U.S. Postal Service May Close 3,700 Post Offices

Discussion in 'Current Events' started by Think for myself, Jul 26, 2011.

  1. Think for myself

    Think for myself Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Bravo.

    I can think of little more archaic, more asinine, and less efficient than a post office.

    Hey, people, wake up. You live in an age with telephones and email. Use them. Pay your bills electronically. Text your friends. I have not a single bill getting mailed to me. Join the friggin' end of the 20th century and get slightly behind the times with your technology.

    Close them all I say, and stop the stupidity that is the USPS.

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/uspostal-service-proposes-closing-3700-offices/story?id=14163878

    The U.S. Postal Service announced today that it is considering closing about 3,700 post offices over the next year because of falling revenues.

    Facing an $8.3 billion budget deficit this year, closing post offices is one of several proposals the Postal Service has put forth recently to cut costs. Last week for example, Postmaster General Pat Donahoe announced plans to stop mail delivery on Saturdays, a move he says could save $3 billion annually.

    "We are losing revenue as we speak," Donahoe said. "We do not want taxpayer money. We want to be self-sufficient. So like any other business, you have to make choices."

    Post offices in every state except Delaware are up for closure and will be reviewed according to how much money they bring in, how many hours of work are performed there each day and how close they are to other post offices.

    Dean Granholm, the vice president for delivery and post office operations, said the first wave of closings would begin this fall. He estimated that about 3,000 postmasters, 500 station managers and between 500 and 1,000 postal clerks could lose their jobs.

    Of the nearly 3,700 proposed post office closures, slightly more than 3,000 of them have annual revenue of less than $27,500, and a workload of less than two hours per day. Compared with the $100,000 or so it takes to run a post office, many of them are not even breaking even, Granholm said.

    "We made heroic efforts to take costs out of the system while still providing service," Donahoe said. "[But] the volume continues to drop off, especially profitable volume, like first class mail, and believe me that's what drives this whole thing."

    The Postal Service has more retail locations -- 32,000 -- than any other private business in the United States -- more than every Walmart store, Starbucks and McDonald's combined.

    Because many of the proposed closings are in rural areas where there is not another post office nearby, the Postal Service plans to partner with community businesses to create what it calls village post offices -- which will sell stamps and ship packages -- within grocery stores, gas stations, libraries and town halls.

    Village post offices will not provide the full range of services, though. Most will not offer custom shipping options, only flat-rate shipping, and few will provide passport services. But because they would not be run by Postal Service staff, USPS would save substantially on labor costs, which accounts for the largest portion of most post office budgets. Granholm said USPS expects to open about 2,500 village post offices within a year.

    These changes do not have to be approved by Congress, although it would have to approve a move to five-day delivery.

    Post offices have always been a bit of a pet issue for congressmen. While Congress does not legislate funds for the Postal Service because it does not receive tax money, congressmen can control the naming of post offices. And name them they do.

    So far in 2011, lawmakers proposed almost 50 bills to rename post offices. And out of the 23 laws that President Obama has signed this year, three of them were to name post offices. That's 13 percent of all legislation passed by the government this year that was dedicated solely to the naming of post offices.
     
  2. Beevee

    Beevee Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Your second paragraph makes the assumption that every American has an internet connection. What happens if they don't?

    And it's likely that the majority of mail carried by the US Postal service is checks. How do people receive them by another means?

    P.S. If this connection gets much slower, I might have to send you the next response by mail.
     
  3. Agent Zero

    Agent Zero New Member

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    Direct deposit.
     
  4. