I worked for the Post Office right out of college over 20 years ago. I quit after a year due to the out of control union and the lazy workers they were so determined to protect.

Our incompetent federal goverment can’t even run the post office, and now under “Obama care” (single payer health insurance) they want to take our nations health care system. Are you crazy?

The US Constitution only requires Post Offices and Post Roads.

Consider the Enumerated Powers Act (H.R. 450, currently pending in the House with 48 co-sponsors – companion bill S 1319 has 21):

“Each Act of Congress shall contain a concise and definite statement of the constitutional authority relied upon for the enactment of each portion of that Act.”

Applied retroactively, the Enumerated Powers Act will tame the USPS beast, putting it back to original intent (offices and roads) and leaving the “services” to the People (private sector) where they had always been and should have, by law, stayed. Anything above and beyond our constitutions always spells trouble eventually, USPS being a case in point.

The post office is losing so much because of email, and the ability to pay bills online.

The post office will of course need to adapt, but getting rid of it and placing mail in the private sector is plain crazy.

Imagine getting a bill for every piece of mail you get, even junk mail, or what happens if someone cant pay for there mail does these private companies get to hold there mail, packages and sell them? The poor and middle class will be forced to pay these CEO salaries, much like our current health care set up for profit.

or the fact stockholders bottom line would become first before getting your mail. Or a CEO getting paid millions to do so, seems lazy and wasteful since the american people would be fliping the bill to pay it.

Letting wall street into delivering mail is not the way to go, we have UBS if you want your mail faster and the post office for the public

Joe B that same government was run by republicans too.
By the way they also run the military, IRS, the Justice Department, FBI, State Department, Department of Home-Land Security, Customs and Excise, DEA, Department of Education, Department of Agriculture, Air Traffic Control and many other things we need a use to be a viable country.

While I am not a happy how some of these government entities are run they are necessary. Given the poor performance of private contractors in Iraq, doing what should have been done by our government I’m not convinced that everything not nailed down should be privatized.

As for the Post Office, well it’s pretty good at what it does. E-mail has been the main problem for them. FedEx and UPS are competitors but quite frankly they are no better than the post office. FedEx is awful, I try to avoid using them as they treat their workers with contempt and the deal with leasing those trucks and told they are private contractors is the height of unfair labor practices.

Joe B.
Once again you twist the truth to fit your contorted Republican view of the world.

The fact is, the Post Office was run effectively for hundreds of years in this country. The PO always amazingly brought mail and packages right to our doors for am amazingly cheap price. The economic woes the PO now faces have more to do with increases in fuel prices compounded by the problem of fewer and fewer customers due to email and cutthroat package competition among shipping companies.

If you need to blame someone, blame those poiticians (mostly Republicans), who for decades sold out Americans by enslaving us all to the auto and oil industries. Had something been done decades ago about making transportation more efficient, the PO might not have these prblems yet… eventually however, no matter what, the PO would inevitably become outdated and obsolete.

The Republican tripe about the government not being able to run things effectively has little or nothing to do with it.

There are health care providers (doctors, nurses) who provide services. There is health care finance, in other words, how health care is paid for (billing, collections, etc.). Compare health care finance to the IRS, not the Post Office.

USPS might need to be streamlined but certainly not privatized. Reliable delivery of mail to any where in the country for a few cents. Can’t beat that with a stick.

This comment is for one person in particular. I’ll see your totally unrelated comment and raise you one:
Right now, health care is financed through private insurers, for the most part. Also, the government finances health care for some (elderly, poor, military, etc.) Every tax payer is funneling payment for health care through premiums to private insurers AND the government through taxes RIGHT NOW. TODAY. If nothing is done, your payments to BOTH will continue going up.

The only difference between an insurer or the government as middle man is that the government is accountable to you and can be voted out… A corporation is only accountable to shareholders (rightly so) and they will deny care to ANYONE in pursuit of profit if they can legally do so.

Just like there are no atheists in a foxhole, there is no one who has had a serious illness (not covered by Medicare) or who knows what there business is paying that feels the current health care finance system is OK.

I love the post office. I use UPS and FedEx as well but Priority mail boxes really work really well for me. Our town is so small that I know both our carrier and the folks at the small Post Office well and like them all.

44 cents to send a letter across the country is bargain.

The PO doesn’t have to make money, it just has to break even and I’d pay more for postage and shipping to keep them in business.

At least 95% of the mail I get — by weight — is catalogs and junk mail. It’s seldom that I receive first class mail. I can get most bills via email. And the Postal Service has always “subsidized” advertisements and magazines. PLEASE discuss WHAT is being mailed these days, and WHO is paying less than the cost of delivery of 95% of the load!

I don’t think people realize that the post office serves 2 major functions: 1) it is a home to a large number of workers who are socially diasadvantaged [a visit to the working area [not open to the public] huge south Boston postal complex is most enlightening; These are not bad people; they just cannpt get jobs elsewhere

and 2) the post office is a huge dumping ground for friends of pols, mayors etc. who need to reward followers with a job.[This is especially true in Democratic Boston]

I have used the USpostal service for 40 years {I am a publisher}. Postal charges are considerably cheaper than any other country. More importanly, the Postal service has never lost a SINGLE parcel we have sent [38,900] So—it’s really a very efficient operation and vital to the economy. It’s as simple as that.

