I need all Prius members Help non car prob

Yes, this is totally in the wrong section, lol...and pretty much you're politcally lobbying.

Anyhow, I will support the USPS, even though they have been pretty careless with my packages.

 

Being retired from the USPS, I can tell you that the last year I was working about one fourth of the parcels I delivered had been mailed by companies through.....
are you ready......UPS!!!!!!!!!! They put a different type of label in the corner where the postage should be and mail them through the post office....delaying them an extra day and pocketing the difference to boot! I put in for a suggest award to get the USPS to put an ad on TV to let people know that even UPS uses us and they declined it saying that we'd loose one of our best customers!!!!!

As far as cutting Sat deliveries, it would save money.....but some customers really like it, including me. It was frustrating working on the weekends and missing a LOT of my kids activites....the ex stated it was one of the reasons she divorced me!

 

I like your mileage tracker chart. Is it a program or did you make it?

 

I cannot remember where I heard this. It was one of the podcasts I listen to. Possibly Fresh Air or This American Life. According to the story, the USPS would be solvent and self-supporting were it not for a law passed by Congress which requires the USPS to pre-fund all employee benefits 75 years into the future. That means they are maintaining funds today to provide services for employees who have not been born yet. Further, there was an error which deposited some enormous additional amount, above that required, into this fund, and Congress will not allow them to pull it back out. That alone would allow the USPS to become solvent again.

I have mixed feelings, though. During the 20-plus years I lived in rural North Dakota and before that when I lived in CA, I never received a letter not addressed to my address, and I was never aware of a letter of mine failing to be delivered. Since moving to Spokane 6 years ago, it happens all the time: My mail is delivered to my neighbor's box, and I get letters addressed to a neighbor or to a different street, and on at least one occasion a check I had mailed in payment of a bill arrived at its destination two months late, having been misdirected to the address of someone who had their mail on vacation hold.

The reliability of the USPS has fallen since the old days.

I no longer receive bills or pay them by mail. (Nor do I get car parts in the mail.) Once in a blue moon something I order on the internet comes by USPS. I have one friend who still sends me letters (once or twice a year). Other than that, all I get by USPS is NetFlix and advertising. Great mountains of junk mail! When I am getting or sending a package from UPS or FedEx I can track it on line. With USPS I cannot.

I strongly believe that we should support a postal service that serves every home. But I believe that it should be supported by the government, and not by using my mailbox as a garbage can for junk mail which serves no purpose except to consume trees and fill landfills. The fact that I cannot opt out of receiving mail addressed to "resident" or "occupant" lessens my support for the USPS. Junk mail supports the USPS, but it does it at too high an environmental cost.

 

i've heard that 75 year story too, i wish we could get a clear picture of that. instead of a 75 year reserve, they should do away with retirement for all new hires and go with a 401k and social security like the private sector. either way, i don't need saturday delivery and if it will help them remain competitive, do away with it. and then postal workers can go to a 5 day work week.

 

It's time to privatize the USPS and let the free market handle it. The Government is broke and we can't continue spending that isn't necessasary. The Unions won't be happy until they bleed every last dollar out of the Taxpayers.

 

^ +1 :thumb:

 

The U.S. Postal Service | Need to Know | PBS

 

seems reasonable.

 

jfk's golf clubs-perfect.

 

The USPS is an amazing service! Who else, will pick up my stuff, 6 days a week, at my door, and move it clear across the country if need be, and drop at someone else's door, all for under $.50! All in a matter of days. We routinely travel between coasts, and often we ship stuff to avoid luggage charges on the airline, or to save space in the car. Even in the case of flying, we have had stuff get there before us when we ship only a day or two before we leave.

Can efficiencies be had in the system,, sure, but to all those that suggest ideas like getting rid of pensions,,why do we always have to race tot he bottom? Defined benefit pensions were the biggest way to keep retired Americans living well, and by extension participating in a vibrant economy. The move away from defined benefit pension to defined contribution has been little more than a license for Wall St. to steal, yet again. The game is rigged against working class Americans, and is getting worse. What too few people get is how unions built the middle clase, and the slow demise of unions has led to the decline of that middle class almost in direct proportion to union membership. (full disclosure, I am not now, nor have I ever been a union member, having been self employed my entire working life. )

Additionally, to those that would privatize the USPS, I say this. That may work just fine if you are the ~80% of Americans who live in urban areas, but you think that UPS or FED is going to go to every address in the country with 1st class type mail? ( some of which is essential,, most have computers and don't need mail per se, but those same rural citizens also struggle with limited or non existent ISP service)

There are some core essential government services,, and the USPS ought to be one of them. If I have to pay a few bucks a year in TAXES to support such essential services,, well too bad!

Icarus

PS further full disclosure,, I use Fed and UPS for many of my parcels, primarily because of the better tracking. If the USPS had better tracking I would use them more.

 

Lately I've noticed this has gotten better. For the past few months, whatever I've ordered through Amazon's super saver....I get an up to date USPS tracking order. For most my shipping situations, I've found USPS is one of the fasest and most reliable methods...including parcels to Europe. Of all parcel services, I've found UPS is the worst service. I prefer USPS or Fedex for overall service. I've had packages through UPS that are supposed to have tracking, and they aren't up to date and show up a couple days later then anticipated. There's only one shipment I've had with USPS that's been delayed because it was shipped as some freight order. It arrived in Atlanta from Fedex, and then stayed in limbo for almost a week before it got switched to postal service. Everyone's experiences are different from region...but I would say in the Atlanta area, USPS is very good (of all the thousands of Netflix rentals I've gone through, all have been overnight).

 

icky, gotta disagree on the pensions. i would love everybody to have them. by why is it that a government with 15 trillion dollars in debt has it and private sector who has to make a profit doesn't? sure you can point out some mega corps who make enough profit to throw some into pensions, but there are millions of small business's barely staying afloat and keeping people employed who couldn't do it with the added burden of a growing number of retired employees living longer with an absolute right to a fixed pension.

 

First , the USPS pensions are not government funded. Second, look at the numbers in the the last generation and see the erosion of the middle class and see how those numbers compare with pension style.

Your point is that private sector business "can't afford" it is largely bunk. Corporate profits are at record highs, top exec salaries and benefits are at historic highs,, this is just another straw man argument (myth) that we can't afford to have a reasonable economic system that has some balance. It is not that we can't afford to pay for things,, we just choose not to, especially when one looks at the increasing concentrations of wealth in fewr and fewer hands in th last generation, driven largely by tax policy that disproportionally favors the few. We are still a wealth country, but we have very successfully redistributed it,, up in the last generation.

Icarus

 

National debt is not based on the pension system of government employees. Actually, just looking at the overlays of the USPS is a prime example. It seems as though their debts are from different congressional outlays and not their own expenditures. It could be argued that if they were able to act completely independantly from federal interests for the last 30 years, they would not be facing any debts today.

 

i didn't say that it was. if they can operate independently and not get bailed out by the gov if they get into trouble (a la gm) then i don't have a problem with it. i just don't think we're 'racing' to the bottom, it's just the nature of competition. and global competition has made it more challenging.