Save the Post Office

[jon_norstog]

Benjamin Franklin was Postmaster General under the Continental Congress and was the Founder who most clearly saw the need for a national post office. Through war and peace we have had fairly reliable mail and parcel service. Even today, when so much is being done on-line we need it.

I like being able to send a letter or card to a grandchild, a friend, a family member. The kids love getting something int he mail! I like being able to send a check and create a paper record of my payments and transactions.

I also like mail for another reason. It is slow but it is relatively secure. All out electronic communications are on plain view to government and non-government actors. Artificial intelligence can read them all in real time, and pass anything of interest on to human agents. Letters can be steamed open and read, but it would take an army of snoops to do what is being done with internet traffic by a few supercomputers with AI. I don't have anything I want to hide, at least not at this stage in my life, but I like my privacy and US Mail is as good as it gets.

Looks like USPS is going to run out of funding in a few weeks. The Administration has threatened to veto any bailout bill that funds USPS. My guess is its a move to have a privateer swoop in and pick it up cheap. Well, have you checked what it costs to send a letter by UPS or FedEx? Educate yourselves if you care, and send a letter to your Representative and both Senators.

End of speech.

jn

[S.A. Boggs]

According to the Constitution the government will have to fund it in some way.
Sam

[Gun Smoke]

Save the PO. Get rid of the UN, foreign aid, welfare, obamacare, WHO, and countless, worthless pork barrel bottomless pits.

[lyman]

I ship a pile of stuff weekly thru the USPS,

overall they do a good job, I have had very few problems,

[togor]

Why leave it to twist in the first place? Because of absentee ballots?

[jon_norstog]

Why leave it to twist in the first place? Because of absentee ballots?

I think that is just gravy for them. The real prize is the same as public lands or public water supply: take something out of the commonwealth and convert it to a profit center.

jn

[togor]

I think that is just gravy for them. The real prize is the same as public lands or public water supply: take something out of the commonwealth and convert it to a profit center.

jn

The post office subsidizes rural service with their flat rate products.

A few years ago I was selling nice collector cartons of WW2 AP M2 through the CMP's web site. I found $15 could get two cartons shipped to just about any zip code via UPS. So I sold them with shipping included. Then a guy in E. Kentucky bought some and UPS told me $25. $25? Looked his address up on Google Maps and saw why.

[lyman]

^It's all about how close you are to a shipping hub,,

near one,, cheaper postage,
farther away or in the sticks,, gonna cost you


works that way for all of the shippers,



USPS is a strange animal,

they partner with FedEx for Priority, UPS for smartpost,

and offer lots of discounts thru vendors, (I use XPS Shipper, with a few percent discount for using them)
stamps.com , endicia, pittney bowes etc offer business discounts as well


a postmaster actually called me and set up an appt to set me up with XPS, I was using Click n Ship before,

lots of bargains for some out there, depending on volume of course,


and that is how UPS and Fedex work as well, corporate discounts for big contracts,

[barretcreek]

My understanding is the USPS doesn't have a funded pension system, pensions are paid out of revenue. Oops, we didn't anticipate email. It's going to be a tough slog.

[Art]

My understanding is the USPS doesn't have a funded pension system, pensions are paid out of revenue. Oops, we didn't anticipate email. It's going to be a tough slog.

I just checked on this. Postal workers are covered under the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) just like other civil service employees. The FERS system is much less expensive to the 'gubmint than the old CSRS system and even more cost efficient than military retirement. A couple of years ago the DoD scrapped the old military retirement system and replaced it with a FERS clone. Our son, being vested in the old military retirement system, wisely opted out of the new system and stayed with traditional military retirement.

[SloopJohnB]

amen!

[clintonhater]

Save the PO. Get rid of the UN, foreign aid, welfare, obamacare, WHO, and countless, worthless pork barrel bottomless pits.

Yes, of course! But the chief enemies in Congress of fully supporting USPS have for many yrs been Repub "free-enterprise" fanatics who'd like to see mail delivery totally privatized--turned over to UPS & FedEx, in other words. Mail delivery in every other civilized country is & has always been regarded as a basic public service--like police & fire protection; should they, too, have to be self-supporting?

All the small, rural, one-room, POs around here have already been forced to half-day operation--that or be shut-down entirely! Those of you who live in cities (ugh!) cannot begin to appreciate the importance of "their" PO to country folk--they function (even with reduced hours) as the community centers of villages too small to have any other.

[dryheat]

Very well put as usual. It's part of what makes America and any other country Great. Maybe it's not efficient, but it's nice anyway. Missed you.

[S.A. Boggs]

In our little village the general store is that along with being the P.O., restaurant and many other things. The mail itself is delivered from the P.O. @ the county seat.
Sam

[Vern Humphrey]

Ettene Bergeron, he get out of dem Army. He say to his daddy, "I got to get me a job, me."

His daddy say, "Try dem Post Office. Dey be hirin' dere."

Ettene, he go to dat Post Office. He fill out all dem papers. Dey ax him all dem questions. "You got any allergies, you?"

"Me, I'm allergic to caffeine, dat's it."

"You been in de Service?"

"I'm just get out of dem Army."

"Dat's good! You get five points just for dat!"

Den they ax him, "You got any disabilities, you?"

"When I'm in Afghanistan, I get blowed up by dem IED and los' bot' my testicles."

"You don't got to say no mo'! You got so many points, I hire you right now. De job is from 8 to 5. You come in at 10 every day."

"If de job is from 8 to 5, how come I don't got to be here until 10?"

"Dis is de Post Office. For the first two hours, we stan' aroun', drink coffee an' scratch our unmentionables. You don' got to be here for dat, no!"