In my opinion, the post went down hill when they started hiring independent contractors to deliver the mail. I cannot tell you how many times mail I have sent has never been delivered or returned to me. Likewise I don’t get mail that I know was sent to me. Hard to have any confidence in the US Post Office so I pretty much pay all bills by phone or web.

Cummon!….Let’s put this in perspective. Seven billion dollars is chicken feed. This is far less than 1% of the TARP bailout…which disappeared without a trace.

The idea of having no Saturday delivery is distressing: why is it that more and more, with limited and often no public transportation services whatsoever, deteriorating infrastructure, and now possibly limiting the post to weekdays (if only we could get away from the idea that every public service has to turn a profit), I find that the US is starting to look more and more like a third-world country? Honestly, I’ve traveled a lot around the world in the past year, and we are beginning to look like we’re falling apart (even immense China has a huge high-speed train network!): no weekend delivery simply looks like another harbinger of this decline… It’s troubling.

Thanks for letting me post. I am a daily listener to this and/or Diane Rehm on another stream.

would we like to leave ALL the deliveries in private hands? does that sound like a good idea??
we are not ALL willing to communicate through twitter, email….
WHAT IS THE RETIREMENT AGE OF POSTAL WORKERS?
why are government employees guaranteed retirement if the rest of us are not?
they need to start running it as real business; streamline it, get rid of the workers who behave as if you bother them, get rid of the 800 number service in India that does not answer any questions anyway….etc.
And redesign EVERYTHING USPS makes and sells, both the packaging and especially the stamps (with a few exceptions) are embarrassing. We have some great artist, use them.
BTW,I lived in Austria and my account was – very conveniently with the bank, it worked great!

I’ve often wondered why my post office is selling so many cheesy gift items.

I would think that getting out of the gift market, and sticking to delivering mail would be something the government could do to streamline the system.

Bob Knisely you can stop the junk mail by putting your name and address on a government list, just like the phone list for those nuisance calls at diner time.

Like magic they will stop coming to your home.
I use the junk mail to start my Weber for cookouts in the summer and for the fire place in the winter.

There’s absolutely no need for the Post Office to continue as-is… the work can easily be done by the private sector. The transition might be painful, but that’s the price of progress.

Charge the merchant senders of junk mail the first class postage rate — or more!

Tom,

Credit card companies play a number of dirty tricks in an effort to reduce the amount of time account holders have to pay a bill, including reducing invoice delivery time, there by incurring late fees. Reducing mail delivery increases the risk of more fees for card holders. Congress passed the credit card reform act which does not address these concerns. This must be considered and added to the discussion.

In our neighborhood we have very small 1 post office and 3 supermarkets within 2 miles of the post office that offer post office services. The supermarket staff work the counters at the stores.

Does the post office make any profit from the supermarket ‘mini post offices’?

Will government agencies start sending email too? It might be more reliable if they did – I was just down at the Registry of Motor Vehicles paying a moving violation fine that I thought I’d paid last year, and a suspended license fine because of that failure to pay, and I was assured that I’d been sent multiple notices warning of this, none of which I received. I checked; the RMV had my correct address.

The Postal Service is still needed. I live in Missouri. I show dogs, and entry forms, etc. are still almost exclusively done by snail mail and checks. Online entries are available but much more expensive.

Ditto it would cost much more to have to send items by UPS/FedEx, etc. and frankly, I don’t think they have the infrastructure to handle it.

I support consolidating post offices but why should only urban post offices be targeted. Most people live in urban areas. Urban areas are more efficient. Urban areas generate most of the tax revenue. Why should urban residents stand in longer lines so people who chose to in isolated areas maintain the same level of service?

You can send out wedding invitations via Evite. My daughter did!

Doing all your business and communication online is also a class and age issue. I recently got a very nice letter from my somewhat elderly aunt whose cell phone was stolen and now she has no long-distance and she just wanted to update me on family developments. She doesn’t use email and with her phone out, the mail was her avenue of communication.

I am not ‘old’. I use email, facebook, etc. but I love to receive, and send, letters and cards. Postcards from people traveling the world are great – having an email with a picture just doesn’t cut it. Plus, what about the human factor? All the jobs that would be lost if we close a lot of postal services. I am willing to pay for postal services in my taxes to keep people working, and to get my mail delivered. One last thing – many people who live alone, are elderly, have no one looking after them. The postal delivery person often is the only person who knows if there is a problem – how do you replace that?

I have two concerns, both class-based:
first, I live in a rural area. USPS does not deliver to any homes here; we are all required to go to the PO to get our mail. The hours allow for many of us to pick up mail during the week, but Saturday is essential for those of us who have to commute, work two jobs, single parent, etc.
second, email & the internet is great for many, many things (from correspondence to bills), BUT not everyone has access (especially, again, in rural areas) and those who do not have this resource are disproportionately lower middle class, working class, and poor.
How about cutting out Monday delivery? or M/W or T/Th? or shift to 3 days, but one should be a weekend.

