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2009-11-23 Home Front: Politix

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Posted by Fred 2009-11-23 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ] Top

#1 Lest we fergit, VARIOUS > PERTS = the INTERNET is suppos to run out of EMAIL ADDRESSES + BYTESPACE come 2010, or shortly thereafter. POTUS BAMMER needs to bailout the NET???

[Conpiracy Theory of theOWG-NWO GOVT = USPS taking over the WWW-NET here].

Posted by JosephMendiola">JosephMendiola 2009-11-23 00:50|| na]">[na] 2009-11-23 00:50|| Front Page Top

#2 Come on people...think outside the box will you. Why can't those neighborhood postal trucks carry passengers like a taxi? Deliver milk, Schwans Ice Cream, peanuts. We could also pass the around wealth ~~penalize the successful businesses~~ by charging FedEx and UPS a tax to help support the ailing Postal Service.

Lastly, veteran hiring preferences and old white men are the real problem with the postal system. Get RID of them and institute diversity before it's too late! Flex-hours, work from home, free breakfast and lunch and in-house day care would also be a plus.

Posted by Besoeker 2009-11-23 02:07|| 2009-11-23 02:07|| Front Page Top

#3 It baffles me that companies ACTUALLY GET A DISCOUNT when sending junk mail. WTF? Who came up with this idea? It makes up how much percent of the post office's total volume?

I can't remember the last time I got a first-class letter. Actually, it was back before my Grandma passed away.

Posted by gromky 2009-11-23 04:25|| ]">[ ] 2009-11-23 04:25|| Front Page Top

#4 Cutting Saturday delivery wouldn't cut costs much - work rules would probably require paying the people anyway.
One big difference in business models relative to UPS & Fedex is USPS is required to deliver First Class at one price anywhere in the country: originally the idea was to lace the nation together that way, but with fewer and fewer rural residents the rural unit cost is way up, and being subsidized by lower urban unit costs.
Oh, and Fred, just cuz the elite have 2 3 numbers after the decimal point does not mean they have four-digit IQs.

Posted by Glenmore 2009-11-23 07:57|| 2009-11-23 07:57|| Front Page Top

#5 Therefore, the Postal Service, being in the same line of work as Fedex and UPS,

But not the routes. The USPS is mandated to deliver to places that are not economically feasible for commercial business at prices that are not sustainable. If personal letter mail were charged for the distance traveled like packages, then the cost of letter across town wouldn't be the same as a letter sent to the nether regions of Alaska, the bottom of the Grand Canyon, or to Joe in Guam. Mail sent by the troops from designated War Zones goes without postage by law. The commercial carriers are likewise not covered to enforce laws governing fraud and criminal activity associated with their trade, but the USPS is. This does not absolve upper management for incompetence and malfeasance in operating the USPS, but it is also not valid to believe there is a pure direct comparison to several of the commercial operations.

Posted by Procopius2k 2009-11-23 08:28|| 2009-11-23 08:28|| Front Page Top

#6 Auction it off.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2009-11-23 08:28|| 2009-11-23 08:28|| Front Page Top

#7 Junk mail gets a discount because the companies that mail it do a lot of the work. It's all pre-sorted, pre-indexed and delivered to the USPS ready to, um, deliver. Plus, these companies are BIG: they put out a lot of mail, and so they get a volume discount as well.

So they get the discount that you and I, just paying the electric bill, don't get.

Posted by Steve White 2009-11-23 09:32|| 2009-11-23 09:32|| Front Page Top

#8 There is little incentive for the USPS to do better. Congress is in a tax and spend and bailout mentality.

Fred and others have a lot of good ideas. It seems like the PC could be used to get mail and packages ready to mail. Perhaps they could then be scanned into the system either at the point of pickup or the post office. This would eliminate long waits in line. The P.O. often ends up standing for "pi$$ed off" rather than post office. An attitude of tolerance and condecension is often projected in these long lines. P.O. ought to concentrate on providing service at the counter.

Posted by JohnQC 2009-11-23 10:15|| 2009-11-23 10:15|| Front Page Top

#9 all anybody gets is bills and junk mail.

Bills, junk mail and Netflix.

Posted by SteveS 2009-11-23 10:53|| 2009-11-23 10:53|| Front Page Top

#10 The only "Letters" I ever send, are paying bills, they are NOT getting into my bank account(Electronic bill paying)
I pay when I have money, NOT the second they demand.

