Much of the coverage about the U.S. Postal Service tells us that it is losing money hand over fist. But one of the questions journalists are supposed to ask–why?–is rarely posed.
A letter to the editor in today’s USA Today tries to fill in that gap:
Letter: Congressional mandate behind Postal Service woes
Your article “Anything Good in the Mail?” is misleading about the reasons for the U.S. Postal Service’s financial problems. It focuses on competition from the Internet, conventional wisdom that doesn’t withstand scrutiny (“Bell Tolls for the U.S. Mail, as We Know It“).
Almost 90 percent of the red ink stems directly from a 2006 congressional mandate that the Postal Service pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years and do so within a decade. This burden, borne by no other public agency or private firm, costs the Postal Service $5.5 billion annually. Also contributing is the worst economy in 80 years; mail volume always dips during a recession. The Internet, meanwhile, is a mixed bag; it presents challenges with people paying bills online, but also offers opportunities to deliver goods ordered online.
These points are reflected in the Postal Service’s financial performance for the first quarter of fiscal year 2012. CFO Joseph Corbett announced February 9 a $200 million net operational profit delivering the mail, a strong performance he attributed largely to a 7 percent rise in shipping goods ordered online.
Overall, however, he reported $3.3 billion in red ink, with $3.1 billion of that from the pre-funding fiasco. This artificial crisis, unrelated to the mail, is the elephant in the room that needs to be addressed.
Fredric Rolando, president
National Association of Letter Carriers
Washington D.C.
So my question is, Who intends to privatize the Postal System in 2016 when it’s retirement benefits are fully prefunded? That’s a huge cash reserve available to a leveraged buy out group. Maybe something Mitt Romney’d be interested in …..
You’d think USA Today and the rest of the corpress would know something about mailing it in, wouldn’t you?
Babbling about Post Office “problems” are a favorite of the right and its half-witted followers, has been for decades. Trouble is, the latter are a sizable chunk of the U.S. population. I don’t know how many times I have overheard morons complaining about service. Then when I asked them for examples, they became speechless. They don’t change their minds, though, and as soon as they thought I was out of earshot, they resumed their complaining. Not much hope of a bright future for a country that dumb.
Another useless statistic that gets thrown around is how much higher of a PERCENTAGE the USPS’s labor costs (relative to the total operating costs) are compared to the other two major parcel companies. Said companies both own their own fleet of planes!! I’m no expert on jet fuel prices or plane maintenance but I would imagine it doesn’t come cheap. To state the numbers that way without mentioning the differences between the companies is… Well, I won’t say… You decide.
Another theft engineered by wall street. Plain and simple The efficient communication over a postal system is necessary for any democracy. Perhaps that is the point.
This is so similar to the “Social Security is going broke!” scare that the right-wing has (unfortunately) also been successful at scamming the US public with, even though the SSI program is ‘in the black’ by TRILLIONS of dollars (see the numerous articles by Dean Baker). Or the ‘Obama [or any other Democratic POTUS] is underfunding the US military’, etc, etc.. These are things that aren’t even really in a grey/debatable region IF you have HONEST debates about them, but (as HReading alludes to above) that isn’t what’s happening here. The right has been too politically successful working these gambits, such that now they have virtually become ‘conventional wisdom’, especially to the marginally aware/interested voter, so it’s easy pickin’s for the right. About the only thing I see possibly changing this is another severe recession/depression – – – and that’s always a strong possibility with the conservative/Libertarian economic stances.
A healthcare mandate killed the post office? Huh. Go figure!
The post office is outdated and antiquated anyway. Nobody sends snail mail anymore, expect for maybe the occasional birthday card. The only mail people receive are bills (which can now be received and paid on-line), packages (which can be handled with private carriers like UPS), and junk mail (or spam in physical form. Nobody cares about the post office anymore. Few people use it, and those that do hate the service. Just drag it to the back of the shed and shoot it already.
Whadda crock, Blame. Maybe a smart one like you can provide some evidence for your assertions, and some cost comparisons between the Postal Service and common carriers as well. I can’t afford to send packages with UPS or any of the other “alternatives”. And, I get and send plenty of plenty of paper mail as well. Jerks like you are what’s outdated. Always have been. People like you are nothing but pawns of the wealthy and too dumb to know it.
I once carried a few quarters to feed parking meters. Now to park on the streets (already paid for with your tax dollars) have a credit card ready.
Thanks to privatization of the meters, see what the prices are now:
“In most areas of the city, representing 82% of the metered parking spaces, rates will be $1.75 per hour.
