Post Office in Crisis

[WheelofSaṃsāra]

Cross-posted from Spacebattles:
"So the current pandemic has been hitting everyone. Some have weathered it better than others. One service that is not doing so well is the post office, which has informed congress that, without aid from the federal government, it will run out of money by September if things do not improve. (So it's going to run out of money by September. No one who actually knows anything about what's going on expects the virus to relent before 2021.) The Postal Service is usually self-sufficient, funding itself through the various services they provide. Those services are seeing greatly reduced demand right now, leading to the current crisis.

The Democrats have attempted to get funding for the Postal Service into the next stimulus bill.

Trump has promised to veto the bill if it contains any funding for the Postal Service.

Now, as far as I can tell, no one wants the Postal Service to go away, with one exception: GOP politicians. They've been pushing for privatization of the postal service for years, for reasons I cannot fathom. (I kinda doubt a privatized postal service is even possible at this point. The current model basically already is a business and it's been in decline for almost two decades at this point despite having all the advantages of being a government-sponsored monopoly.)

Trump, meanwhile, seems to want the Postal Service to fail in order to punish Amazon. Yes, you read that correctly. Trump wants to burn an entire essential government service to the ground just for the sake of a petty grudge. It would be horrifying if it also wasn't exactly what we've come to expect from Trump.

I'm... not sure what else to say here, actually. Trump tries to burn the country to the ground, news at eleven? Whatever. Here's the article: The debate over a post office bailout, explained"

 

[Lanmandragon]

How much do they need to stay solvent?

 

[LordsFire]

I don't want government-backed monopolies on any business sector, unless you count 'national defense' as a business sector.

Monopolies more or less inevitably become inefficient, wasteful, and overly-expensive. Getting rid of one to have the free market take over is perfectly fine by me, as a matter of principle.

 

[Isem]

Unless something has changed in the 4 years since this came out I would hesitate to refer to the American post office as "basically a business". Businesses aren't forced to keep offices around that are incapable of paying for the salary of the single person manning it, forced to keep multiple superfluous offices open within a few miles of each other, aren't forced to wait for people to retire in order to cut down on workforce nor are they beholden to politicians (notorious for vetoing anything that would impact their popularity) in order to effect changes. This one wasn't in the video but it bears mentioning, businesses aren't stuck functionally subsidising goods and mail from China because they used to be a developing nation once.



Frankly I'm surprised it was self-sufficient because everything indicates that if said self sufficiency existed it was in spite of it's best efforts to burn your money.

 

[FriedCFour]

Now, as far as I can tell, no one wants the Postal Service to go away, with one exception: GOP politicians. They've been pushing for privatization of the postal service for years, for reasons I cannot fathom. (I kinda doubt a privatized postal service is even possible at this point. The current model basically already is a business and it's been in decline for almost two decades at this point despite having all the advantages of being a government-sponsored monopoly.)

No one wants this, except the politicians who are elected to represent the views and interests by half the country. Lol, who is this?

 

[Husky_Khan]

Most reforms will be negligible when 80% or something of the USPS expenses are tied up in wages and benefits for its work force, and has a fund to support it's workforces benefits for up to 75 years into the future thanks to a Congressional Law passed back in 2006. But even without that, they contribute less to their benefits then other federal workers IIRC.

The best solution, first step... would be to repeal that prefunding mandate (it was passed to support the USPS privatizing and that's never going to happen so no need to bother anyways) so you can use that surplus more effective and not have that huge financial liability hovering over their head and reform their retirement plan so it can be invested in more then just treasury securities and actually have them invested in the spooky scary retirement plans of their own choice! That at least will mitigate the labor costs and still provide the postal workers job and retirement security without going full asinine.

 

[Abhorsen]

Now, as far as I can tell, no one wants the Postal Service to go away, with one exception: GOP politicians. They've been pushing for privatization of the postal service for years, for reasons I cannot fathom. (I kinda doubt a privatized postal service is even possible at this point. The current model basically already is a business and it's been in decline for almost two decades at this point despite having all the advantages of being a government-sponsored monopoly.)

Totally in favor of a privatized post office. Have you heard of FedEx? How about UPS? So yeah, totally fine with it privitizing. And if it dies, it dies, and I don't care. Amazon is getting into the package delivery service, and letters have been covered by emails for years. Ultimately, I see little good reason to spend my money financing this.

 

[Husky_Khan]

So the Post Office has come up again in recent news...

