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USPS - Still a money pit

The post office is there to provide a vital service to the country whether it loses money or makes money in the process is irrelevant.
 
As vital as it once was? The answer is obviously no. Private competition and technology have changed things.

But it is still playing a huge role in our economy. I have no doubt you could improve the efficiency of the service and bring down the costs but losing 10 billion a year on it is something I wouldn't even flinch at.
 
I wonder whether the service provided by the post office is as vital as it once was.

Absolutely as can be seen by the level of advertising sales through the postal system.

Our system is envied by the rest of the world.

It would dramatically harm our economy to privatize the USPS.
 
I thought that the USPS can't/doesn't run on tax revenue; they're supposed to operate solely off of the fees they collect. Is this not correct? Are they having to borrow money to keep their doors open?
 
Make first class letters $0.50 and they will be maknig a profit.
 
Charge a fee to opt out of junk mail. I would gladly pay $50/year to stop having to sort through that crap.
 
I may b e a little off, but looking at the numbers they send over 4.3B pieces of single first class mail (and many, many more of other types).

Group mailing was much bigger.

But as you showed, mail is dropping.
 
Charge a fee to opt out of junk mail. I would gladly pay $50/year to stop having to sort through that crap.

Amen. I'm not sure what I would pay, but I know it would be more than $50. Definitely $100. Not sure how much higher, since it is totally hypothetical, but I have a feeling I would end up going relatively high.
 
They could streamline by getting out of the package delivery business since private companies are just as good or better.
 
What's the economic impact of the USPS? If I send a letter from Southwest BFE to Northeast BFE, I know it actually costs way over 43 cents to get there. But how much money to I save using USPS?

That's what we should be measuring. I don't remember anybody talking about how much money the DOD made off the internet. All we care is that it's making Americans and the world a lot of money. All I care is that instead of going to a FedEx box, I can walk out to the street, put in a letter with a stamp, and lift the flag and be pretty sure it will get where it needs to go.

I'd also be interested to know how much business expenses would go up without USPS and how much of that would get passed on to the consumer. If a $10 billion loss results in $100 billion in savings, that's a good return on our taxes.
 
Amen. I'm not sure what I would pay, but I know it would be more than $50. Definitely $100. Not sure how much higher, since it is totally hypothetical, but I have a feeling I would end up going relatively high.

Think of asll the extra time the mail carriers would have to spend making sure you didn't get any jujnk mail.

Plus there would probalby different levels of what would be called junk mail.

If we ended Saturday deliveries, banks and other stores would manke a bonanza off of late payments.

That is unless there would be an added day or two to grace periods. Of course, banks would spend millions to ensure this wouldn't happen.
 
We had this argument on the old boards. I think the case was that it would be detrimental to the flow of mail to go 2 days straight without delivery. With that in mind, cutting Wednesday delivery would be a better option.

I think these are a few ways that USPS could save some money while maintaining service:

1. Classify harder to reach destinations as "remote service". Remote deliveries/pick ups would only take place 4 days a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday). That would allow post offices in remote areas to use a short staff on Wednesday and Friday and would cut drivers (and gas mileage) on those routes. Any businesses or individuals in remote areas who want Wednesday/Friday service can pay a premium for it. I think many people would realize it's not that urgent.

2. On the same token, since snail mail isn't particularly urgent, come up with a neighborhood program encourage neighborhoods to agree to delivery/pick up on 4 days a week. Build in some neighborhood incentives. My trash gets picked up twice a week. Do I really need mail delivered 6 days a week?
 
What if they eliminated home delivery altogether (except in the case of handicapped people) and just built everyone a PO Box linked to your home address at the closest branch? That would save a ton of money in the long run.
 
How about tell the lady who delivers mail at my old apartment complex to turn off the delivery truck while she stands there for 30 minutes putting mail in all the boxes.
 
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