United States Postal Service: What to do?

[grayman]

We're having a community meeting Tuesday evening in my church with a representative from the Post Office, to discuss the possible closure of our local P.O.

Wondering just how much money would really be saved with the closures, and would it make a difference?

[En folkefiende]

We're having a community meeting Tuesday evening in my church with a representative from the Post Office, to discuss the possible closure of our local P.O.

Wondering just how much money would really be saved with the closures, and would it make a difference?

Is that the PO in Garrison, Mt? That would be a shame, it's also the gas station, general store, and pharmacy.

[Rob Lister]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... orsPicks_1

i don't really know what to say about this. i suppose if i were running things (which i should be) and my hands were tied like theirs are (which they wouldn't be) then I'd court the junk mailers too. but it is stop-gap, not remedy. the remedies are all over this thread, and already in the postmaster's head.

[Rob Lister]

You wanted an update, right?

A couple of items have popped up. Had I been more on the ball, I would have informed you of each, separately. Anywho...

Here are the new money making/cost saving explorations:

1) A price increase for first class stamps to 50 cents (where is my damn cent key!)

2) shut down more than 200 mail processing facilities employing (if 'employing' is the right word) around 35,000 hard working, fast sorting, folk. Relocate them, retire them, whatever it takes.

The price hike will happen. Frankly, 50c is cheap given the service. I certainly have no problem with it (I have a buttload of forever stamps!).

Some senators oppose this shut down of facilities though. But, alas, the ones that vocally do are not on the USPS oversight committee so the best they can do is write letters to the senators that are. I suspect their letters get more attention than my letters. Less than ed's letters though. Anywho2...

Sanders is an Ind Senator from Vermont who is not on the oversight committee. I don't know if he has some major mail processing facilities in his state but one can only assume (as we cynical skeptics do) that his state has more than a few of those 230 targeted for closure.

Here's a snip from his [open] letter to the more influential senators. Parse this (logically):

"At a time when the Postal Service is competing against the instantaneous delivery of information from email and the Internet, slowing down mail delivery service will result in less business and less revenue, and will bring about a death spiral for this institution," Sanders said.

mail1.JPG

Mr. Sanders, failure to reorganize the institution to resize to the current and projected demand is a death spiral. If you offer a service for $X and it costs $X2 to provide that service, volume is not your friend.

[gnome]

Look, it's the Scrotum!

[Mentat]

Doesn't a death spiral require at least R²?

[sparks]

It requires rotation. Ping ed.

[EvilYeti]

What I hate about this topic is that it gives the Libertarians ammo re: gummint waste.

Downsizing/outsourcing the USPS is a no-brainer at this point.

[hammegk]

Doesn't a death spiral require at least R²?

Twinkle twinkle little star power = i squared R,

Little star up in the sky power = r squared I

[Rob Lister]

That's why y'all need me here. I stay on top of stuff you need to care about.

(Newser) – A plan to save the US Postal Service from financial collapse has passed the Senate with unusual speed. The Senate plan calls for a major overhaul of the service, which is losing $36 million a day. The bill would allow the service to cut its pension and retiree benefit costs, and to cut Saturday service by 2014, the New York Times reports. It would also place restrictions on the closing down of post offices and on compensation for Postal Service execs.

"This is a bipartisan bill that will bring necessary change to the Postal Service in order to save it," said Sen. Joe Lieberman. The independent from Connecticut sponsored the bill, along with two Republicans and a Democrat. Despite the passage of the Senate bill, the service's future remains uncertain, notes the Los Angeles Times. A competing bill in the House, with major differences, has not been scheduled for a vote, and the service will start shutting down processing centers in mid-May if a law isn't passed first.

[DrMatt]

Junk mailers at least pay for their own postage.

[Abdul Alhazred]

Junk mailers at least pay for their own postage.

And to a dgree, subsidize the rest.

[EvilYeti]

It would also place restrictions on the closing down of post offices and on compensation for Postal Service execs.

There's your problem.

In the public sector, executives are compensated based on mainly two criteria:

A. How many people are in their organization.
B. How much money they spend.

Unsurprisingly, this tends to incentivize fraud and waste.

Again this comes down to the mistake of trying to run government like a business.

[Abdul Alhazred]

1st

[Rob Lister]

Of course, this is still ongoing. Like a 10,000 car train that has run out of steam.

The head of the financially struggling U.S. Postal Service said the agency must be allowed to ease the terms of prepayments into a retiree health-care fund and eliminate general mail delivery on Saturday.

Patrick Donahoe told "CBS This Morning" the agency isn't asking Congress for money.

He said, "I think most people don't realize, we're 100 percent self-sufficient. We pay our own way." But the postal chief notes the agency is losing $15.9 billion this year.

Donahoe says the post office needs to refinance retirement health fund payments to $1 billion a year instead of $5 billion.

He said the Postal Service would continue package delivery on Saturday and keep post offices open. In this scenario, he says the agency could be $8 billion in the black each year.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49992517

Ending Saturday delivery is a no brainer. Not making timely payments to known future obligations is obviously going cause problems down the road. Of course, with the way things are going, inflation might make that a non-issue.

Nothing in the article about getting rid of the dead wood, or about three-day delivery.

[gnome]

Wait... what does that retirement health fund payments thing mean?

Does it mean that their pension fund monies are not 100% set aside for them, and depend upon ongoing solvency?

[Rob Lister]

Wait... what does that retirement health fund payments thing mean?

Does it mean that their pension fund monies are not 100% set aside for them, and depend upon ongoing solvency?

Yepper. That's SOP in the public sector. Fully funded retirement obligations are the exception.

[gnome]

Not a fan. If you can't deliver it, better to default now than when people are relying on it.

[Rob Lister]

Not a fan. If you can't deliver it, better to default now than when people are relying on it.

Just wait'll they ask for (and get) permission to raid the funds already set aside.

[ed]

Fortunately, I put around $10,000,000 into Forever stamps back when they were 10cents. Seems that my investment has grown by, what is that? 500% it looks like. Guess that "donation" to Barack's errr ... I mean President Obama's campaign payed off handsomely.

I love change, 40 cents here, 40 cents there.