USPS Bankrupt Bailout or cuts or both

[sgreger1]

"I can think of one way to balance the budget for USPS, and probably even give it a surplus. Legalize crack, coke and heroin, but only allow them to be purchased at the post office, with a 20% tax being set on them, on top of sales tax. Junkies and crack heads would have them swimming in money"

- USPS doesn't stay open during the hours necessary to run an profitable crack-house. So they would fail even at this.

"On the phone he tells me he'll keep the desk open an extra 10 minutes before he goes on lunch, so I can grab it and get to work on time. In person, he smiles at me as he closes the shutter 5 minutes early."

This has been my experience at every government office. There's something about government jobs that attract the worst kind of human beings that just could no care less about customer service.

[truthwolf1]

Going to make a effort to do my bills online but just have been too lazy to do so. They need to re-adjust with the new economy just like everyone else is forced to.

[Jwalker]

Bad idea man; Usps is so slow, can you imagine waiting in line with a hundred crackhead for two hours.

[shikitohno]

With the influx of crack money, they could afford to hire a few more of their soulless, knuckle dragging employees. I think part of the reason their personal mail has dropped so low now is that people can't actually go to the damn post office. Around here, if you work a 9-5 job and you have to leave for work at 8, it means the post office is just opening when you have to leave, and has been closed for an hour when you get home. You could try going to the post office on your lunch break, but hopefully you're only dropping off a local package or letter light enough to tip in the blue box, and you don't need any stamps. Because if you can't just drop it in the box, you're SOL, because they close the office and send everyone on lunch at the same time, between 12PM-1:30PM. It's like they do everything possible to avoid the majority of personal mailing. You pretty much have to hope you don't have anything at all to do on Saturdays before noon if you want to mail something out.

[lxskllr]

I like USPS. The offices around me are filled with helpful, knowledgeable people, and everything goes pretty smoothly. They're cheap, and fast. UPS mangles my packages, and I get to pay a premium for the service. FedEx takes as long as USPS to ship a package, but charges more for it. USPS is always my first choice for sending things that can't be sent electronically.

[Bigblue1]

I too have no problem with USPS. All the packages I send to my trading partners generally originate in my mail box. I rarely go to the PO, when I do I buy $20 in stamps and they last quite awhile. I have a more than precise scale I use for baking that tells me what the pack weighs then I go to USPS.com and calculate the postage. Can't do that with UPS. I usually don't have to buy new envelopes as I recycle them, but when I go to office max I buy some bubble mailers just in case. Always have a roll of shipping tape tho. So I would hate to see mail delivery halted. But again they need to adjust there shit. And Once again Public unions are never a good thing.......... Why does the usps need a union anyway? it just doesn't make sense to me........

[shikitohno]

I don't think unions themselves are necessarily a bad thing. In many cases they've done a lot to help the people they represent out, so that they're not constantly being screwed over. I think unions become a problem once they become political organizations, rather than labour groups, as they have here. It bothers me to see all unions getting tarred with the same brush for the actions of a select group of particularly obnoxious and egregious ones. It's like if I say all cops are corrupt, evil bastards, because of the few that make the news for inappropriate conduct, like shooting unarmed people. Any vital area of the economy where you have a limited number of people with the necessary skill set is going to wind up with those people trying to to advantage to the fullest. What are you going to do, fire teachers and tell everyone, "Screw it, home school your kids, the teachers are being pricks." The postal unions, teacher's union, police and firefighter's should've been cut down a while ago and reminded of their place. They became a problem because no one stopped them from turning their negotiations into a political show. They get their way all the time because they've started running ad campaigns that basically boil down to "Mr. X hates you and your family. He doesn't want you to have police/firemen/an education, so he's trying to cripple us by refusing to pay us more the $120,000 a year. He probably kills kittens." Nobody wants to be that guy, so they cave in. Lot's of other unions haven't gone that way, and haven't become outrageous like that in their demands.

[texastorm]

When the company/government you work for is losing money, being in a union and pushing for more is the epitome of how every organization, corporation or union who gains lots of power will abuse the crap out of that power until the bitter end.

But I do agree with the above, public unions really have no place in this world. They should all be dissolved. I mean lets say you strike, you aren't punishing an evil corp, or really even an evil government. As a public union you are punishing your fellow man. It's moronic.

The postmaster generals idea are ok, and I think their will be a place for paper mail for a long time, but they seriously need to change their business model.

[shikitohno]

I agree about strikes by public service unions like teachers and such only hurting other people. Just noting that in the couple years I've been on here, people treat all unions like they're the same. On Snuson, the general opinion seems to be that whether it's police officers, construction workers, manual labourers or factory workers, all unions are 100% lazy scum who are always making frivolous demands, when it's not the case. There's a couple people that make up the minority that don't mind them, but I haven't seen too many.