Once a week, I mail my two young nieces a card containing a quarter for their piggy banks. The front of the card bears a photograph taken at a recent family get together. They loving getting their cards and quarters and I don’t feel email could ever replace that.

The market will find a way to deliver to all parts of the US, however the cost will be too much for most people. We live in the most populated county in Vermont (Chittenden County) but are un able to get cell service, DSL internet or cable TV/internet. This is not about being able to pay for the service, it is just not available. We could pay Comcast $25K to bring the cable to our house but that is just not practical. Things are even worse in more remote parts of the state. So to say that the market will solve the problem is just plain wrong, the market exists to make a profit, not to provide public services or essential services (think education, health care etc.). The government will need to be involved in the delivery of mail (if it exists) to insure universal service.

I can’t imagine not having the mail service. Both of my boys are in the military, and I cherish the hand written letters sent to me when they had no cell or email service. I know my sons and our troops also could not get through their deployments without those “letters from home”.

I don’t think the market would fill the voids that would be created in the absence of the US postal service. Take a look at rural healthcare. The free market has had time and no obstructions to providing healthcare in rural areas; however, shortages still exist there.

The postal service provides adequate competition to the private parcel services and consequently exacts price controls. Therefore, in the absence of the postal service, the price for sending mail and packages would spiral out of control.

Lots of pros and cons to the delivery of mail by USPS, especially in rural areas. My paychecks and later, retirement checks, have been “delivered” to me by area citizens who recieved them in their mailboxes, opened them, and decided not to cash my checks. Thankfully!

But please remember that for those of us aging and less-than-fully employed in rural areas…a trip to a our closest town post offices can be a 25 to 50 mile round trip…in a car we are having trouble affording and even driving (my husband is a an 82 year old veteran of 3 US wars.)

We are lucky enough to have a satellite service for internet access (that only works when there is no rain or snow or ice.) We also need another satellite to get the new digital television service for the so-called “free” news on TV. The bills for those two news-delivery technologies amount to more than any of our other monthly ultilities, since together we can still cut much of our own firewood.
Thank god public radio is free for a donation!

Please tell your listeners that there is urban America and suburban America, and then there is the other America – where their food and water comes from. The gap is remarkable.

Third world indeed!

Also, getting rid of the junk mail and flyers for things we will never buy would be great too. We have to drive them 25 miles to the dump every week!

PS: We are not way out west…we live 60 miles from the capital of New York State!

My two children are at summer camp at the moment and both have received letters from their grandfather in England. It is quite apparent from their reactions to these letters, which were long and full of news, thoughts, digressions and memories, that they were delighted to receive them, eager to write back and are likely to treasure them for many years. None of this would have been possible, I don’t think, by email or facebook or twitter. As I listen to the show, I am myself writing (by hand) to my daughter who has asked for MORE letters.

so you pick up your mail at the post office and if you want it delivered you pay a fee. The fee could vary depending on how many days a week you want to receive your mail. I’d rather pick mine up several times a week than have it delivered six days a week.

I use bill pay – as much as possible, but I pay $50 a month for my internet access at home.

Until we have extremely low-cost or free municipal internet service – everywhere- the USPS has to be part of the equation. For the average family struggling to make ends meet, paying a few dollars a month to mail bills is a lot more affordable than $50 for internet.

Doesn’t help the USPS bottom-line, but it’s the reality.

Rachel I pay all my tickets online, where have you been?

Also if I did get a moving violation I would have sent it with a return receipt, that way you have proof that you sent it. This was not the post offices fault. It was yours. Most likely the DMV screwed up.

I think there are many opportunities for the postal service to bring in additional revenue. For example, I do not have an iphone, blackberry, etc — but I some times have the need to check my e-mail while I’m away from home. Wouldn’t it be great if the post office had public computers (like public phones). I would be happy to pay for this service.

Just sat down this week to write my Grandmother a letter.
Just mailed her some bread last week.
I always trust that USPS will get it there.

It’s just like everything else: It only takes a few rotten apples to spoil the whole bunch. There are many postal employees that take their job seriously and care about customer service.
It is sad to see folks commenting on laziness and poor service. Your email couldn’t give you personal service, help you if you have an emergency, or chat with your elderly neighbor who counts on the daily visit. The personal aspect should not be underestimated.

What is going to happen to the value of my Stamp collection?

As a small business person there is still a good bit of first class mail that I send and receive via postal mail. Signed contracts and checks are two good examples. Yes, there are digital signature options but most of my clients have neither the time, skills nor software to get into that sort of complexity. Similarly, while electronic bank-to-bank transfers are a substitute for paper checks, the hassles of setting that up for one time payments is not worth the trouble in most situations.

Yes, I could send these things via FedEx or UPS but the cost would be much higher and would be a brake on my and many other small businesses. I see the postal service as comparable to decent roads…it is one of the services a country that wants to have a thriving economy needs to provide.

I have no problem with paying what it really costs to send a first class letter as long as I am not subsidizing junk mail and as long as the rate system is also kept simple enough that it does not take a visit to the Post Office to figure out that cost of mailing each letter. Unfortunately the new rate system for larger letters is reaching the point where all the restrictions on dimensions and so on make it hard to predict how much postage to put on a larger letter.

