Archive

Mail, Bail-out and Union = Government Failure

  • Manhattan Buckeye
    "But you could cut down on costs significantly eliminating delivery and transport."

    A good way of accomplishing this is Monday, Wednesday, Friday delivery, and half day office operations on Tuesday and Thursday. Aside from bills and official correspondence (the majority in these categories are handled on-line), nothing is delivered than junk mail and J Crew catalogs. If someone wants to use overnight service, the overnight service can be available. But the daily delivery the "mail" has gone the way of the dodo, or the "milkman."
  • IggyPride00
    Manhattan Buckeye;1165843 wrote:"But you could cut down on costs significantly eliminating delivery and transport."

    A good way of accomplishing this is Monday, Wednesday, Friday delivery, and half day office operations on Tuesday and Thursday. Aside from bills and official correspondence (the majority in these categories are handled on-line), nothing is delivered than junk mail and J Crew catalogs. If someone wants to use overnight service, the overnight service can be available. But the daily delivery the "mail" has gone the way of the dodo, or the "milkman."
    Saturday delivery isn't going anywhere no matter how much the post office wants it to. For many people with 8-5 jobs daily, it is the only day they can get to the post office if they have things they need to do there. For many people with no flexibility at work as far as coming or going, it is a real concern.
  • Manhattan Buckeye
    IggyPride00;1165845 wrote:Saturday delivery isn't going anywhere no matter how much the post office wants it to. For many people with 8-5 jobs daily, it is the only day they can get to the post office if they have things they need to do there. For many people with no flexibility at work as far as coming or going, it is a real concern.
    Then deal with it. Take time off. We shouldn't reward inefficient behavior with more inefficient behavior. The post office is a dying brand. Why are we subsidizing a dying industry? Perhaps the government should have propped up buggy whip sales.
  • believer
    Manhattan Buckeye;1165877 wrote:Why are we subsidizing a dying industry?
    When unions need gubmint bailout's, inefficiencies matter not.
  • stlouiedipalma
    In my view, cutting USPS hours, services or areas of delivery are tantamount to privatizing it anyway, as private companies will happily rush in to pick up the slack, at a price. They may say that they can offer all this for less, but once they have it they can charge whatever the market will bear. It's kinda tough to get the toothpaste back into the tube.

    This fits in with some conservatives who want to drastically reduce or completely eliminate some government agencies or services. Well, when Romney wins the White House and the R's take over the Senate this fall we will all get a chance to experience the austerity measures first-hand. After all, it's what you all want, isn't it?
  • WebFire
    IggyPride00;1165845 wrote:Saturday delivery isn't going anywhere no matter how much the post office wants it to. For many people with 8-5 jobs daily, it is the only day they can get to the post office if they have things they need to do there. For many people with no flexibility at work as far as coming or going, it is a real concern.
    What does Saturday delivery have to do with going to the post office?
  • Abe Vigoda
    2kool4skool;1165839 wrote:I can't understand what you're trying to say or what point you're trying to get across. I'm not using this as a way to "burn" you or whatever, but there's just no way this is the most coherent you can make your writing.
    First time i ever heard Belly35 and coherent used in the same post;)
  • gut
    stlouiedipalma;1165949 wrote: This fits in with some conservatives who want to drastically reduce or completely eliminate some government agencies or services. Well, when Romney wins the White House and the R's take over the Senate this fall we will all get a chance to experience the austerity measures first-hand. After all, it's what you all want, isn't it?
    As a taxpayer, why should I be forced to subsidize YOUR CHOICE to live in the boonies and rely on snail-mail?
  • queencitybuckeye
    gut;1166048 wrote:As a taxpayer, why should I be forced to subsidize YOUR CHOICE to live in the boonies and rely on snail-mail?
    As one who lives in the boonies by choice, paying the cost of doing so should be my responsibility, I would think.
  • jmog
    IggyPride00;1165845 wrote:Saturday delivery isn't going anywhere no matter how much the post office wants it to. For many people with 8-5 jobs daily, it is the only day they can get to the post office if they have things they need to do there. For many people with no flexibility at work as far as coming or going, it is a real concern.
    Fine, have the Post Office open for half a day Saturday but don't actually deliver on Saturday.

    Your problem was just solved with 5 seconds of thought.
  • FatHobbit
    jmog;1166066 wrote:Fine, have the Post Office open for half a day Saturday but don't actually deliver on Saturday.

    Your problem was just solved with 5 seconds of thought.
    or close it on Monday instead of Saturday
  • believer
    jmog;1166066 wrote:Fine, have the Post Office open for half a day Saturday but don't actually deliver on Saturday.

