The government run Post Office is going broke. Let's make more excuses as to why, while the government wants more money to run a health care system. Will the health care system go broke like the Post Office? Gee, let's look at Social Security. It's not broke. Oh, it is?
I found a link to the list of US Post Offices on the list of closures. I find this shocking in an ailing economy as what happens to the jobs that were once probably the most secure in the country? With the concern over the unemployment this doesn't seem to be a wise move. 700 post offices are slated to close with the threat of many more looming.
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This has been going on for quite awhile.
people use things like email, the internet, text messenging, and other means of communication.
Companies are cutting down on the amount of junk mail they are sending.
FrontPageMag
May 12, 2008
By Don Soifer
Remember the old Saturday Night Live skit about the First CitiWide “change bank” that does nothing but make change? Our customers ask us how we make a profit, quips the bank’s spokesman. “The answer is simple -- volume.”
As laughable as this dubious business plan sounds, it bears many similarities to the business plan the management of the U.S. Postal Service has been practicing for much of the past decade. And, as might be expected, the model isn’t doing much to help the Post Office -- which lost $5 billion last year -- cover its costs. This week, the Service raised the price of stamps again, in what is becoming an annual ritual.
First Class mail, the most lucrative category of mail, has seen its volume decline in recent years. The first quarter of 2008 saw nearly one billion fewer pieces of first class mail than the first quarter of 2007.
As a result, “Grow the Volume,” has been the adopted mantra of Post Office executives lately. While the volume of First Class letters has slipped into a downhill spiral, the agency’s leaders have targeted business mail in their strategies to increase volume. But, like the change bank plan, this strategy might be worth rethinking before it is too late.
As Postal Service Chairman Alan Kessler said in Congressional testimony last year, “Standard Mail, which contributes significantly less than First-Class mail to the Postal Service’s institutional costs, now comprises the majority of our volume.”
Alas, the letter-writers and greeting-card senders of the past have all but abandoned their craft for the convenience of cell phones, email, and instant messaging. The vast majority of the mail today, 85 percent, is sent by businesses. At the same time, two-thirds of all mail is sent to households.
Postal officials are quick to point out that business mail volume is heavily reliant on economic conditions. In an expansive economic climate, businesses are more likely to increase their mailings. This can be said of credit card offers, sale circulars, and the advertising mail that most people seem to love to hate. While email and economic conditions are not the only two factors causing mail volume to drop, they are certainly two of the biggest.
In the past, the Postal Service could count on raising the price of stamps and corporate mailings to meet its growing costs. But with mail volume in decline, raising the price of a stamp will only provide a temporary boost to revenue. In the long run, higher prices accelerate the drop in volume.
So the Postal Service has crafted its current strategy to “grow the mail,” using strategic discounts to business mailers designed to encourage increased volume. The problem, however, comes when the size of the discounts threatens the very profitability of the venture.
Postal Regulatory Commissioner Ruth Goldway wondered aloud in a 2007 ruling if a deal between the Postal Service and one of the nation’s largest banks “demonstrates that the Postal Service is not yet capable of negotiating a good bargain.”
If “growing the volume” won’t rescue the Postal Service, then it clearly must cut costs -- particularly its labor costs -- to remain solvent. As the nation’s second-largest employer, more than 80 cents of every dollar it spends goes toward labor.
But the Service’s four major labor unions have all grown accustomed to getting their way in collective bargaining talks. As a result, despite remarkable advancements (and major investments) in automated technology and equipment used to sort the mail, not to mention important new opportunities to consolidate or outsource its networks, achieving better productivity through lower labor costs remains a distant goal.
So, the Service has hitched its future to increased volume, with little concern to whether each transaction actually covers its own expenses. Has the Postal Service become the SNL Change Bank?
Don Soifer is executive director of the Consumer Postal Council in Arlington, Va
This has nothing to do with Obama being president or healthcare. If McCain or Hillary would have won the PO would be in the same situation.
