix and Gamefly delivered every week.

But... the USPS is apparently dying. Billions in annual losses, cutting Saturday service and trying to find ways for older, unionized employees to get forced into retirement (changing dayshifts to less desirable hours).

Thoughts on the postal service?

I've said for a long time it should be totally privatized.

[John Kochtoston]

I, for one, never use paper. Not even for the toilet.


What, you don't know how to use the three shells?

Enhance your calm, NP.

[bent rider]

Dean-o,

Us lawyers do our part for the USPS. As you may know, legal process can only be served by "certified USPS mail, delivery restricted to addressee, return receipt requested," or personally.

Just sayin'

So you're sayin' the USPS is putting process servers out of work?

[yermom]

i'm assuming that is the "or personally" part