That said, why the postal worker's need for a union is a bit of a head-scratcher. They get ridiculous benefits and pay, and have some of the easiest jobs going. You have to be able to sort stuff, be a cashier, or drive and put pre-sorted stuff in the right box. Not exactly like they're working in a sweatshop for $0.12 an hour.

[lxskllr]

I'm really undecided about unions. They're like communism. If they're appropriately run, they can do good things. People are greedy shits though, and they'll run a country/business into the toilet if it means they do well in the short term.

I can also see the need for public sector unions. By striking, you're telling the boss(the citizens who hired you) that things aren't cool, and they need to be made right. The citizens can then light a fire under the politician's asses to get things done. This is assuming good faith, common sense bargaining though, and common sense seems to be in short supply, union or not...

[Bigblue1]

I'm really undecided about unions. They're like communism. If they're appropriately run, they can do good things. People are greedy shits though, and they'll run a country/business into the toilet if it means they do well in the short term.

I can also see the need for public sector unions. By striking, you're telling the boss(the citizens who hired you) that things aren't cool, and they need to be made right. The citizens can then light a fire under the politician's asses to get things done. This is assuming good faith, common sense bargaining though, and common sense seems to be in short supply, union or not...

This would make sense, if not for the fact that we the "bosses" have no fair representation ourselves, which we obviously don't........ everything is so effed up. the fact of the matter is the budget can only sustain so much, so most unions at this point in time will kill themselves trying to hold on to what they once thought they had........... Like the rest of us......

[shikitohno]

I'm really undecided about unions. They're like communism. If they're appropriately run, they can do good things. People are greedy shits though, and they'll run a country/business into the toilet if it means they do well in the short term.

I can also see the need for public sector unions. By striking, you're telling the boss(the citizens who hired you) that things aren't cool, and they need to be made right. The citizens can then light a fire under the politician's asses to get things done. This is assuming good faith, common sense bargaining though, and common sense seems to be in short supply, union or not...

Pretty much sums up my primary criticism of unions. You're basically betting that the union leaders will be more reasonable than the employers would. Stuck in a bit of a catch 22 when both sides act like infants fighting over toys, though.

we the "bosses" have no fair representation ourselves, which we obviously don't.......

If you mean small business bosses, I'd agree with that section. If you're just talking about bosses in general though, you ought to be doing stand up. The little mom and pop business owners wind up getting screwed over by unions simply because the larger corporations can offer terms that don't hurt them, but would bleed a small business dry. The bosses of those large corporations do have a great deal of representation, in their back pocket where you'll find the better part of Congress. Start making large "gifts" to your representations like the large corporations do, and I guarantee you suddenly laws will start being passed exactly the way you want. If you can afford to be spending thousands a year in "gifts," tough, that's how the US gov't works. Unions can mobilize large sections of voters, corporate CEO's can buy their influence. Basically, I'm saying if you're not with one of those powerful groups or the other, don't be surprised when the world pisses in your cheerios all the time.

[texastorm]

If big powerful corporations are all considered scum here, then big powerful unions are also scum by the same measures.

Anyway as to the quote "we the "bosses" have no fair representation ourselves, which we obviously don't......." I am fairly certain Blue meant only public unions and was referring to "we" as being the bosses by being taxpayers in that district etc.

The workers at my nearest post office are rude lazy morons. If there is more than 2 people in line your in for a half hour wait. Tellers will shut down windows as the line grows, and everyone goes to lunch from 11-2:30 I think. I drive 5 extra miles if I need to see a cashier just to avoid that post office as the workers at the further location are much nicer, don't close the window just as you make it first in line, and actually act like they care. The local mailman has delivered items to me for not only the wrong name and house number, but also the wrong city and zip code. One would think that looking at an address and remembering what city your in should be fairly easy. So on that note I say most postal workers deserve just a shade over minimum wage as most of their jobs could be done better by teenagers that work at McDonalds. At least make them take a test or something.

[shikitohno]

With your interpretation of his post, I'd be inclined to agree. Even so, we've pretty much done it to ourselves. Years of apathy and allowing the two party system to become entrenched here have lead us to this. Something should have been done earlier before the situation got to this, and voters failed to do anything that made a difference. People keep voting the same jerks who screw them over every year into Congress. Now we need to cut back, and deal with a period of difficulty. We did have our chance at representation, and the majority of Americans didn't care enough to exercise it. Only half or less of the nation's actually bothered to vote in each election since the 70s.

[truthwolf1]

Maybe it is not so but it really seems like many of the union workers end up being replaced by non-union or other. For instance the auto industry, food industry, construction and janitorial. My personal thoughts are unions are good if your in one but horrible if you want your company to turn a profit especially in the new global economy. When I see a union/goverment worker I will not lie that I am extremely jealous but also know that their days are numbered.