    Your problem was just solved with 5 seconds of thought.
    Naw...that makes sense. We're talking government decision-making here.
  • isadore
    "Republicans love to contrast the supposedly fair and efficient ways of the private sector with the allegedly bloated, hapless ways of government. That claim’s dubious merits aside (just compare Medicare and private health insurance), it’s not the advice they’ve applied to USPS.
    Instead, in their last month in the majority in 2006, House and Senate Republicans passed a “postal reform” law requiring USPS, over a decade, to pre-fund its health benefits for the next 75 years.
    The Republican-imposed pre-funding requirement, which postal unions never asked for, has proven to be less a booster shot than a kiss of death. No health plan, public or private, operates under such an extreme mandate – and no government or business program is required to be fully funded 75 years ahead of time in order to be considered solvent. Republican demands to lay off 100,000 workers now so that pensions are funded for 75 years is just as cruel a joke as insisting on throwing millions of Americans off of Social Security now to improve its financial outlook for 2086."
    http://www.alternet.org/story/152451/3_big_lies_at_the_heart_of_republican_attacks_on_the_post_office/?page=entire
  • Belly35
    Once again Democrat Bailout ..... and no business plan for profitablity, no agenda to transforming a losing sitaution in to a positive operation. Throw our tax payer money at it and hope the hell it stick until they are out of office..
  • isadore
    Republicans dish out all this business crap but put an obligation on the Post Office that no business has. An obligation that drags them down.
  • believer
    isadore;1166315 wrote:An obligation that drags them down.
    There are actually 2 "obligations" dragging down the USPS....Congress and the myriad of postal workers unions.
  • said_aouita
    Gblock;1164928 wrote:99percent of the mail i get is junk mail.
    When you order your bulk quantity of Extenze online, who do you use for delivery?

    USPS needs to cut into the UPS and FedEx package delivery business. No $$ on just pushing envelopes for USPS.
  • Belly35
    Business mail Tuesday and Thurday
    Residential mail Monday and Wednesday
    Firday Post office open till 8:00 and or Rural areas closed on Friday open Saturday 8:00 to 1:00
    Junk mail delivery only on one day a week .. not really a good idea but I would like it that way :D
  • Glory Days
    2kool4skool;1165480 wrote:If you still regularly use paper mail, you're an idiot. Cut the cord and make old people/dumb people adapt.
    I am 28 and i pay all my credit card bills(4) through the mail. however i pay my utilities through automatic debit or whatever.
  • Glory Days
    gut;1166048 wrote:As a taxpayer, why should I be forced to subsidize YOUR CHOICE to live in the boonies and rely on snail-mail?
    thats just dumb. why should someone living in the city be able to tell someone who lives in the boonies how to live their life?

    As a taxpayer, why should it matter where i live in the united states, we should all get the same service.
  • Glory Days
    Belly35;1164903 wrote: Bail-out USPS no way….. Cut should be made and a business plan is provide to make the USPS a profitable operation …
    should the military be profitable too?
    police?
    fire?
    parks?
    libraries?

    and ok, cut USPS and let the private sector take over. who is going to provide oversight?
  • Belly35
    Glory Days;1166525 wrote:should the military be profitable too?
    police?
    fire?
    parks?
    libraries?


    and ok, cut USPS and let the private sector take over. who is going to provide oversight?
    They don't have stamps :D
  • WebFire
    Glory Days;1166525 wrote:should the military be profitable too?
    police?
    fire?
    parks?
    libraries?

    and ok, cut USPS and let the private sector take over. who is going to provide oversight?
    If you want to compare USPS to those, then all of their services need to be free.
  • WebFire
    In related news, people only want cuts if it doesn't affect them, as proven in this article. The USPS needs to cut back, yet towns of 80 people fight to keep their post office open. :rolleyes:

    http://thecourier.com/Issues/2012/May/10/ar_news_051012_story2.asp?d=051012_story2,2012,May,10&c=n
    Bending to strong public opposition, the nearly bankrupt U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday backed off a plan to close thousands of rural post offices after May 15 and proposed keeping them open, but with shorter operating hours.
    "I could live with this plan, and I think the majority of people could," said June Nygren, who runs the Jersey Lilly Saloon & Eatery in the tiny Montana town of Ingomar. Donahoe visited the rural town of about 80 people last month, which welcomed him with a spread of home-made baked goods and a packed school gymnasium as people pleaded for their post office to stay open.
  • gut
    Glory Days;1166523 wrote:thats just dumb. why should someone living in the city be able to tell someone who lives in the boonies how to live their life?

    As a taxpayer, why should it matter where i live in the united states, we should all get the same service.
    That's ridiculous. Life is about trade-offs. If you choose to live out in the boonies, then the trade-off is it's going to be more inconvenient to get your mail. Or you can just do everything online. The taxpayer has every right to say we can't afford service to your area and we are not going to serve you, just as you have every right to still make the choice to live there.

    This is nothing new. This is why rural areas have had septic tanks for years and years because sewer systems were unfeasible or cost prohibitive. Same difference.