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By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
Sunday, April 22, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Residential cluster mailboxes, like this one in Henderson, will soon have the outgoing mail slots sealed off. The collection boxes are targeted by thieves who beak into the boxes looking to steal and wash outgoing checks.
Time is running out to save the U.S. Postal Service from insolvency. Unless Congress can come up with a plan in the next three weeks, the postmaster general will likely begin shutting rural stations and slashing delivery, jeopardizing the future of carriers and the letters they deliver.
In an effort to avoid that scenario, the Senate is considering a bill this week to reform the agency’s finances and change the way the country receives its mail. If all goes according to plan, it would push the nation toward a model that’s been used in Southern Nevada for years — the community mailbox.
“Nevada has a very high efficiency,” postal service spokesman David Rupert said. “The way we deliver mail in Las Vegas — the rest of the country could look much like that.”
The history of mail in Nevada dates back to the Pony Express, but modern postal service has been shaped by rampant growth of the past 20 to 30 years in Las Vegas.
“There was a time when we had a new delivery route every week, at the height of it,” Rupert said. “And the only way to manage that kind of growth was to manage our deliveries” using community mailboxes.
“In the older suburban communities, you find more old-fashioned mailboxes,” said Michael Green, historian and professor at the College of Southern Nevada. “But it’s more efficient to have one mailbox in the newer developments.”
The postal service officially calls them Neighborhood Delivery Collection Box Units, the freestanding groups of aluminum lockboxes found on most suburban streets.
That common feature in Southern Nevada neighborhoods is an anomaly nationwide, however, where mail carriers walk their routes making door-to-door deliveries.
Consider a comparison between metropolitan Las Vegas and metropolitan Milwaukee, a city of comparable size in terms of mail deliveries. Of Las Vegas’ approximately 600,000 addresses, 443,000 are served by community mailboxes. Just 27,000 of Milwaukee’s approximately 660,000 delivery addresses are centralized boxes.
The bill being debated in the Senate would make more cities like Las Vegas. By the end of fiscal 2015, the bill gives the postmaster general the authority to convert almost all door deliveries to either curbside boxes or centralized neighborhood units — changes they believe will save money by allowing mail carriers to make more deliveries without having to exit their vehicles.
In Las Vegas, there are 886 mail routes. In Milwaukee, there are almost 1,200, because carriers can’t deliver to as many addresses. (Milwaukee is smaller in area than Las Vegas.)
Fewer routes means fewer mail carriers, and fewer mail carriers means less cost to the postal service: According to a 2011 Inspector General’s report, the changeover could save $4.5 billion to $9.6 billion a year.
But that’s also why the National Association of Letter Carriers and several lawmakers from eastern states — argue the change would cost the postal service too many jobs.
“Doing away with the delivery aspect would hurt us no matter what kind of mail delivery that you had,” said John Beaumont, a union president in California, the region of the association with jurisdiction over Nevada.
“It’s possible it would impact us a little less because we wouldn’t be consolidating as many routes, but it would still affect us,” said Glenn Norton, president of the union’s Branch 2502, which represents 1,500 letter carriers in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City. “This is one of the last middle-class jobs in the United States, and we’re trying to save it for future generations.”
The end of door-to-door deliveries isn’t the only change in the Senate bill that would jeopardize postal service jobs. So would the elimination of six-days-a-week delivery.
Although the original bill puts a two-year moratorium on eliminating Saturday delivery, it doesn’t take it off the table. After two years, the postmaster general would have the authority to eliminate Saturday delivery if he thought it would help the postal service become profitable by fiscal 2015.
“That’s the beginning of the end to me,” Norton said. “When you’re trying to make a business survive, you don’t cut service.”
But if the postal service is going to avoid cutting service, it’s got to strike a political deal on the part of its finances related to pensions and health plans.
In 2006 — right before the recession, when postal deliveries were at their all-time high — Congress passed a law making it incumbent on the postal service to pay the pension funds of future retirees, projected for the next 75 years.
That fund is now overfunded. Even if one considers the retirees’ pension plans in conjunction with retiree health plans, funding is at 91 percent of their projected need — a cushion that’s almost three times the level for future veterans or any other class of federal government employee.