A little humor:

Remember the Seinfield episode when Newman pulls Kramer aside in the post office (after Kramer is ‘hootin and hollaring’ about how he wants to stop his mail).

Newman whispers to Kramer, “yes, everyone knows you don’t need mail, keep your voice down!”

PS one of the earlier comments talked about urban areas (where most people live). True enough, most people live there. Then he goes on to say people “choose” to live in isolated areas. Not everyone chooses to live where they live (that’s a class-based assumption). Some do choose to live where they live. In rural areas a large (but shrinking group) are the producers of the food we all eat and need to survive–FARMERS.

Are you saying folks in rural areas, who have fewer communication options (DSL, wifi, etc.) should pay MORE to communicate with those of you who “choose” to live in urban areas? Right now, as a rural resident, I pay the same and get less service (e.g. no home delivery of mail). Or that we should all rush to cities, a la the industrial revolution?

Lets remember our troops please!

my husband and I met by writing letters to and fro when he was in basic training in the army. My brothers are all in the service and often times the only way to reach them is through US mail!

So sentimental reason are big in my views, but really the deficit of the post office is only a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the government.

I am an e-bay seller, and use USPS to ship packages to Europe. MUCH cheaper than UPS or FEDEX, and delivery has always been very reliable.

Working for a small grassroots Non profit and currently preparing our quarterly Newsletter, I have to wonder if Fed ex, etc. would be in a position to step up and fill the bulk mailing vacuum created if the post office closes up shop.

I feel that businesses still mail quite a bit of “general” or “first class” letters and mail that aren’t packages and amenable necessarily to Fed ex and UPS.

As a result, I believe the USPS is still very necessary.

Last points: if the US no longer has mail service, how will the rest of the world communicate with us? and we with them? It’s a big myth that email is everywhere. And what will the rest of the world think of this? It could be seen as more isolationism on our part, devaluing communication.

There’s also a lot being written about writing styles in email, twitter, etc., and long hand – even word processed letters differ. Eliminating the post office isn’t just about the transactional aspect of communication, it’s also about the connections built, the ways we think (since language shapes thoughts and vice verse).

wouldn’t it be a boon for those living in rural areas to be able to engage a mail-delivery service? USPS has had a monopoly on mail delivery, which, if ended, would result in such services naturally springing up. Why pay the government to monopolize a service that won’t even deliver to you when you can keep that money and pay someone to deliver your mail? And postal workers are already well-trained and experienced to fill positions in such private companies.

We have seen what happens when an essential public service is operated entirely by for-profits. In terms of getting services to all that need them, the health insurance market has failed to deliver.

Likewise, if the postal service were to be turned over to the for-profit sector, mail delivery would be reconfigured to cut out low-profit and loss-dominated services, which inevitably means the poor and disenfranchised would be further disenfranchised and driven further into anti-community feelings and behavior. Every market has customers who cannot afford even the basic services (health care), and therefore needs a non-profit entity to operate those services. In simple terms, the community of the nation has a vested interest in maintaining a network which reaches to every settled person, and provides a sense that any one of us can attempt communication with any other one of us.

Let us not construe that every service operates better when it is operated for financial profit. Indeed, some services give us non-financial profit (a sense of community) while losing money. Let us preserve the binding force of the USPS.

after reading a few emails i checked the mail and got a post card from a friend in scotland. after reading it i put it up on the fridge, without thinking. i was on auto pilot, but after tacking it up I realized what i’d done and knowing i would never print out an email to stick up on the fridge gave me pause. I think that as a society we will soon come back to valuing hand written letters. it’s only recently that the move back to farmers markets and slow cooking has gained traction in mainstream society… hopefully sooner than later as a society we’ll realize that emails are a TV dinner and hand written letters are our favorite home cooked meals.

As our society continues to pull apart, the haves don’t need the post office while the have-nots need it more than ever. Our local post office used to have a stamp vending machine that took all US currency, even pennies. A couple of years ago it was replaced with a machine that only takes payment from credit or debit cards, leaving someone without either type of account unable to buy stamps when the windows are closed. Low income people shut out by what was once the most egalitarian government service. We need a postal service.

We love the Post office. http://www.pixily.com uses pre-paid BRM to help businesses get organized, be efficient and eliminate paper clutter.

Postage-Paid-BRM keeps it really simple for our customers. They just turn the package in to their mailman and don’t worry about paying for postage.

I have no major issues, but some minor ones with the USPS.

1. I live in a house built in the 1920’s where the mail slot is at the bottom of the front door (original door) and depending on the mail carrier, mail at times is pushed through the slot and other times an elastic is put around the mail and left in between the storm door and door. One time mail was left in between the doors without an elastic around it and the wind blew open the storm door and my mail was blown down the street. I’ve asked the mail carriers that they don’t have to put the junk mail and catalogs through the slot, but I do want my First Class mail to be put through. I’ve received different answers from mail carriers on that one.

2. I am very curious on how what looks like a Christmas card mailed in New York City four years ago with a delivery address in Australia with “Air Mail” written on the enevlope was delivered to me in Massachusetts. No, the city, street, or postal code was nowhere similar to mine. Did not the sorters see the obvious mistake? Didn’t the mail carrier see the error?