“In the Central Business District outside the Loop (Area bounded by Lake Michigan to the East, North Avenue to the North, Halsted to the West, and Roosevelt Road to the South, exclusive of the Loop Area), representing approximately 16% of the metered parking spaces, rates will be $3.50 per hour.
“Inside the Loop (Area bounded by Lake Michigan to the East, Wacker Drive to the North and West, and Congress Parkway to the South), representing less than 3% of the metered parking spaces, rates will be $5.75 per hour from 8 AM- 9 PM and the same rate for two hours from 9 PM â┚¬“ 8 AM.”
And the city is now adding a tax on top of these outrageous charges.
Count on the postal rates for first class mail going sky high after privatization.
Big Em, Speaking of Social Security going broke.
Have you noticed how the Democrats want to reduce the SS reserves and the Republicans are against lowering the reserves?
Or as the media tells it, the Democrats want to lower the payroll tax and the Republicans are against lowering them. How easy to make different points with the same facts.
– – –
I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
How can we expect any type of intelligent government when all we seem to elect are serious idiots, compromised degenerates and white collared criminals looking to advance their own financial holdings by clearing the way for the corporations that they are vested in to pilfer public coffers, rewrite the rules and what ever else they feel they can get away with. Unfortunately they will continue to do exactly that as long as “We The People” stand divided. Split down the middle.
Right Left political bias is a disease that 90% of the voting population , 80% of which won’t even be bothered to exercise their right, seem to be inflicted with, voluntarily. If you aren’t a politician why align your self with any political party. Government should not be viewed as if it where a football game complete with cheerleaders, overpaid players and stadiums full of screaming lunatics supporting “their team” as if they have some kind of special bond with it.
The reality of this situation is this. We have become a hamstrung populace that is incapable of fixing any real problems because we can’t even form a common consensus as to what the problems are and how they are caused much less what it takes to fix them. Never mind trying to prevent them.
So instead we just bitch and complain and point fingers at the other side all the long cheering aloud for “our team”. This ain’t a game people. Drop the bias, turn off the television and stop deluding your selfs into believing that “your” Poly-Ticks are any less parasitic then theirs are. They are all parasites and they are playing us against each other. There is no such thing as a good parasite. But some have very sophisticated means they use to lull their hosts in to believing that they are. Keeps them from being picked off.
Chances are that this postal pre-fund will become a government investment pool used by the government to purchase shares of publicly traded corporations. As is the US government is currently one of the largest investors on wall street. Between all of the thousands of investment pools that are spread across the entire spectrum of local, state and federal governmental indites, from school districts to the retirement funds of federal judges these investments of taxpayers money account for in some instances (like Motorola) almost complete corporate ownership. These funding pools may be spread across a vast spectrum of governmental bodies that aren’t related or connected to each other per-say except that they are all being managed a very small group of investment banks. This is the main objective of the so called “Obama Health Care Program”. It isn’t about health care and it’s not even Obams plan. It will create some of the largest investment pools ever imagined and will enrich a small percentage of the population beyond belief while breaking the backs of privately owned businesses.
Sooner or later we will wake up in a country that we can’t even recognize. When corporations and government become one and the same you have a fascist/communist state. We can provide health care with out having to sell our souls to get it. Any solution coming from the “poly-ticks” will not be a solution.
Re. “Blamethe1st”
“Nobody cares about the postal service anymore”? Typical narrow-minded RW wacko. If it doesn’t effect you, it has no merit. Right? It certainly matters to the 700,000 good paying, American job holders (largest employers of veterans) in the country. It certainly matters to 9 million Americans employed by the trillion dollar mailing industry that comprises 8% of the Gross Domestic Product! It certainly matters to all the small businesses throughout America that use direct mailing as a means to grow and advertise their business. It certainly matters to much of rural America whose towns are centered around their local Post Office. But most importantly, it matters to the Right Wing and their corporate cronies who in one fell swoop in 2006 came up with a plan to eventually end this historically most successful government agency (which takes not one tax payer dime) in a 10-year span. Their real plan and why they won’t fix their sabotage… Post Office GONE as we know it, Federal Jobs GONE, Postal unions GONE, a very large portion of the democratic voting base GONE, and corporate cronies cherry pick the lucrative pieces like vultures.
Getting back to “Nobody cares about the postal service anymore”? Fact is, a lot of people care about the Postal Service. Just because I don’t eat at McDonalds doesn’t mean it is not relevant. That would be VERY narrow-minded.