Re: Post office near default? Losses mount to $5.1B

[Guest guest]

These are the interesting points.

First, the Post Office is one of the few required roles of government spelled out in the Constitution. It still is a useful function as the articles states, because UPS and Fedex won't ship to all places for a low price. Those companies also move only a small amount of volume compared to the Post Office. They talk about emails and all that, but there is plenty of stuff that is shipped that can't or shouldn't be sent over the net, things like legal documents, things that need to be signed, etc. Of course, this will all seem moot once something happens to the net like a cyber war, etc.

The other point is the cost of pensions and the health care system they have. Just like the various states and some private corporations (GM), these costs are breaking the company. Cutting employees is one way to handle that, but closing rural post offices, the most likely thing they will do, will be a bad idea. I've looked at this before and there are dozens of post offices in the big cities, often in a single zip code, versus a much smaller number over a wider areas in rural locations It would make more sense to close some in the big cities and spread the load over the ones that are left. But then that would anger a larger number of voters so once again rural areas will get screwed over.

Anyway, the point is that the Post Office is in the Constitution and it is one of the few legitimate function of a government. The problems it faces are less a function of the mail and more costs of labor. If the costs of labor were reduced (and the unions had been restrained over the years) then this wouldn't be a problem.

In a message dated 11/16/2011 2:15:07 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, no_reply writes:

The Postal Service, an independent agency of government that does not receive tax money for its operations, is not seeking federal funds.Instead, postal officials want changes in the way they operate so they can save money. They have asked Congress for permission to reduce mail delivery to five days a week, which many lawmakers oppose, and to eliminate or reduce the annual payments of about $5.5 billion to prefund retiree health benefits. The agency also wants the return of at least $6.9 billion it says was overpaid into federal retirement funds.