By getting bills by mail they allow a week (Or so) Grace time.
Electronicly they Get it that second, whether or not the cash is in the account, say I get paid tomorow, they MUST wait a day, instead of hitting me with overdraft fees, that small flexibility is worth a stamp and envelope.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2009-11-23 12:30|| 2009-11-23 12:30|| Front Page Top

#11 -- I still insist on getting my bills and financial statements on paper on a regular basis. When things get screwed up (and they do, on a regular basis) it is essential to have paper copies to fall back on, for legal purposes. DO NOT LET YOUR CREDIT CARD BILLS BE MADE SOLELY ONLINE. If you want to take issue with a bill you don't agree with, phone calls & email have limited utility. Written & printed material delivered on-site has a different impact, e.g. does your heart skip a beat when you get an email from the IRS, as opposed to a letter from same?
-- The USPS has many unfunded mandates forced on it by Congress that competitors don't have. Believe it or not, there was a time when a the equivalent of a first class stamp cost a day's wages. The price of 5 first class letters was the price of an acre of land!
-- The obligation to pre-pay health benefits for future unionized USPS retirees is utter nonsense, one of those unfunded mandates.
-- USPS's defined benefit plans for future retirees are also nonsense. IMHO defined benefit plans are not economically viable. Once the electorate figures this out, there will be a crisis at many governmental levels. Increasingly poorer voters will rebel at paying huge pension bills for retired government workers.
--- It's high time for Congress to take up a key role it has abdicated & review the current setup (i.e., "reform") the USPS. Re-do the whole thing with an eye towards future viability. IIRC Congress has been wasting its time for months planning another massive unfunded mandate call health care "reform."

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-11-23 12:31|| 2009-11-23 12:31|| Front Page Top

#12 from Argus Hamilton:
"Until it's legal to send pr0ngraphy through the mail, the Postal Service will never be able to compete with the Internet."

Posted by Glenmore 2009-11-23 13:10|| 2009-11-23 13:10|| Front Page Top

#13 Compared to what I've seen and used abroad, the US Postal Service is fabulous: friendly, helpful and very cheap. Over there I waited longer to be grunted at and told I was in the wrong line, got to the front of the new line only to find the same clerk as before -- now able to help me without any apology for her unwillingness to step over there and fetch the little form back for me to fill out and take back to the first line. This was in a village post office that had two clerks and half a dozen people waiting their turn in three lines. In the post office here, when I get to the front of the line without the proper form the clerk will fetch it for me, have me fill it out while he takes care of the next customer or two, then as soon as I'm ready slide me in before calling the next person -- all with a ready smile and a bit of real conversation. I've had American postal workers re-wrap packages for me, advise me how I should mail things from among the choices, and commiserate over a bad cold, even in the days before Christmas when the lines never end.

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2009-11-23 15:18|| 2009-11-23 15:18|| Front Page Top

#14 "The only "Letters" I ever send, are paying bills, they are NOT getting into my bank account(Electronic bill paying)."

Me too, RJ - though I do pay bills through my bank's website instead of mailing them whenever I can. Nothing automatic - I have to put it in each month. Works great for credit cards, phone company, even the county for water. Still have to send a check to my oil company; the bank just couldn't get it straight (luckily the oil company was nice about waiting when I explained what was going on).

It's not so much about saving the stamp; it's just more convenient for me. And there's a record in case there's ever any question.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2009-11-23 18:06|| 2009-11-23 18:06|| Front Page Top

#15 Left one out, Fred:

* Make every government agency, the executive, legislature and the judiciary use USPS for mailing, whether overnight or packages.

Posted by Pappy 2009-11-23 21:27|| 2009-11-23 21:27|| Front Page Top

#16 After falling victim to e-bill paying, i spend the money for stamps and mail my bills.
Saturday deliveries to houses can stop, as can those commemrative stamps that the USPS insists on putting out. why support some out of work ar-teest to create something that don't work no better than the regular model, just for a few to collect. and then when it gets printed wrong, these same collectors go crazy for it (thinking upside down jennie stamp)
junk mail subsidizes the regular first class stuff.

finally, if the USPS shuts down, where will they hang the pictures of America's most wanted?? Wal-Mart? hell the perps probably are the greeters there......

Posted by USN, Ret. 2009-11-23 23:49|| 2009-11-23 23:49|| Front Page Top

23:52 USN, Ret.
23:49 USN, Ret.
23:25 USN, Ret.
23:04 3dc
22:47 AzCat
22:44 Procopius2k
22:06 49 Pan
21:58 DMFD
21:54 DMFD
21:47 Procopius2k
21:46 trailing wife
21:46 DMFD
21:43 abu do you love
21:43 DMFD
21:27 Pappy
21:19 trailing wife
21:19 trailing wife
21:17 trailing wife
21:00 Frank G
21:00 Besoeker
20:51 M. Murcek
20:45 chris
20:18 Mike N.
20:17 Barbara Skolaut