I agree with Eric Jones. We could throw $7 billion a year at the PO and another $3 billion to about triple the Amtrak subsidy, and do it every year for 100 years before we equaled the trillion dollars that we threw at the financial services industry.

“44 cents to send a letter across the coountry is a bargain”. RIGHT!! And, I also would be willing to pay more to keep them in business. I read some very good arguments here in favor of keeping the Post Office alive and healthy. I have never been able to understand people’s anger at paying a few cents to deliver a letter/contract/greeting card/money, etc. from coast to coast in 1 to 3 days – and feel certain (as several commenters have noted) that it will arrive in a timely manner. It seems to me one thing the government has actually done well. PJS

Ive been with the P.O for over than 20 years. Unless you talk with a carrier, people dont really understand the job of a carrier. I have seen alot of people quit because they thought it was going to be a easy job. Unfortunately we see where there is alot of waste of money going on also. A little example, wasting gas by following carriers around. And like alot of companies, having people who have never seen inside of the PO. or has never delivered mail try to make decisions on whats best on carrying mail. Another big thing is “cant we all just get along”. We have a contract. Simple and easy. Alot of money is spent on grievences and arbitrations that could easly be settled without all these expenses. If you ever get a chance, talk with your carrier, you might be surprised what you could learn.

To continue from my last comments, I have enjoyed my job very much. You get to meet nice and different people and learn about different cultures. The customers really make you enjoy your job, of course you have the few that are never happy also, lol. My job also as a shop stewart has been rewarding also. The PO is a good and rewarding job in so many ways.

I am generally a liberal libertarian, but I don’t understand the knee-jerk reaction that conservatives and so-called libertarians (like my governer Sanford and senator DeMint) have toward government programs. The government does a better job of delivering services that are aimed at the general good. Private enterprise works great a providing products and services in a way that generates a profit for shareholders and provides a lavish lifestyle for company executives.

During the Bosnian war, a graphic designer from there requested promotional posters that our company had printed and featured on our web site. FedX and UPS both wanted upwards of $100 to deliver. USPS got them there for under $10.

I talked with a postal worker about eliminating Saturday delivery when the issue came up a number of years ago. He was against it, citing the back log and increased load on Monday that occurs just from not delivering on Sunday. Perhaps closing on Wednesday would make more sense if USPS has to close on any day at all.

Perhaps the union has gotten out of hand as unions have in other industries. They should be open to contract re-negotiations as has happened in other industries (unfortunately evidently not in the financial sector).

I have heard it proposed to charge a fraction of a cent for email delivery in an effort to stop spam. Why not let USPS administer this program through ISP’s and collect a portion of it?

What the U.S. post office should do is reclassify itself as an investment bank. Then it will be eligible for billions of dollars of bailout money. Heck, $7 billion in loss is a drop in the bucket compared to say, AIG’s $150 billion bailout.

I know several people who work in the postal service and have seen how it operates.

If you look at business models that have or are failing, the postal service fits the ailing model.

To much promised to past employees for pensions/retirement that is unsustainable.

To much dead weight partially caused by unions not allowing people to do whats needed, or by not being able to get rid of people not doing their jobs

Also many things are done in ways that hurts employees physically.

Especially carriers have a HEAVY burden to bear with very little technological help, at least from what I see in rural areas.

Inside mail sorters also have little help (when much is available) and so their forced to work in ways and under conditions most people wouldn’t put up with.

Allot of what I see really relates to poor communication and very poor training in managements part.

I would oppose the complete shut down of the US Postal system. There are currently 2+ million people incarcerated in the US and most of them only have access the US Postal service for contact with those who cannot visit them in person. There are countless others in long term nursing facilities in the same situation. Why should they suffer?

Also a comment on caller “Peter” the postman who called in while he was walking his route. He stated that UPS and FedEx were not represented by unions. As a past UPS part time employee, I would like to set the record straight thet UPS IS represented by the Teamsters.

The story as I understand it (please confirm/deny)… department store magnate, John Wanamaker was famous for his use of advertising flyers.

At one point he became Postmaster General. One of his innovations was low cost mail rates for “advertising mail” out to the undeveloped countryside. Logic was… offer cheap postage for advertising mail & folks out in the boonies would pull economic development out into the countryside by buying stuff from the Sears catalog.

Unfortunately, such SUBSIDIZED mail rates have long since gotten out of control.

The Post Office has to look at charging the many, many classes of subsidized mail–e.g. junk mail–to pay their own way.

No question, there will be howls of pain from businesses built on subsidized “standard rate” mailings.

I think people don’t appreciate the Postal Service for what it does. I for one enjoy receiving mail, and even though we have email and delivery services, the post office is overall the best service. I mean to say that letters are still the most respectful and formal way of communicating and there are still situations in which an email just doesn’t cut it.

Also, I recently ordered textbooks from the internet, and all of the sellers used the post office to send them to me. The institution may need revamping, but I believe the country relies on it.

The government does not subsidize advertising mail. No general funds are spent at the PO. It is self-supporting getting no revenue from Congress.