Sometimes it's hard to adjust to the times and if there is little reason to, some won't.
Since Obama likes to cut salaries of executives, he should have started with the Post Office instead of businesses. Didn't the head of the P.O. get $800,000 last year...for a failing venture?
Obama is trying to get rid of programs that arent working and consolidating like the post offices.
After all, he's the President that has now given us our largest deficit in the history of our country.
Marilyn was saying how something about the PO head making $800,000 last year and this was supposed to be some kind of burn to the Obama supporters. Bush was pres last year.
This post has no logic (typical).
they can't even run a government under the rules of the land...
you know, the Constitution...but it is pretty long, so I doubt if many of them have read that either...
POTUS 44 is a Constitutional law Prof. and even John McCain admires his intellect as do his Harvard alum and prof's. Not to mention the millions of College grads and students who voted for POTUS 44, get over it. If not, get over yourself.
Randee and Carol be very careful when you speak of intellect--another topic foreign to you.
what is the difference in 2 points on an IQ test ? ? ?
or better yet, what is the best way to grade someone on intelligence The Pass/Fail System or The A-F Grading System ? ? ?
I can see by your comment, you must of course go after the jugular instead of being intellectual....
Important:
LET US SHOW OUR LEADERS IN WASHINGTON "PEOPLE POWER" AND THE POWER OF THE INTERNET. LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE WITH ME ON THIS BY FORWARDING TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK.
IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT!
PLEASE KEEP THIS GOING!!!!
Propose this in 2009:
START A BILL TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOCIAL SECURITY
----------------------------------
SOCIAL SECURITY:
(This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.)
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.
Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.
You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their ownbenefit plan.
In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan.
For all practical purposes their plan works like this:
When they retire, they continue to draw the SAME PAY until they die.
Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments.
For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7, 800,000.0020(that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275, 000.00 during the last years of their lives.
This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.
Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.
Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA..! ZILCH...
This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;
"OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK "!
From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into,every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer).. We can expect to get an average of
$1,000 per month!!!
After retirement.
Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits!
Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.
That change would be to:
Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us
Then sit back.....
And see how fast they fix it.
If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve.
How many people CAN you send this to?
Better yet......
How many people WILL you send this to?
Honestly this has been going around in some way shape or form since 2000.
But, there is the issue of business structure- It needs to change for the USPS. Who is responsible for that?
USPS was once the largest source of long distance communication for the average Joe. But average Joe no longer needs the post office for long distance communication other than to mail out the occasional birthday gift, wedding gift, whatever.
So what else is there? As far as technology has come along, no one has yet figured out how to get packages out to a business or the average Joe other than to ship it.
USPS is pretty OK for shipping smaller packages (price wise) but when you start looking at larger packages or heavier packages (more than a couple of pounds), you're nuts to go with USPS.
There is the competition. Shipping. The USPS could compete... They could restructure. Instead of trying, well... we're getting locations shut down and a day of service taken away. Might as well just hand over the shipping service to UPS, DHL and the likes.
Old news here, been talked about for a couple yrs now, if not longer since most people use online or call in payings.
The downfall of UPS as #1 is dubious as the drivers lack the company’s standards of customer service. Many drivers want businesses to unload the truck and they are rude when delivering to private homes. These guys earn $1,000 per week take home and cannot spare a respectful word to UPS customers. That is how things are manifesting here what is happening on the ground where you are?
"Under Consideration" does not mean they are going to be closed. And if they were, it looks like most of the post office stations/branches are in cities that have multiple post offices.
I think the government could stand to do a little consolidating.
Now I truly understand your stupidity.
So are you in favor of getting rid of all government, at every level, since you believe that it doesn't work?
Thomas Paine
You have to have SOME government, but the less the better. I prefer the kind of government laid down in our Constitution; sadly, we haven't had that kind of government for 75+ years.