US Post Office on the brink of default

*shrugs*...now what? maybe oh, mo' money? then...mo' money? gov sponsored entity, at its best tied wiht a Union that is helping to drive it into bankruptcy, where have we heard this before?


Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: September 4, 2011


The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.


“Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.”

In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts.

The post office’s problems stem from one hard reality: it is being squeezed on both revenue and costs.

As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail.

At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.


more at-

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/b...uggles-to-stay-solvent-and-relevant.html?_r=1

 

Good

What a colossal fucked-up organization. Typical government.

Good grief - they contract "out" to haul mail up and down the coast/cross country. They can't even do it themselves. I don't see UPS/Fedex doing that.

Our mail carrier - delivers mail talking on her cell phone every damned time she comes through the neighborhood. She looks like a fucking crack head.

Good riddance

 

I say let them fold. Private corporations can take over and set the postage rates. They'll force more web billing and email to cut cost. You can look to Netflix's new pricing structure as an example, streaming content is cheaper then mailing. Rural areas will cost more due to less people and greater distances.

 

The Postal Service was a great idea........... in 1776. It was a revolutionary concept (no pun intended) who's time has past. Time to call it quits and let the private sector fill the void.

 

Granny hopes dey wait till after she gets her 2nd stimulus check inna mail...

Postal Service targets 252 mail facilities
September 15, 2011: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hundreds of mail-handling facilities have been named in a shutdown list released Thursday by the U.S. Postal Service as the agency tries to fight massive red ink.