A big mistake management made was to stop selling stamps in vending machines at ALL the post offices. You should never make the product you sell more difficult to buy. The PO complained the machines break down too much. Then find machines that don’t break down. Nabisco and Coca Cola have them!

I am 31 years old and rarely use the postal service, but only because I live in an area that has excellent high-speed internet service available. Less than an hour outside my urban area it’s not possible to get any form of internet other than basic dial-up, so I definitely think that until the internet infrastructure is more consistent throughout the country it’s naive to think that all correspondence will move to online methods. I had so many problems with my service disconnecting at random while using dial-up even within the last year that I wouldn’t use the internet to pay bills.

Paying your bills online makes you more susceptible to ID theft, fraud, and computer viruses. More likely someone can get into your account. Plus, it takes longer to pay online than writing a check and putting a stamp on the envelope.

Save computer time. Use a stamp!

There are a few things government should monopolize like the military. This is one of them. PO workers and all gov employees should have a retirement and pay system also similar to the military. Keep the for profits out and concentrate on basic 1st class mail delivery. Let the private sector have advertising and high speed services. That way those who want it can shop the market and everyone gets basic service.

I work for the Postal Service 6 days a week. If they get rid of Saturday delivery they will be getting rid of non-career employees who get paid less. That makes no sense. Give the 20-year employees some incentives to retire and payroll costs for labor will go down sharply because the younger workers who are paid less will take their place. It’s Postal “Service”. Getting rid of a day of delivery will be a slippery slope to disaster for the Postal Service. Saturday is the day that we deliver and Fed-Ex and UPS don’t.

I suggest that residential delivery by USPS be cut to three days per week: Mon/Wed/Fri for 1/2 of the delivery area and Tue/Thur/Sat for the other half.

I’d jack the price of a stamp 50¢ to $1. No more 1¢ a year, etc.

I disagree that the postal service is less of an important element of the society. Do we want to become a less than industrialized state?

Let’s copy Germany or Japan: bring back Postal Banks, all billpay services, free wifi, stationary shops, amtrak tickets, etc…

YES we still need the Postal Service. Were we to lose it we’d miss it immediately. The conformities of private company-controlled internet access or Fedex/UPS is not an alternative.

Following the telecom model is a terrible idea.

I would miss my mailman. Whom would I give a gift to on Boxing Day? How would I stay in touch with my friends who still correspond via paper letters? A privatized postal system would cost me an arm and a leg, and would I live in area that would receive mail? If mail were to totally privatize, how many towns would be scratched off as unnecessary? It would be just like the death of the railroads, something we would regret greatly in the future.

Don’t close down the Chinatown NYC branch!! That’s MY branch! Keep your hands off!! Add a DMV, IRS office, Staples, or whatever! Just keep it!

I agree with Richard, above. I’d be willing to pay more if only to allow the USPS to break even.

BTW isn’t a Postal service constitutionally necessary?

Post Offices have an important social function — building the “social capital” of communities. They are the gathering places where residents of all backgrounds can find out about and discuss the latest local news, meet their neighbors and build their connections with other residents.

Fedex and UPS don’t offer this.

Maybe post offices can build upon this function, the way libraries have done.

Also, letter-writing could come back. I pay far more attention to hand-written letters than ANY email I receive. They mean so much more to me.

Here’s one vote for US Postal Service!

Count the cost. I pay all my bills by mail at about $4 a month for postage. If I go online to access my bank account, the bank charges me a $4 service charge a month to do so. Not to include the cost of internet at $30 a month.

Something you may not know about a 44 cent cost of a stamp. I have been a rural carrier for 30 years and have only used 2 days of sick leave. In that time I have, worked sick, worked hurt, worked in crappy weather, fussed at, cursed at, ran off the road several times and once offered sex for $5.

Besides officially being a mail carrier, I have served on the route, as a doctor,a medic,a fireman,a mechanic, pet rescuer, a tire fixer, a storm spotter, a leak finder for the city, a plumber, a counselor, a crime stopper, a telephone service, a banker and a friend, all for the price of a 44 cent stamp. My people know me by name and are clueless who their UPS or FedEx man is.

I have been there to bring them the mail, call for help, pick them up when they fell,saved their homes from fire, there when they were sick, there when they were hurt, performed CPR and was there when they died.

How do you count the cost of a stamp? I am just one of the thousands of postal workers who do the same year after year and do the same for the people on their routes. How do you count the cost? The Postal Service has a goal to serve the people we work for. I think we are doing a great job considering the economy.

You can count the cost of a stamp at 44 cents, but the untold and unheard stories of USPS workers serving our people is priceless!

2 important points:

1) one of the primary (most costly) reasons the USPS is losing so much is the GOVERNMENT MANDATED requirement to set aside funds for retiree health benefits, including those for military veterans who worked for the Post Office.

2) “Expert” Richard John suggested that Standard class mail should not be allowed to mail at lower postal rates. First, each class of mail must support itself; therefore, Standard Class mail is not a loser for the USPS.

