What's Really Going On With The USPS

Very interesting article.

http://www.alternet.org/why-you-sho...e?paging=off

While I can't say I agree with all of the points posted in that news article, it does make for some interesting reading. We consumers (stamp collectors or not) have little real knowledge of the inner workings of the US Postal Service. As the saying goes, for every action there is a reaction, which is often why we consumers can comment about changes we would like to see without really knowing the ramifications of what would occur to do so.

One minor point in that article that I found interesting is:




I never heard that one before being blamed on Republicans. I remember those post office copiers and just assumed that the lack of reliability of those devices and the onset of virtually all households today having an AIO printer that can serve as a copy machine made the continuation of post office copiers obsolete.

Not to go Republican bashing here, but one of the solvency things I have repeatedly heard mention was to stop the 75 year prepayments for healthcare and pensions. Republicans always attack that by saying it's illegal for the USPS to stop making 75 year prepayments. You could, I don't know... CHANGE THE LAW. You are Congress after all.

From what I have seen, the USPS is supposed to turn around and save itself without closing post offices, cutting hours, or doing anything else that might save money. A tough order.

Perhaps it's time the USPS become the USPOD again. If they were all government and not quasi-public, then they couldn't be taken advantage of so easily by the government.

Apastuszak, I agree that the USPS should be returned to being a fully governmental agency as it used to be. As it is now, it is a semi-private corporation which still depends on Congress for permission to raise rates and probably other things too.

It is a case of having your cake and eating it too.

We have trillions to spend on phony 'make war' projects, but nothing to help what is essentially a public service: the USPS.

We gave trillions to bail out thieving 'too big to fail' banksters which they quickly parceled out to their bankster friends around the world, but for the USPS, it's sink or swim.

I had a chat with a clerk at one of the post offices I go to... FAR from my local one so I can find parking and a nice attitide (but I digress...)

There was a sign on the door saying "now hiring", which caught my eye. He agreed that as far as he knew, most jobs are not full time. He also mentioned how they are expected to have the money to pay retirement benefits for the next 75 years NOW, up front. Also, he explained that you don't have to take a civil service exam anymore to work for the PO, which I didn't know. (I have never understood just what "civil service" meant).

But what is the most important, is that while I knew the USPS changed its status a few decades ago from being a government department, I thought it was still a government agency. The way he described it, they are basically a regular everyday company that is regulated by government rules. UPS and FedEx are not (as far as I know).

This makes me understand a bit more why people say a private company should "run" the USPS. Get it out from under the US government (which I doubt will ever happen). It also explains why they can be so broke: they get NO public money to operate. I don't think that the public knows that. I didn't... Amtrak is basically a government run agency that DOES get tax dollars... and they are a mess as well.

So it doesn't matter if an agency gets tax dollars or not... as soon as government officials get involved, things go wrong. And I am talking about BOTH parties here. (EX: Democrats tend to be pro-rail, and Amtrak is a mess)

Nells, yes, you will still find it under usps.gov, though it now redirects to usps.com.

Maybe they dropped the civil service exam for the sake of consistency. Can't be called private and have that, can we.

Not only do things go wrong with government officials, they also go wrong with banksters and other big, monopolistic entities. The Federal Reserve is a private entity, and look at the mess they have created for us and our economy for their own gain.

I found out recently my local post office is to reduce hours from a regular schedule of around 7.5 hours down to four hours a day. This is not suppose to happen until October 2014 unless the postal worker decides to move elsewhere. He is not going to be replaced with another postal worker, but like Nells said, someone who hasn't taken the civil service test. It will be someone who will be paid $9-11/hour with no benefits. A lot of my local post offices will be reduced to 2-6 hours per day and again the regular post office workers will be replaced. It doesn't do the community any favors as we're not only losing the more knowledgable workers who have been there for a long time, but we're also losing good paying jobs and service to the community. The reduction in hours also has nothing to do with lack of business as my local postsal worker is always busy and the office has a high revenue stream.

So nells, Do you mean that they sell their stamps and envelopes and stuff (basic inventory) and the gov't gets the money instead of them? That, if true, is outrageous! I admit I didn't read through the whole of your paragraph but I got flustered when I read that. Are stamps still regulated by the US Gov't (their printing/making and distribution)? Does the B.E.P. only work by contract for the gov't or under their wing so-to-speak?

You want to talk about hiring, it's a different website, same story, food inspectors, IRS, social security, post office, it's all Temporary jobs, no benefits. Some of them even have the nerve to call it temporary, 1 year positions without possibility of going full-time.

Try explaining to the average guy on the street that the USPS is a 'private company' despite how many disclaimers are on their website. Whole things sounds like nonsense. Another excuse to do things halfway and do them wrong, government run or not.

And a complaint about the nickel copy machines? I didn't even notice they vanished. I did notice those silly APC's that I hate and the lack of yearly tax forms in a lot of them however. My local PO actually has an old scale. I put the envelope on there, in a millisecond I know the price. APC, I wait in line go through 40000 touch screen prompts, and still am doubtful I got the right rate. Who can I blame for those two?

At this point the USPS is what is referred to as "quasi-public." Nixon did this, and at the time it was needed. The USPS cleaned up a lot of the mess the USPOD had. The problem with "quasi-public" agencies is the government won't leave them alone.

Last night the news reported that the USPS is staying afloat because of government money. That's not the case at all. The USPS has missed it's last couple of payments into the pension/healthcare fund. Missing these payments is not a government bailout. It's not like the government is paying for the printing of any new stamps or throwing money at them to make payroll.

The estimate I have heard is that the USPS is currently 30 billion in the hole, and they have paid 33 billion in prepayments for 75 years of future hires.