A Postal Service bailout?

[Polk]

Try mailing a first class letter usig FEDEX and get back to me with what it costs, would ja?

fed-x can not deliver a ist-class letter....against the law.....

Guess why? If they could, they'd just cherry-pick the most profitable routes, dumping the rest.

 

[rightwinger]

Try mailing a first class letter usig FEDEX and get back to me with what it costs, would ja?

fed-x can not deliver a ist-class letter....against the law.....

Guess why? If they could, they'd just cherry-pick the most profitable routes, dumping the rest.

Its hard to judge the profit making ability of the Post Office. If they could choose to only serve the profitable locations they would make a sizeable profit. But given their mandate to serve rural America and deliver love letters to Sarah Palins moose lodge in Podunk Alaska for 44 cents a letter its difficult to turn a profit

 

[Harry Dresden]

USPS.. last stop for the terminally lazy.

come down and put a route up then carry it in 8 hours fuckhead.....got a thousand dollars that says you could not do it in 10....

 

[Harry Dresden]

Try mailing a first class letter usig FEDEX and get back to me with what it costs, would ja?

fed-x can not deliver a ist-class letter....against the law.....

Guess why? If they could, they'd just cherry-pick the most profitable routes, dumping the rest.

and they would charge you a buck to deliver the letter....more the further away it is....

 

[Harry Dresden]

fed-x can not deliver a ist-class letter....against the law.....

Guess why? If they could, they'd just cherry-pick the most profitable routes, dumping the rest.

Its hard to judge the profit making ability of the Post Office. If they could choose to only serve the profitable locations they would make a sizeable profit. But given their mandate to serve rural America and deliver love letters to Sarah Palins moose lodge in Podunk Alaska for 44 cents a letter its difficult to turn a profit

the PO is mandated by federal law to "hopefully" break even.....good luck with that....they do have some really bad managers though.....

 

[MaggieMae]

The postal service will come to my house in NJ pick up a letter then deliver that letter within a week to my brothers house in California for a total of 44 cents

I would not deliver a letter to the other side of town for44 cents

And I can't count the number of times I've dropped one of those 3X5 card in a mailbox subscribing to some magazine that I usually wish I hadn't, but shit--in a few weeks, there's the fucking magazine. I mean can't they just LOSE those things sometimes?

 

[MaggieMae]

Justice Department Announces Largest Health Care Fraud Settlement in its History

Pfizer To Pay $2.3 Billion For Fraudulent Marketing

WASHINGTON – American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc. (hereinafter together “Pfizer”) have agreed to pay $2.3 billion, the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the Department of Justice, to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical products, the Justice Department announced today.\hhs security
This is private business getting caught just once by the justice department!That's 2.3 Billion

OMG -- Was Glenn Beck responsible for exposing that one too? If not, why not?

 

[Polk]

fed-x can not deliver a ist-class letter....against the law.....

Guess why? If they could, they'd just cherry-pick the most profitable routes, dumping the rest.

Its hard to judge the profit making ability of the Post Office. If they could choose to only serve the profitable locations they would make a sizeable profit. But given their mandate to serve rural America and deliver love letters to Sarah Palins moose lodge in Podunk Alaska for 44 cents a letter its difficult to turn a profit

Exactly.

 

[MaggieMae]

The Least, First
Monte Asbury’s blog



Other than the military, can you name 10 things that the government has done really well, better than the private sector?

It’s an important question, for skepticism toward all government (rather than reform of bad government) is not only common, but at the root of a couple of major political outlooks. And because it’s important, it seemed worth a post of its own.

Here’s my quick response. Maybe you can do better:



1. The FAA. Crashes are a rarity here, thanks to equipment safety tests and massively successful air flight controlling.

2. Medicaid: private sector insurance companies make money by ditching their customers when they get very sick. Medicaid picks up the castoffs.

3. Social Security: What if Mr. Bush had succeeded in privatizing SS before the markets crashed? Can you imagine how many old people would be working at WalMart, since their SS would have been cut in half? And did you know that before SS, thousands of older Americans simply starved to death?

4. SCHIP: Healthcare insurance for children who would not otherwise have it – enormously preventive of school absence, long-term illness, loss of physical and mental development.

5. The CDC: How do we know that the virulence of H1N1 is less than expected? Who is telling the world that US pork is safe to eat? How do we know whether an illness is H1N1 or not? It’s all the CDC.

6. School hot lunch programs: For many children, their only serious nutrition all day every day. What industry would do it?

7. The Soil Conservation Service: though bureaucratic, there is no private industry comparable. How vastly different would America be without the wetlands your dad and a thousand like him have created.