Moreover, and more importantly, if Standard Class rates were raised significantly or were made the same as First Class mail:
a) millions of pieces of mail would stop being sent by advertisers and nonprofits reducing revenue by billions of dollars, but USPS carriers would still have to walk the same routes, the same bricks and mortar sites would still have leases and overhead that must be paid, the trucks would still need the same gas.
b) nonprofit organizations, who still rely on donations through the mail, would be devastated beyond their current woes caused by the economy
c) not only would USPS jobs be lost, millions of jobs outside of the USPS also would be lost

One other note: Rather than Saturday, the USPS would prefer to drop Tuesday from delivery schedule, since it is the lightest mail day.

Along with that last caller, don’t you think it’d be best to end this establishment to decrease our reliance on paper?

Let’s also consider the amount of gas that goes into delivery to remote locations. It makes sense that mail traveling to these places (and thus using more energy) should cost more. We cannot continue to use our resources (especially fuel) without quantifying it with prices.

CORRECTION: It was “expert” Lee Fritschler who suggested that Standard class mail not be allowed to mail at lower postal rates, not Richard John.

Note to Lee Fritschler: Standard class mail does NOT get the same treatment as First class mail in terms of timely delivery standards.

2nd note to Lee Fritschler: In the private sector, for example, there is no flight originating in the US on which every seat class is sold at the same rate.

Your ideas would be detrimental to the USPS, bad for business, and not at all helpful for citizens.

USPS is part of the backbone of our nation’s infrastructure, and in a time of crisis, it’s presence will be essential. Let’s make the service more essential, by offering more services, namely, voting by mail…local as well as national. Bring democracy door-to-door.

Following the Prof’s lead – Wouldn’t be nice if our post offices became the new Savings Banks for the US? in Japan, the savings go to the PO with mama-san & their savings rate is through the roof. With proper tax changes, it could be a win-win.

And then, gee -What is they provided universal low-cost FIOS/T3 quality internet/phone, cable, fax & wireless service? they would provide affordable services at prices blow TW/Cablevision, etc. with optimal line & cell quality because it would all be a public common carrier.We might get out of the 30s in net dpwmload speed. etc. Net Neutrality could be assured. Confidentiality would be superior to our W wiretap/data mining that the previous admin. The courts/Congress can provide oversight, etc.

Sounds lije a win-win – cheaper phone/cell/net rates w/ higher speeds. Safe banking, safe net, etc.

The USPS could do like many other countries by offering other services in their offices. Not selling stuffed animals like they do now, but good services. I.E. in Japan, they offer things like insurance, savings accounts and other interesting items like that that are backed by the government.

In Australia, the post office has contract with everyone that send you a bill. The water bill, phone bill, internet bill, etc. etc. etc. They all have a bar code and you take them to the post office, they scan them, and you pay your bills there. At the post office. You can do it online, but also, its convenient for some people who don’t have bank accounts (you can pay in cash) or don’t use the internet.

Just a few ideas…

I love the postal service and my mail carrier. I hope all can be fixed so that it can be saved! What a loss it would be to me. I often see someone following my carrier almost like spying on her. I guess it is her boss by I wonder why. This seems like a waste maybe that is a job that could be changed and that money saved instead of following the carrier maybe they can help deliver mail or sell stamps? I fell down the stairs and no one could hear me call for help and my mail lady found me and called my son. What would I have done without her. She looks out for me and my mail. I heard a story about postal housing that needs to stop and I heard about bonuses that were large and that should stop. Keep the post office and those wonderful carriers and look for wasted money in other areas that we know exists.

One word: Netflix. There are a LOT of people using it and other mail-based services like it, and they are going to be pretty grumpy with one less day to send or receive their movies, or end up having to pay some additional fee because it can no longer be delivered by the US mail.
I also prefer using the mail for bills. I do not want to switch to paperless billing as I’m less likely to review my bills, check for errors, etc, this way.

I couldn’t believe the comment, by someone on the program, that the European Union is requiring its nations to close their post offices. Looked it up and, sure enough, that is NOT true. England is trying to stamp out the rumors – see ec.europa.eu/unitedkingdom/press/doc/post_office_closures.pdf. There are links there to the appropriate EU document, and further links on that for in-depth info.

EU is just trying to make the P.O. competitive with for-profit corporations, as many of us have suggested here. A quick abstract:
“* FACT: The EU does not close post offices….
“* FACT: EU legislation protects universal service….
“* FACT: EU rules allow state aid for post offices….
“* Post office closures have happened in the European Union with fully opened markets as well as in those with only one postal provider reflecting fundamental changes in customer demand and the growth of new technologies.”

So let’s improve our U.S. Post Office and work to make it sustainable.

For the youngsters here: Years ago, there was no Amtrak. All of the train companies were required, by law (to pay for the land they were given for tracks), to provide passenger service. As freight became more profitable, the railroads begged Congress to lift the passenger burden from them. They argued that cars and airplanes could provide the service better. To emphasize this, they permitted their service to deteriorate appallingly. Despite the advances in passenger service elsewhere, Congress obliged and created Amtrak but, to keep the RR from losing any money and so Amtrak could be created cheaply, it was to run on the now-freight-only RR tracks. Slowly, but surely, Amtrak is beginning to return passenger train service to the excellent level of the 1930s and ’40s.