It’s money that postal workers say could offset up to $5.5 billion of their debt a year, but it would take an act of Congress to make the change.
That’s significant, considering the debt the postal service added to its underwater books in fiscal 2011 was about $5 billion — meaning without the obligation to fund the retiree plans, the postal service would have been in surplus last year.
But convincing members of Congress has been difficult. Without a requirement to fund itself, many lawmakers fear the postal service will turn the government for bailouts.
Conversion of retiree plans is the biggest change in the Senate bill, but the preferred version being considered in the House doesn’t feature anything like it. But without some significant financial shifts, there’s only one option: cuts, large and small.
Rural postmasters aren’t sure at this point which to fear more: A slate of closures and cuts determined by Congress, or one determined by the postmaster general after May 15, when the current moratorium on shuttering offices expires.
There are 15 rural communities potentially on the chopping block in Nevada — some without a school or even a grocery store.
“Once they lose that post office and that sense of community, they lose other things too,” said Barbara Lewis, president of Nevada Sierra Postmasters, the local chapter of the National League of Postmasters, who runs the post office in Overton.
Towns such as Overton, which is not on the list of Nevada towns facing closure, are experts on how to function on a lean budget: There’s no mail delivery, only post office boxes; they do without luxuries such as one-day express mail; and they keep after lawmakers to let them offer more non-postal services to bring in money (another proposal up for consideration in the Senate bill). Closing postal stations is expected to save the postal service less than 1 percent of its total budget — savings that Lewis thinks just aren’t worth the cost.
“For them to close these rural offices, we feel that it takes their identity away,” she said.
The Senate starts considering the postal bill — and up to 40 amendments to it — today.
I have a concern about the safety of the mail in "community mailboxes." I believe they are vulnerable to break-ins and that could lead to greater I.D. theft. As for Norton's contention that you don't cut service when trying to make a business survive, that's typical bureaucratic nonsense. As a former business owner, I knew, when times got tough, if I did not cut back, I would go out of business. Just look at the LV Sun & R/J as prime examples. The Sun had to opt for a JOA to remain in business and the R/J is a mere shadow of what it was 5 years ago. No business section on Monday's, the sports section down-sized, the comic strips squeezed so dramatically one needs a magnifying glass to read some of them and on & on. But, then, neither can rely on picking the taxpayers pockets to remain in business. They actually have to show a profit in order to "survive!"
That is a bunch of crap! The Postal Service is a SERVICE. It was not created to make a profit for Congress to put in their pockets. These people want to tell the elderly that they have to walk down the street to get their mail in all kinds of weather? That is what the USPS was created to do! Deliver the mail!
Just deliver my mail twice a week. That would really cut down om my trips to the trash bin...
Congress should stop meddling and let the UPS do what it needs to to remain solvent: do away with Saturday delivery, layoff some workers and trim back on its facilities.
Funding pensions 75 years in advance is an insane man made problem created by Washington politico's in 2006. No other company or corporation has to operate that way. Thanks to yet another tactic to privatize everything, some in our own misguided government has put the postal service in jeopardy. This problem is easy to fix if congress would simply undo what is should never have done in the first place. They're great at creating problems,...not so good at fixing them.
I have lived in all three delivery scenario areas and I think the Community Box is a winning idea.
When I lived in Henderson and had a community box I never had anybody steal mail and walking down the street was never an issue.
When I lived in a rural community in Nevada and had to swing by the PO it was just fine and since it was on the main road heading into town it all worked out fine.
I currently live in an area of Vegas where the mail is delivered to my doorstep and while convenient I think it is the biggest waste of money I have ever encountered.
As soon as the PO started to openly discuss their financial woes I knew the solution was to switch to Community Boxes.
I encourage this and wouldn't mind giving up my doorstep box.
The problem with our current state of affairs is that nobody wants to be inconvenienced and everybody wants to be "special". BS, eliminate door to door and go to community boxes.
