Closing the Post Office Branches

[Throckmorton]

How about they can a bunch of these workers, and hire a few people to get people to stop sending me spam mail, PITA. There is nothing in the mail I need that I cannot get online, outside of UPS/FEDEX shipments of goods.

The reason the USPS is self supporting is because of the junk mail. Otherwise it would cost tax dollars to support them (vs just now when they occasionally can't support themselves).

 

[Dissipate]

Really? That's your answer? Think about your reply, and bear in mind that not everyone is a young mobile college student in an urban area with Ipad always at hand and smart-phone always in their pocket.

Or do old/disabled/poor people deserve to be disenfranchised even more?

Why would you need to be a mobile college student in an urban area with an Ipad to log in to pay bills once a month??

New technology has always 'disenfranchised' some group of people. In reality, friends, family and other groups have helped those 'disenfranchised' people to adapt.

 

[Jhhnn]

It's not necessarily sustainable, but Congress is in charge of allowing or disallowing postage rate increases.

The rates of mailing stuff have not "rocketed up" in recent years is what I was saying.

As for sustainability, some of the problems come from having to prefund the retirement accounts, something larger corporations are not required by law to do.

All retirement vehicles should be pre-funded. When they're not, execs generally find a way to steal them.

 

[Brainonska511]

All retirement vehicles should be pre-funded. When they're not, execs generally find a way to steal them.

True. I'm not complaining that they are mandated to do that, just pointing out that what they have in terms of expenses is higher than another company which just might pay benefits on a cash-flow basis instead of out of a shored up retirement fund. The reasons the USPS is losing money are not typical of similar companies which don't have such laws binding their hands.

 

[Itchrelief]

Like someone said, might as well close the smaller offices and curtail delivery to more money-losing areas, since the same people who are for small government and the like are also most likely to be affected by the cutbacks. In this case, if they're willing to take the hit for me, I say let em!