Let’s not go through that agony with U.S.P.S. Let’s just improve it to the point of sustainability — now.

(Yes, i’m sending a copy of this to my congresscritters. Are you writing to yours?)

The social function of the USPS has another aspect, not yet mentioned: the USPS is for many persons their primary, and certainly most frequent, point of contact with the Federal government. No matter how remote the location, there’s a representative of the Federal government not too far away.

Our Constitution almost did not get adopted, so fearful were many of the states of giving up any of their powers. People saw themselves as citizens of their respective states more than as citizens of the larger entity we now call the United States.

Though it may not be technically correct (see http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002663.html ) this point is emphasized by Shelby Foote in his book “The Civil War: An Illustrated History” where he states:

“” Before the war, it was said “the United States are.” Grammatically, it was spoken that way and thought of as a collection of independent states. And after the war, it was always “the United States is,” as we say today without being self-conscious at all. And that sums up what the war accomplished. It made us an “is.” “”

Nevertheless, even today, fights over “states’ rights” sometimes seem to threaten to tear our nation apart. The USPS is probably the most visible reminder for most of us that we all live in the United States, not just in our own state or our own particular section of the country. Even if mail delivery has to be reduced (such as to Mon, Wed, Fri for some and Tue, Thu, Sat for others, which, although I get a lot of mail, wouldn’t bother me at all), we need to continue to have that little Federal presence not too far away from every little hamlet in our wonderful country.

(For a similar reason, many of us believe that we should go back to having a military draft, or at least institute some form of compulsory service that would help remind young adults that there is a larger entity to which we all owe allegiance. For many persons military service is the first –and perhaps only– contact they have with compatriots who are different from themselves. But that’s matter for a separate discussion.)

USPS needs to re-invent like all other businesses.

I wrote about the new model when I was the editor and helped publish a magazine called e.bill back in 1998-99. I even discussed this with Tim Berners-Lee and he stated that it was part of the Semantic Web. Here is a linked that defines the “Semantic Web” – so you can learn something new yet has been talked about since the 1990’s –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web and his YouTube on it -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVFY52CH6Bc

The USPS needs to become digitally empowered to become a solution to a problem in the Semantic Web. The USPS needs to create and license new digital document standards or certify with their digital USPS certificates. The USPS needs to be part of everyone’s desktop and Web/Internet enabled device with government [USPS] certified and validated communications between note only private businesses, but health and medical, banking, schools and more. The need a new revenue model that is based on ownership of these certificates – both from the end-user and the business entity. Additionally, they need to phase out everyday delivery of the mail for free by at least 2015 and put in place a user-fee based delivery system that would be based on not only USPS workers but also the private carriers under contract for different classes of delivery (to keep this aspect profitable).

Additionally, the USPS needs to develop a business-regulation unit to police the digital areas of email delivery of (1)SPAM (2) trojans (3) worm (4)virus and (5)DOS attacks. Why? Think about it – how did they convict Al Capone? Yes – tax evasion. So how will you convict people that do the list of bad things above? Electronic Mail Fraud – and the USPS needs to be the digital police for it. If the Spammer or Malware person does not have a “digital certificate” that they have paid for – if found as an offender there will be stiff penalties/fines and jail sentences. This is an excellent fit for them – and we do need an agency to do something about it.

The USPS needs to re-invent and become an integral part of our digitally enabled society – it doesn’t need to go away – it just simply needs to re-invent in a way that is beneficial to everyone.

The USPS needs to get key IT technicians onboard to create the apps needed to support their new initiative – these people could come from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Sybase, and others.

My Web site is infostar.com and I’ve been on radio talking about technology, Internet, Web and computers since 1985. Don’t email me from it – I already get inundated with emails.

Peter

I am amazed at people who say the post office is well run … compared to what?

FedEx, UPS all have taken large chunks of business away from them.

My uncle was a letter carrier. We estimated, he took 30 days off each year being sick. Of course, he almost never got sick. I worked with the post office’s computer department a couple years ago. One story was about a computer center that was redundant in S Cal. They tried closing it but a local congressman demanded they keep it open. It’s still open. A few weeks ago, my neighbor started working part time as a letter carrier. He told me he had to take breaks during the day to go slow enough to make his rounds (they have to scan mailboxes at some houses to track their progress). The problem is that it forces him to go slow.

To be fair, their problems are not all self inflicted. Email and the need to go to every house is a big factor. But having an inefficient, inflexible workforce, doesn’t help.

I don’t think email can replace all functions of the post office, at least as email currently exists. First, it is not secure, and second, it is not practically reliable. With hundreds of spam email messages every day, junk mail filters are a practical necessity, and they aren’t perfect. I would not like to have contract notifications, IRS communications, legal notices (such as class action suits) delivered electronically by email as it currently exists. Several times in the last year I’ve missed emails
because they were caught by a junk mail filter.

The lack of security also gives me pause when we talk about delivering sensitive information (medical test
results, etc).

Ironically, it is advertising mail that could most easily be transmitted electronically, and would yield
the most environmental benefits.

Solutions to the USPO financial shortfalls are obvious. Cut the number of carriers and delivery by fifty percent and consolidate Post Offices.