Just another example of Congress sitting on dead center rather than GET SOMETHING DONE. No excuse. Leave it up to USPS when and how often to deliver--let them manage their agency and operations. Some rural areas might retain delivery if it could be limit to say twice a week--better than no delivery or being forced to drive into a town 50 miles away. And many neighborhoods, like mine, do not need delivery more than 2-3 times a week, if that. Sure, some businesses want and need more frequent delivery. and if Congress can't DO SOMETHING SOON, they'll have to force us all to drive into larger and larger mailbox units--perhaps like storage units. Thus the USPS could keep deliveries up to 5 days a week but we'd all have to get to the mail boxes 'cause the boxes are not going to be in our neighborhoods.
We cannot go to 5 day delivery at this time..It would be too much for the carriers. Just because you do not get mail does not mean others do not..It takes time to case it all..And not to mention holdiays and boxholder days. Take away both of those, and maybe 5 day delivery would work. By the way, business owners, junk mail is advertising for businesses. They need to get rid of boxes at the front doors. Put the city carriers in a vehicle, and double the amount of homes they deliver to.. There is you 14 billion dollars. They do not need half the city carriers that they have now.
Hey lvfacts101 USPS gets NO tax dollars.And as a 37 year employee of the USPS, NDCBU (cluster boxes)will kill rural customers. If I lose the convenience of getting my mail at the front door,I won't use it,which will hurt advertisers,and there go more jobs.
lvfacts 101 stated: "I have a concern about the safety of the mail in "community mailboxes." I believe they are vulnerable to break-ins and that could lead to greater I.D. theft."
really? a lockable, highly visible concrete-anchored metal box vs. a non-lockable metal box attached to a wood post or a porch wall and you're worried about security?
also, regarding gridlock at the mailbox from dipstick: there are many senior/adult living housing and apartment communities here in the valley and i don't seem to recall any tragic hoveround pileups or mailbox gridlock related violence.
i think the community boxes are a great idea. i've lived in las vegas so long i'd almost forgotten that other places don't have them.
I said this years ago, that its a waste of money delivery to every house, when you could install community boxes. In Arizona, many of the carriers are independent contractors also, another huge savings. Postmasters in each Post Office a total waste. One Postmaster could easly manage 5 post offices. Close all rural Post Offices, and eliminate the free packing materials for Priority mail. I actually know a little about Post Office waste, and most is in upper management. A a example, i know a so called supervisor for a section of the Postal Department on the Northern East Coast. She seldom leaves her home in Florida, and not sure what she does.
Mail is a thing of the past that needs to go away. In today's world and technology, we need to stop the wasteful spending on this program and leave it the private sector. This is why the government is screwed up, just because it worked in the past and was needed, it isn't needed today and they're too stupid to know otherwise.
There are some INSANE negative comments about community mailboxes on this message board. Laughably ridiculous! Gridlock at the mailbox is the dumbest one yet LOLOL.
"Norton's contention that you don't cut service when trying to make a business survive, that's typical bureaucratic nonsense"
Not really. A business can reduce expenses to improve cash flow, reduce inventory, shift some tasks to in-house rather than outside contractors, etcetera. But when a service-based business starts reducing the quality of service or the availability of its services, that is usually a good indicator that the end is near.
As for community mailboxes, they work fine, I just find them to be a community eyesore and aesthetically unappealing. Also, when I lived in a suburban neighborhood that forced them upon us, I found the rear main door open on more than one occasion.
Kevin Boyer, Which particular politico's were behind the deliberate attempt to cause the USPS to fail by requiring the overfunding of pensions? Why, if they actually thought this was a good idea (it wasn't), didn't they make it a law for all private businesses as well?
Chunky says:
Daily postal delivery is an all but outdated concept. Most of what the Chunks family gets at their mailbox is bulk / junk mail which is a waste of trees, fuel, equipment and the staff it takes to get it there.
Chunky agrees to a small extent that any mail delivered to a home or community mailbox is at risk for theft and consequently uses a PO Box for all important mail.
A community mailbox is not so bad as it's a chance to occasionally see and chat with some of the neighbors none of us ever get know anymore.
Eliminating Saturday delivery is a great first step.
Chunky has noticed as of the last year or so the Post Office personnel are becoming a bit more customer service oriented and offering an up-sell of additional services and delivery options.
As for the Chunkerlin Post Office it's dirty, nasty and gross! It's seriously scary to touch the doors, the trash cans have years-old soda stains all over them and the floors are gas station bathroom dirty.
