<p>The bad news just keeps coming. The USPS is struggling to make a health care payment for retirees. Most concerning is that it was often cited as an attractive example of how nationalized health care could look. Yikes.</p>
<p>[Clock</a> ticking on U.S. Postal Service default | Reuters](<a href=“http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/01/usa-usps-defaultclock-idUSN1E7801KT20110901]Clock”>http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/01/usa-usps-defaultclock-idUSN1E7801KT20110901)</p>
<p>My mother told me today that this is the fault of people like me , who pay bills online instead of mailing a check ;)</p>
<p>I hope it will stop deliver junk mails. I’ve been getting a lot of junk mails that I can’t keep up.</p>
<p>I wish there was a no junk mail register, like the do not call register. </p>
<p>The post office needs to down size. Mailing letters is never coming back.</p>
<p>I can’t believe they still haven’t cut Saturday delivery - what is the pushback on that issue based on?</p>
<p>There are ways to remove junk mail but I’m too lazy to do it. Here is an exerpt from a blog.
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<p>It escapes me entirely why the post office can’t make money on packages and letters and overnights and 3rd-days and passports and stamp collectors and post office boxes (and real estate!) when competitors make money on subsets of the above.</p>
<p>The Postal Service is not free to make business decisions although the public wants to hold it to the standards of other businesses. It cannot reduce delivery to 5 days or close post offices without congressional approval. What do you think the response of these fiscally responsible congresspersonalities is when someone decides to close a post office in their district? Or when their phones are overwhelmed by complaints from elderly rural customers who want that Saturday delivery? The Postal Service is not asking for government money–they are asking for the freedom to make the business decisions that have to be made. They are in the worst of all worlds–expected to operate as a business but with Congress blocking every move that could save money…</p>
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They probably could, but they are also obligated to deliver all that first class and junk mail for a relative pittance, and they’re stuck with crippling pension and health plan contributions.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that civil-service workers cannot get social security. These crippling pensions are at least not paid for through your social security paychecks. And the healthcare options for retirees are good, but the workers did trade years of working for salaries that are less than private sector workers from the same time period. Most retirees in US businesses also have decent employee heathcare. USPS now has significantly fewer employees than they did in the 50s-80s when workers like my mother paid into the system. </p>
<p>If it weren’t for junk mail, the postal service would be out of business. Also, if they charged market rate for delivery, they would be better off, but it would be significantly more expensive. Forget sending graduation invitations at $3.00 each. It will be sad to see the postal service go, as my mother was a loyal employee for 37 years. I remember as a small child dreaming about my dream job of postal inspector.</p>
<p>I personally think it is a steal to have a letter delivered for 44 cents anywhere in the US. Maybe this opinion has roots in the report I did in middle school on the Pony Express 
I don’t hear any discussion of raising the price of a first class stamp to cover their expenses – I assume there are some restrictions on how much they can raise them, but seems to me that should be revisted. Me, I like Saturday mail delivery (would hate to wait an extra day for those Netflix DVDs that aren’t available through streaming!).</p>
<p>If they raise first class rates, people will mail even fewer letters. </p>
<p>As it is now, I used to send out a lot of Christmas cards, but with Facebook and email, I just do not see the point. My friends and family get updated photos and the news that I used to include in the card.</p>
<p>I don’t see the point of the USPS at all. FedEx and UPS are faster and more reliable for packages. Regular mail seems antiquated. I’d be just fine without it. You can do everything faster and more efficiently online. </p>
<p>I pretty much get one meaningful thing a month in the mail… my electric bill. If the USPS downsized to maybe once a week delivery I bet my electric company would expand their Internet billing. There’s no reason for mail to come 5-6x a week. Once or twice, if at all, is fine.</p>
<p>Notaclue- the post office proposed eliminating one day and Congress had a fit.</p>
<p><a href=“OptOutPrescreen.com”>OptOutPrescreen.com;
<p>This is what we used to minimize some of our junk mail. You can do it online, but you have to print the filled-out form and send a copy into them.</p>
<p>The problem is that it is a government agency… with that in mind, there are sooooo many problems that it is hard to point at one cause of all this mess.</p>
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<p>Let me rephrase that a tad …</p>
<p>The notaclue-post-office proposed eliminating one day and the notaclue-Congress had a fit. :)</p>
<p>On a more serious and somber note, the US will probably lose 100 billion before restricting the delivery to 5 days, another 100B before going to 4 days, and the pattern will continue until the most logical solution of zero delivery will become clear to all. In the meantime, we will rack up those losses as we have no real options in dealing with more than 500,000 workers and 200,000 trucks and will need to continue with this government welfare program.</p>
<p>Perhaps having Christmas 6 times a year might work!</p>
<p>From the latest census data, only 68.7% of US households have internet access in their homes. As long as mail is needed, it will be delivered. Sometimes on CC we forget that not everyone is wired. Generation gaps, poverty, access all prevent email from being king, and the USPS handles all that with relative efficiency. Remember, it was a self-supporting agency for a very long time, and the private companies have made attempts at residential delivery and it wasn’t profitable. Isn’t that what government should be doing for us? Those necessary but unprofitable things? Roads, food inspection, military, policing, fire and mail service.</p>
<p>MizzBee, that’s way too practical and rational for the internet. You’ll need to practice snappy cheapshots and soundbites before you’re allowed to play in this sandbox.</p>
<p>^^@MizzBee: I agree.</p>
<p>^@kluge: Sad but seemingly true.</p>