8. Head Start: kids from homes that have seriously dysfunctional emotional and learning environments have benefited enormously.

9. The Department of Motor Vehicles: how many mistakes have you had on your car registrations or titles?

10. E911 commissions: how long does it take an ambulance or fire truck to reach you if a child who can call 911 can’t tell the operator an address?

11. University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics – known around the world for ground-breaking medical research.

12. Open meetings laws for city, county, and state government office – nothing like it at all in the private sector. But if public officials make decisions without notifying us, they can get in big trouble.

13. Free public libraries – which most nations simply don’t have
So much for that!

14. The Interstate highway system (now if it were only properly maintained).

15. The Apollo space program. Many of the scientific, technical, and medical techniques used on the ground were derived from experimental missions of Apollo.

16. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) - rules and standards for workplace safety and health. (If only the Food Inspection arm of the FDA did as good a job.) Private enterprise sucks at policing itself.

17. The TVA, originally established during the depression, it is the nation's largest public power company, providing electric power to nearly 8.5 million customers in the Tennessee Valley (most of TN, and parts of KY, GA, NC, VA, AL and MS).

 

[MaggieMae]

The Least, First
Monte Asbury’s blog


9. The Department of Motor Vehicles: how many mistakes have you had on your car registrations or titles?

​

Actually...none

Me either, except the fee keeps going up every year. Missouri must have had a single bad experience. This can all be done online now, no more waiting IN line.

 

[MaggieMae]

Can we just let th U.S.P.S. die already? WHo needs them. Amtrak too.

What if there's a cyber attack? You wouldn't want a snailmail backup? I sure would. My landline, too, in case a few satellites get shot down. Also, if more people would just leave their damned beloved cars at home and use train (or bus) service, it would solve a plethora of problems. The only reason Amtrack can't show a profit is because of ridership, not poor management.

 

[MaggieMae]

USPS.. last stop for the terminally lazy.

How does "lazy" fit any scenario? How do you return something you ordered and don't want? FedEx? UPS? Deliver it yourself?

 

[JakeStarkey]

Try mailing a first class letter usig FEDEX and get back to me with what it costs, would ja?

fed-x can not deliver a ist-class letter....against the law.....

Thank heavens.

That is what keeps the private sector honest.

 

[MaggieMae]

Going Broke= means absolutely nothing. Programs are not making a profit and it's not really important.They are treasured by the American people. if they don'y make money, so what!
Most of the thievery in Social Security and Medicare are Private Companies raping the system.

Social Security and Medicare are in financial trouble because people are living longer (Social Security) because of advanced medical treatments to keep them living longer (Medicare). "Fraud" in Social Security almost always can be found in the SSI area which covers disabled, not elderly. THAT was a huge mistake tying the disabled to a retirement fund. Fraud in Medicare always has to do with the provider overbilling/double billing, etc.

 

[MaggieMae]

Try mailing a first class letter usig FEDEX and get back to me with what it costs, would ja?

fed-x can not deliver a ist-class letter....against the law.....

OH come now, be creative. Just put a typewritten letter in a jiffy bag.

 

[Thinman]

There are a few things the postal service should do:

1. Increase rates on junk mail.
2. Lay off employees not needed.
3. Increase postal rates for letters and packages to at least a breakeven point.
4. Postal service directors and managers need incentive to improve efficiency.

These are the same things private industry would do to become profitable.

 

[Thinman]

Has the postal service stopped Saturday delivery? If so, did they reduce their workforce?

One of my pet peeves has always been, once you get a government job, you are set for life. There is no incentive to excell. I wonder how many employees have been fired for 'non performance' in any government job.

I'll bet it is insignificant compared to private industry.

 

[JW Frogen]

If you want to improve the efficiency of the Postal Service give them all automatic weapons and tell them there will be cut backs and layoffs, only the survivors will keep their job.

It would make a great reality show as well.

 

[JW Frogen]

I would have armed the entire Postal Service and let them loose on the Iraqi insurgents.

The war would have been over in a matter of months.

 

[Harry Dresden]

There are a few things the postal service should do:

1. Increase rates on junk mail.
2. Lay off employees not needed.
3. Increase postal rates for letters and packages to at least a breakeven point.
4. Postal service directors and managers need incentive to improve efficiency.

These are the same things private industry would do to become profitable.

you have to go through the Board of governors and the Congressional postal panel first....and ending Sat. delivery would need Congressional approval..... which i have no idea how far that thought has traveled...there is a lot of resistance to this....and not just in the PO....