If a person is legitimately unable physically to make it to the community mailbox, then the people or companies mailing to them should be able to pay extra for door to door delivery. Why should the rest of us subsidize that?
That's what Chunky thinks!
It sad that you can no longer place you out going mail in mail box. I usually take my out going mail to the post office and place it in the mailbox in the building. I reduced by out going mail by 90%, I do every basically online. Get rid of the US postal service, its loses $1 billion a year, this country cannot afford that kind of lose. Its cheaper for the US to contract this service out.
In the words of Newman:
"The mail never stops. It just keeps coming and coming and coming. There's never a letup, It's relentless. Every day it piles up more and more, but the more you get out, the more it keeps coming. And then the bar code reader breaks. And then it's Publisher's Clearinghouse day."
Hand delivery of physical mail is a relic of the past not to mention a jobs program for the incredible number of postal employees. Buggy whips went by the wayside. So must the postal service.
I literally get something of value delivered perhaps three times per year. Same for outgoing mail. Yes, per year. And this is only because I must deal with some antiquated companies.l
Times have changed. Hundreds of thousands of postal service employees are no longer needed.
Pensions will be the end of the USA as we know it...there is no way you can pay someone for life for only 20 or 30 years of work.
Comment removed by moderator. - -
I have shipped over 30,000 packages over the last decade. 29,500 of them the USPS, 485 FedEx, 13 UPS, and 2 by ocean/rail/truck. As you can imagine, the shipments were usually less than a pound.
Out of all those shipments 2 were damaged and 4 were delivered to wrong addresses provided by the customer and 7 were claimed to have not been delivered. An excellent record.
I have seen the rate increases and had to study them out. I can tell you with almost absolute certainty that the rate increases in 2007 were made at the urging of the lobbyists of FedEx and UPS. All of the rates gave the cream of the crop pricing to private companies at the expense of the USPS.
The original purpose of the Post office was to keep information flowing from one place to another unencumbered by politics or religion. It has made the press an unelected 4th branch of government. We still need these freedoms today. If the Comcasts or Cox internet monoliths decide to blackmail FedEx or UPS into blocking certain companies -- as private companies they can and should have the right to not serve those they do not have reason to.
This is all the reason in the world to stop this privatization overreach going on right now.
This is a ginned up problem, please read here:
"In 2006, the postal service generated a profit. That was the last time it did so, because in late 2006, a lame duck Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which among other things forced the postal service to fund its retiree health benefit obligations 75 years into the future, and to do so within 10 years.
Taking care of retirees is a good thing, and we've seen far too many workers expected to fill the gaps in pensions and health benefits underfunded through no fault of their own. I'm not arguing that the postal service should reverse course so far that it leaves its retirees without health care. But if you needed a single concrete example to demonstrate that this is a manufactured crisis, here it is: Congress put a burden on the postal service that no other government agency or private corporation faces, and when that causes or accelerates problems, it's taken as evidence of certain doom and the need to make deep cuts.
According to Sen. Bernie Sanders, not someone who is going to argue for leaving retired workers in the lurch:
The Postal Service should be released from the "onerous and unprecedented burden" of being forced to put $5.5 billion every year into its future retiree health benefits fund. Sanders's office explains that "even if there are no further contributions from the post office, and if the fund simply collects 3.5 to 4 percent interest every year, that account will be fully funded in twenty-one years."
At the same time, the senator suggests, the postal service should be allowed to recover more than $13 billion in overpayments it has made to a federal retirement systems.
So the immediacy of the "crisis" the postal service faces is one created by Congress." But there are legitimate long-term challenges, including one in particular we hear a great deal about: the internet.
Yet:
From peak first-class volumes in 2001 to 2007, before the recession began, first-class mail volumes declined from 103.6 billion to 96.3 billion -- a total drop of 7%, or just over 1% a year. From 2007 to 2011, first-class volumes declined from 96.3 billion to 73.5 billion -- a drop of 23%, or about 6% a year.
In other words, first-class mail has declined by 30% over the past ten years. About 7% of that 30% happened in the six years before the recession, and the other 23% happened in the four years after the recession began.
