I get a package each month from a comic retailer in Wisconsin. I do this because there is no local comic retailer, and over the years, this Wisconsin company has served me well. They virtually never miss sending me what I order, and never send me items by mistake. They have been very reliable. They send the package out sometime Wednesday. They have used FedEx most frequently in the past, and I've gotten the package on Saturday. One time, a few months ago, they used the United States Post office, and I got that packages on Friday. I repeat. They sent out Wednesday, and I got it Friday.
This last month, they decided to start using UPS. Do you know when I got my package shipped out Wednesday? Tuesday. That's right. A full three days later than FedEx, four days later then the vilified USPS. Not only that, when the package finally got to Blackshear on Monday, UPS didn't sent it to me. They sent it to the post office. Yes, in Blackshear, where UPS and USPS are not that far way from each other. That huge corporate entity, in the end, had to baled out by the little ol' post office.
So what do you think is going to happen when conservative reactionaries receive their dream, and abolish the constitutionally mandated United States Postal Service? My rural friends, either be prepared not to served, or to pay up the wazoo. Is that what you intended? Many of you reading this live in rural areas that would be tremendously hard hit if the USPS was to disappear.
Is it true that the business model of the post office will need some tweaking as times change? Yes, no doubt. Should the pension structure of postal and other civil service workers be changed? I think that is negotiable - I would like to see them participate more in Social Security, and have their other pension investment perhaps be more privatized or market based (shocking, I know, coming from this old liberal), Saturdays, staffing, a small amount of post office location consolidation - they all should be looked at.
The post office in recent years has lost considerable money. Despite all the talk of email, texts. and alternate information systems, the primary driver of this loss has been the draconian funding standards that a Republican Congress has imposed on the post office. They are required to fund their system more quickly and aggressively than any other part of the government.
If you are for the elimination of the post office, tell me your reasons and what you think is going to happen after it is gone. If you think the post office should be saved but reformed, tell me what reforms you favor. If you think everything is fine the was it is, tell me why you feel that way.
Sadly the fact is since 2006 first class mail volume is down 24%. This trend is expected to continue Much of the letters, bills and other correspondence willingness to accomodate late afternoon pickups and other services. The USPS tells businesses "this is what we can do" while the private carriers ask " goes electronically. Many businesses use UPS and Fed Ex not because of their deliverries but thier what do you need us to do". The private carriers also have better tracking. Somtimes the tracking data on my packages isnt entered into the USPS system until after I have recieved it. Part of the problem is congress, but not your evil republicans. the Postmaster geneneral is prohibited from making the changes needed without congress. That includes renegotiating their draconian union contract. Why do we need the USPS? I dont know. there is nothing they do that we couldnt contract out. The downside for liberals is that somebody might make a profit providing a needed service and we just cant stand having any more evil rich people in this country.
ReplyDeleteThanks for responding to this article. I know that's it's more difficult to post to this blog than make a comment on Facebook, and I appreciate the effort. Despite the decline in first class mail, the post office would be pretty much breaking without the imposition of the draconian pension funding standards passed by a Republican Congress. That doesn't make them evil, but it does make them ideologically driven to the exclusion of what actually may benefit the American public - it is more important for them to drive the mail service into private hands than to worry about the consequences of that to to the average citizen. I would prefer private enterprise where possible. But the fact that UPS is giving their packages to USPS for final delivery in rural areas should tell you something. And although, I have mentioned the possibility of certain labor concessions as a way to improve the cost effectiveness and long term survivability of the post office, that is not the same as opposing unions. They are a vital part of the coalition that makes our system work,and it does no one any good to take them out of the equation.
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