USPS may lay off 120,000 workers

[alan whitehead]

The Post Office will probably disappear in 15 or 20 years due to technology advancements. They will go the same path as the milkman delivery service. People say, you had delivery at home ? People one day will say, they delivered mail to your home. Wow.

[Dan Hintz]

The Post Office will probably disappear in 15 or 20 years due to technology advancements. They will go the same path as the milkman delivery service. People say, you had delivery at home ? People one day will say, they delivered mail to your home. Wow.

I believe this about as much as the people who claimed 20 years ago "We'll have a paperless office in five years or less." Uh huh. I think many offices use more paper now... printing out emails for backup or to show their office mates, more forms to fill out for HR that have to be faxed, etc.

[Greg Peterson]

My former boss was pretty high up at UPS. He told me that at UPS EVERYBODY gets their butts busted from the very bottom to the top. He also told me that they used golden handcuffs to keep you there and putting up with it.

The stories I have heard from friends and family that work at UPS lead me to understand there is a very robust distrust between management and the union. Not to worry though. The days of great employee benefits are numbered as new hires do not receive the same benefits as the folks that were there long before the IPO.

Driving for UPS is a good job certainly. But there are quite a few people working just as hard, if not harder behind the scenes, for every driver.

[Joe Pelonio]

I believe this about as much as the people who claimed 20 years ago "We'll have a paperless office in five years or less." Uh huh. I think many offices use more paper now... printing out emails for backup or to show their office mates, more forms to fill out for HR that have to be faxed, etc.

I have to agree, with many banks of paper files to be maintained at my daytime job office. We send out tons
(literally) of paper for recycling. Oh, and we recently canceled our milkman because we don't use as much anymore but they still deliver to the neighborhood. As for the USPS, I'm not in any hurry to get the junk mail so
if they get slower I'm not at all bothered.

http://www.smithbrothersfarms.com/delivery/

[Marvin Hasenak]

The post office will be here as long as we are a country, because it is required by the Constitution. An Amendment would be required to get rid of it.

[Dan Hintz]

The post office will be here as long as we are a country, because it is required by the Constitution. An Amendment would be required to get rid of it.

It is not required, it is allowed by the Constitution... pretty large difference. No amendment would be required if Congress decided we no longer needed to support the myriad of offices across the nation.

[Greg Peterson]

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To establish post offices and post roads;"

This clause clearly granted congress the authority to setup a postal service, or at least the infrastructure. No other authority is granted. To establish. They did that.

But what they did do back in 2006 was to force the USPS to start coughing up $5 billion dollars a year so as to establish 75 year retirement fund. And it is this obligation that is the real problem for the USPS.

[Mike Henderson]

That's not necessarily true, Darrin. Raising the price on bulk mail will price at least some of the companies doing it out of the market or drive them to alternatives. If it prices too many bulk mailers out of the market, revenues for the USPS would actually drop, and we're back to the layoffs. Due to the bulk mail being the overwhelming volume of mail that the USPS handles, 1st class service enjoys some economies of scale.

I get Business Week magazine. Recently, the paper delivery guy started delivering it to me. So in this area, they have already started using an alternative to the post office.

Mike

[Charlie Reals]

[QUOTE=Mike Henderson;1767455]I get Business Week magazine. Recently, the paper delivery guy started delivering it to me. So in this area, they have already started using an alternative to the post office.[/QUOTE


In the 30's my grandfather delivered mail,newspaper and moonshine on the same rural Alabama route.

[Phil Thien]

In the 30's my grandfather delivered ...moonshine...

I had no idea they delivered that.

[Charlie Reals]

I had no idea they delivered that.

I guess it was delivered without a stamp , it was always postage due lol

[Dan Hintz]

I guess it was delivered without a stamp , it was always postage due lol

Did they mark the fill line to make sure the delivery person wasn't sampling along his route?

[Charlie Reals]

Did they mark the fill line to make sure the delivery person wasn't sampling along his route?

I asked him about that and all I got was a. The truly funny thing is he was a Baptist minister when he was doing this.I kidded him about it and was told he had to do what was needed to feed his family.

[Greg Peterson]

Here's some of the nuts and bolts of the USPS financial problems. As usual, the meme making the rounds lacks the pertinent details.

[Joel Goodman]

Why does the USPS need to be self supporting? Isn't postal service one of those things that a country has like police, armed forces etc. - just part of being a country. When I see how expensive my cell phone service is -- dropped calls, dead spots etc. I shudder at the thought of more things being privatized. Rant finished!