The internet should also create possibilities. After all, while people pay their bills there, they also rack up a lot of those bills through online shopping, and someone has to ship those packages. UPS and FedEx don't serve as many doors as the postal service, and in many cases they contract with the postal service to provide "last-mile" delivery. This means UPS and FedEx rates will ZOOM with these cuts and service will be cut back also....
...That means the proposed cuts--no Saturday delivery, longer first-class delivery times, closed processing centers and post offices, and more--would set off a death spiral, with cuts leading to loss of business leading to further cuts. This wouldn't just affect the postal service, slowing mail delivery and forcing many people in rural areas to drive long distances to get their mail, it would affect the entire economy. We're talking here about tens of thousands of layoffs that would disproportionately affect African-Americans and veterans. And cutting that many jobs, especially in concentrated clumps with closing of processing centers, would hit local economies hard."
Make the rules fair and leave the USPS alone.
Each time I am forced to go to the post office and use their customer service I am reminded of just why I don't care if these people lose their jobs. Apparently, they don't care either.
HERE IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN if the Postal service is allowed to cut-back services, eliminate post offices, and fire postal workers - especially in the large numbers being floated around to "test the waters."
1. As any CEO knows, you can't INCREASE REVENUE by cutting sales and services, raising prices, endangering market visibility, or reducing your work force. You could NOT SUSTAIN an adequate level of business activity.
2. If the Postal Service is allowed to IMPLEMENT the REDUCTIONS they want - they will have DESTROYED the ability of the U.S. Postal Service to deliver the mail, and operate function efficiently and effectively. That also means their DEFICITS will increase due to a REDUCED REVENUE STREAM POTENTIAL.
3. THEN, IF and WHEN our ECONOMY improves, and Postal Service are then needed in larger numbers (after the reductions) - they WILL NOT BE ABLE TO respond to the (then) INCREASED demand for mail delivery services.
Neither the Postal Service's mail delivery capabilities, nor the (reduced) INFRASTRUCTURE will exist that can accomodate required mail service to the nation. And to rebuild the Postal Service - at a future date - will COST MUCH MORE than it does to operate it today. It would be much better to concentrate on RESOLVING the DEFICIENCIES.
I predict that a FURTHER DOWNGRADE in the operation of Postal Services will occur when in the future - the LOSS of physical Post OFfices, reduction in Postal workers, and the EXACERBATED EFFECT of REVENUE LOSSES will cause people to seek OTHER opportunities for mail services.
The U.S. Constitution says: "The Congress shall have the power ... To establish Post Offices and post Roads." It says NOTHING about privatizing this fuction of government.
SINCE THE REMOVAL of the Post Office from its FORMER position as a "government agency" the Postal Unions have demanded more money each year - for benefits, operations, and wages. As a result, COSTS HAVE RISEN dramatically. This is also true for the badly MISMANAGED USPS Pension Fund.
The executives of the Postal Service are PAID (I hesitate to use the word "earn") in the $200,000 to $300,000 range - and - if you think GSA SPENDS a lot of money it shouldn't - just look at the FAREWELL PARTY the Postal Service threw several years ago for their first CEO when he retired.
They spent several hundered thousand DOLLARS - JUST TO SAY, GOODBYE to him. I guess we are all a "CASH COW" now, because the American people PAY for U.S. MAIL Services at Post Office RATES.
Since the Postal Service suggestons for becoming SOLVENT do not include or realistically address SPENDING REDUCTIONS, I believe they DO NOT KNOW HOW to REDUCE SPENDING - or are NOT UNWILLING to do so.
SO, lets solve the problem. Bring the Postal Service BACK UNDER THE GOVERNMENT, operate it like a business, eliminate the high-priced executives, and let AUSTERITY RULE THE DAY. If we don't, it is DOOMED TO FAIL; and FAILURE IS NOT A OPTION.
Fewer routes, fewer mail carriers: "According to a 2011 Inspector General's report, the changeover could save $4.5 billion to $9.6 billion a year."
WOW! It is true that the USPS is jeopardized by the loss of JUST $4.5 billion/year? They should all get medals and ice cream sandwiches for lunch.
