I need all Prius members Help non car prob

The USPS has not been bailed out and their debts are from congressional outlays: not their internal revenues or expenditures.

 

Bisco,

I agree that global competition is an issue throughout or economy, but I n addition, we are at a race to the bottom. Bottom line we can't compete on price with cheap consumer stuff, we need to complete with our brain power, leveraging our smarts.

My point is, as we continue to cut what I consider essential services, like education, and health care, we will only find it harder to compete. How ironic is it that we educate a large number of scientists and engineers from abroad, and the force them to leave, in essence paying to export brain power instead of allowing them to stay and become the next generation of high tech entrepreneurs.

While we cut these services because we claim we can't afford them, we continue to cut taxes on those that have plenty already.

My guess is that this thread will soon move to the politico thread.

Icarus

 

There is less of a "brain drain" as there used to be. As developing countries gain more education standards, and more competitive research grants, there are less students looking at our elite schools as being the end all in higher education. Some of the politics that's ended many research grants, and diminished our reputation in science, is the worst of our current trends IMO.

 

From "the week"

401ks started as a way for high paid execs to pad thier company pensions, but employers soon found that could save a tone of money by off loading pension costs to the employees. In the "race to the bottom" we have gone from ~ 60 percent of workers covered by traditional pensions, to now less than 10%. (see also union membership numbers!)

Icarus

 

Just be aware that when you ship a parcel to another country through the USPS, that parcel will be handed over to the post office of that country. In the case of Mexico (where I lived for 4 1/2 years) this means that your parcel has about a 10% chance of disappearing, and will take about a month to arrive otherwise.

European countries have better post offices.

 

I thought of a possible reason that Congress won't let the USPS take back that seven billion dollars that was wrongly deposited into the fund: I'll bet by law that money has to go into U.S. Government bonds or some kind of treasury bills. That means the government gets to use that money. When you buy treasuries or government bonds you are lending money to the government. Congress would not want to see seven billion dollars of U.S. bonds hitting the market, or have to buy them back.

In short, Congress is telling the USPS, "You loaned us that money, and we don't want to pay it back yet."

Just a thought.

 

let's keep it clean then. i can't argue with your points. the only thing i know for sure is that our small business is in a race to the bottom for profits. the only significant places left to cut are health care or employees. but this has more to do with the recession than global competition. maybe single payer health would help but we're not getting that. maybe higher tax rates on upper income people would help, but we're not getting that either. maybe lower 401k fees would help, but tim geitners not going to give us that. oops! forget i said that. so, the only solution is to kill the post office! just kidding.

 

Sorry, but I'm not the biggest fan of the USPS.
I rent a box for the very few items that I have to receive from the USPS, and the only reason that I still have a physical mail box in front of my house is that the military requires a physical address. Other than that...it's a device that converts about twenty pounds of paper into landfill fodder every month.

I'm one of the relatively few union employees in the world of Prius, and so I'm usually a softer touch where labor issues are concerned. However (comma!) as far as I'm concerned the only reason why the USPS could possibly be regarded as anything other than a failed enterprise by folks who would normally be competent at simple math lies at the root of its problem.
The Legislature.
Only Congress could possibly bollix up an enterprise as simple as (and probably as profitable as) mail delivery would be without their manipulations. The very fact that people could be talked into believing that a service that looses millions a year (or billions......nobody really knows, because it's that complex!) is worth saving, is a testament to Congressional obfuscation.
What I find to be really delicious, is that some people scream like crazy when the government bails out some union jobs (GM) but they turn a blind eye towards other jobs, and they turn right back around and scream louder when the government employs NON unionized folks to protect our borders!!!
It's dizzying.

Oops.
I made a mistake in my argument.
The military does many jobs, but I forgot.
We don't guard borders.
Crap.

Digressions aside.....hitting the delete key for Sat delivery just means that I have one less day per week in my involuntary paper-to-landfill routine.