U.S. Postal Service watchdog to probe service woes as worries rise about mail ballots | One America News Network

Breaking News, Latest News and Current News from OANN.com. Breaking news and video. Latest Current News: U.S., World, Entertainment, Health, Business, Technology, Politics, Sports.

www.oann.com

This time in regards to the USPS allegedly needing more funding to service the expected rise in mail in voting this Fall.

Also in response to viral social media tweets, both the privately owned United Parcel Service (UPS) and FedEx have stated they are prohibited due to regulations and law from handling ballots like the USPS is able to.

UPS, FedEx warn they cannot carry ballots like US Postal Service

Various laws and regulations for the most part prohibit private delivery companies from handling mail-in and absentee ballots

www.foxbusiness.com

 

[Flintsteel]

I don't want government-backed monopolies on any business sector, unless you count 'national defense' as a business sector.

Monopolies more or less inevitably become inefficient, wasteful, and overly-expensive. Getting rid of one to have the free market take over is perfectly fine by me, as a matter of principle.

Abolishing/privatizing the Post Office should never happen - it's quite literally Constitutionally Mandated (Article 1, Section 7, specifically).

Frankly, the Post Office would be doing a lot better if Congress wasn't using them for funny accounting. That's like 90% of their woes right there, what with literally having to fund retirement for workers they haven't even hired yet. And on top of that, only being allowed to invest in something other than Treasury Bonds, which while stable, aren't exactly high-yield (and assist in the afore-mentioned funny accounting).

 

[Husky_Khan]

The mailman from Cheers has an idea.

'Cheers' mailman John Ratzenberger reveals his idea to help save the US Postal Service

“Cheers” star John Ratzenberger, who played mailman Cliff Clavin on the sitcom, has a simple idea for saving the U.S. Postal Service.

www.foxnews.com

And so does AOC!

AOC's idea to save USPS: 'Progressive pen pal program'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., proposed a new idea for pumping money into the U.S. Postal Service by encouraging people to purchase more stamps.

www.foxnews.com

I approve of both solutions if they utilize 25 billion worth of private funding to finance the Post Office then public funding. Maybe this Progressive PenPal program can replace their discourse on social media!

 

[f1onagher]

I have an idea. End the lavish benefits the PO gives to its employees. That's where all the overhead is coming from, Union bribes. That the PO is continuing to run out of money is something that needs fixing and the solution is not to continually bail them out. If the internet scrambled your old methodology then evolve! Everyone else has to do this, so can the PO. As for all the accusations about Trump sabotaging the Post Office for the election, he can't. The PO still has sufficient liquid funds to last until the fall of 2021. They'll be operating fine in November no matter what happens.

Though the Postmaster General admitted that the Post Office is too slow to provide mail-in ballots for the whole country.

 

[Rocinante]

Reform the post office to make it more efficient. It's being ran terribly and it needs fixed. Throwing more money at it is not the solution. They need to restructure.

That said, privatizing is a no go. The post office isn't a business and isn't supposed to be a business. It isn't run like a business and it shouldn't be run like a business. The post office operates at a loss to provide services. You cut this, and some people just don't get mail service, or only get very expensive nail service. The post office is the answer to that problem.

It allows messages, goods and services, to reach anywhere in the country for a reasonable and flat price. it's a service, not a business. Yes. That costs tax dollars. The benefits it provides should outweigh those dollars. It just needs some reform right now.

It's a vitally essential service. Yes, FedEx, Amazon, UPS are FAR more efficient and faster as far as delivery goes. They're also orders of magnitudes more expensive.

The postal service isn't supposed to run on a profit. It's supposed to enable the economy to work better and reach more people, and it has, and does.

It's also not even close.to equipped to handle mass mail in voting and I don't think there's time to adjust by the election. Mail in voting is a mistake and will cause our whole election to be a fraud. Regardless of who wins. It'll be about who cheated the system better.

 

[Sir 1000]

Im actually a bit worried about this, i don't think many republicans have thought this through. How long before the ''private companies'' are black mailed or arm twisted to not deliver mail and packages for wrong thinkers? Maybe if this was coupled with some strong legislation preventing any political discrimination i would be more supportive. But as is this would be another strategic blunder like tiktok i feel.

 

[Nagaasha]

Abolishing/privatizing the Post Office should never happen - it's quite literally Constitutionally Mandated (Article 1, Section 7, specifically).

That's not what that clause says. It gives Congress the power to operate a post office, it does not require them to do so. You and Al Franken need to brush up on reading comprehension.

 

[PsihoKekec]