The Iraq war has been insolvent from the beginning. It cost $120 billion for the military every year in immediate costs, and another ~$100 billion/year for the civilian contractors and armies that had more people in Iraq then the military. A $220 billion/year insolvency with no complaints from those who are trying to close the USPS instead. Now there is an emergency push to save $4.9 billion at the Post Office?
War was an opportunity for the GOP to create enormous National debt, then use the debt as an argument for ending Social Security, Medicare and now the Post Office. The next in line are highways - sell them off to private bidders and have toll roads. It's a continuing GOP agenda, spend on war until social services, schools, highways AND the Post Office can be disposed and turned into private ventures.
Dippy: "expect gridlock at the mail box."
One truly has to question your sanity.
The Far-Right-Wing-Nut-Jobs...
They won't be happy until they RUIN THE COUNTRY completely.
This is a MANUFACTURED CRISIS
As SunJon, Socratic, Jeff & others point out, this is ANOTHER NUTTY, NATION-WRECKING NOTION by the Nattering Nabobs of Right-Wing-Extremism.
The USPS is a MODEL OF EFFICIENCY, and has not used a DIME OF GOVERNMENT DOUGH since 19 & 71...
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Pos...
We MUST NOT LET these crazy wacko's win; it's the US MAIL, FOR CRIPE'S SAKE!!!
OR...
Have we become that inured to the TeaPublican's constant harping that ALL THINGS GOVERNMENT are INHERENTLY EVIL, that we would jeopardize some of our nation's most effective, imperative & self-sustaining institutions?
Trillions for wars, billions for bailouts, a license to steal on Wall Street...
But Social Security, Medicare and the Post office (& perhaps your JOB, HOME, & your RETIREMENT ACCOUNT) these things our fellow Americans should be willing to DO WITHOUT, and NOT QUESTION your 'Patriotic Duty' to do so!
SAVE THE USPS...
http://www.saveamericaspostalservice.org...
the average wage of postal workers is about $19-$20 an hour plus benefits, they make about 50k + a year. Imagine all the people who work at McDonalds or WalMart that would be happy to work at 2/3 that and would still be making more with better benefits then they have now. That would keep many employed and lower the cost of doing business. I can't figure why nobody has thought of this before!
In some small Nevada towns the post office is the only ATM in town. Seniors rely on timely medicine delivery's provided by USPS as no medicine arrives through internet service. . . How will rural folks send certified mail or get a money order timely at a cluster box when there PO is closed?
Billions spent nation building abroad while our country is falling down. Its clear the U.S. congress is the Americans peoples worst enemy as shown by their actions. The post office worked fine until 2006 when "our" elected congress critters put the fix in?
Changes can be made at the post office to better serve all USPS customers not just the ones living in large metropolitan zip codes. Killing USPS is short sighted and criminal. . .
"Audit of Pentagon Spending Finds $70 Billion in Waste"
"The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, accounted for $28 billion of that increase."
"All told, the accountability office said, the projected cost of the Pentagon's largest programs has risen by $135 billion, or 9 percent, to $1.68 trillion since 2008."
"The other $70 billion of increases appeared "to be indicative of production problems and inefficiencies or flawed initial cost estimates."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/busine...
To pay for that, cut-backs of mail delivery is being considered to rural and low income communities (along with public schools, medical care, etc.)
There is plenty of money but the war lords are draining the supply into their own pockets, not for defense but for WASTE which continues unabated. The war syndicates are cannibalizing the traditional institutions that made this Country great for bogus programs.
Bin Laden began the cannibalization of America with only 19 hijackers creating wild paranoia, and the Dept of Homeland Security has taken over to finish the job.
I pay taxes so our US post offices can stay open on Sat not for post offices to be built in Iraq and Afghanistan!
Many of the rural US Post Offices are a type of lifeline for the older community members. As Paul Rupp pointed out, "In some small Nevada towns the post office is the only ATM in town. Seniors rely on timely medicine delivery's provided by USPS as no medicine arrives through internet service. . . How will rural folks send certified mail or get a money order timely at a cluster box when there PO is closed?"
The 15 Nevada rural Post Offices are located in areas that contain wilderness areas, that also have freezing cold weather half of the year, and questionable road supervision. Outdoor community boxes leave some mailed medical goods vulnerable. Also, the US Postal employees are the extra eyes watching out for community members, often reporting welfare check ups when something is suspect.
I have a Lund PO Box, and cannot imagine all the problems with having a community box with the weather there. In previous years, I had a community box in Murrieta, California, and here in Las Vegas, Nevada, and found there were times the US Mail was tampered with or vandalized. Some security IS compromised.
Let the US Post Office alone, for Congress to quit meddling with them with insane retirement funding demands.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
I haven't bought a stamp or sent anything thru the Post Office in years - I do everything online and I go to my mailbox only once a week to get the junk mail which promptly goes right into my trash without a glance. I'd LOVE to be able to stop the junk mailings but haven't figured out who to contact yet. I asked a mail carrier once how to stop the junk mail and was told to look thru the mailings and that there was a number/address I could contact to be taken off the 'list'. That was the only time I scrutinized all the ads front-to-back and all to no avail - never found the needed 'contact' info and thus I continue to get junk mail that continues to go directly from the mail box to the trash can :( n If the Post Office went away tomorrow I wouldn't miss it one bit.
Plenty of money for Iraq with a new 2000 person obscene U.S. embassy near Baghdad. . .
Plenty of money for Afghanistan as the U.S. committed 10 more years after 2014 until 2024. ..
Plenty of money for Libya and Syrian rebels...
No money for U.S. rural postal system--?--
The PO is outdated.u have too much overhead. if u cut 25% of the workforce u can save money and also eliminate 25% of Supervisors . Saturday delivery is a LUXURY. Community mail boxes is another given. larger contributions for retirement and medical is another given.
I agree with most of the comments herein in favor of KEEPING the Postal Service running AS IT IS NOW - including some lesser version of other comments that advocate deep cuts or changes in delivery of postal services.
HOWEVER, "...to save the U.S. Postal Service from insolvency..." the USPS Postmaster General needs to RE-CONSIDER the various negative impacts on this nation's people and business - if the changes he wants are implemented.
The Postmaster General is supposed to be a "CEO" - responsible to his "Shareholders" (the AMERICAN PEOPLE). When the "Post Office" was removed from under the Federal Government, This change DID NOT RELIEVE the USPS from its Charter MANDATE of delivering the U.S. Mail. The move toward SOLVENCY can be achieved by getting USPS executives to "THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX" for solutions.
One example of cost-savings is to increase the postage rate for "junk mail," and reduce the MANUAL work-effort needed to process it - which is far more expensive than to process a First Class letter.
Another idea would be to reduce EXCESSIVE COSTS, such as the current use of FEDEX by the Postal Service to move mail by AIR and GROUND between cities. FEDEX DOUBLED its Commercial price for sending packages, etc., in 2011. When the USPS contracted with FEDEX to move (and deliver) the mail - it set itself up for future COST INCREASES - due to a LACK OF COMPETITION.
DHL (a company in Germany) used to provide USPS with air delivery service until this year, when they stopped due to added COST ISSUES. So much for competition.
So, if the USPS Postmaster General begin THINKING "OUT OF THE BOX" - he would, no doubt, find there are many ways to REDUCE COSTS - and cure the emerging insolvency of the USPS.
ONE LAST POINT regarding "FAIRNESS." As many as 35% of the millions of retired senior citizens, the poor, the sick, or infirm people are either unable - or can't afford - to use the Internet.
So, if USPS implements their proposed changes in mail delivery and services, millions of citizens will become "DISADVANTAGED" - A CONDITION that the Congress has written massive legislation to cure, and spent $BILLIONS of dollars to prevent - since the 1960's. And the Congress would ALLOW the USPS to, effectively, "REVERSE such legislation" now? Because USPS can't control their SPENDING habits?
I submit that SUCH ACTION will provide GROUNDS for a class-action LAWSUIT against the USPS - and Members of Congress - to show "misfeasance and malfeasance" in violation of the Constitutional MANDATE to operate Post ofices, and deliver the mail. If the government can increase the Nationl Debt by 5 Trillion dollars in four years, they can find $4 billion to keep Post Offices open.
The Post Master General is appointed and may be carrying out an agenda to promote a certain outcome that is unfavorable to rural post office customers.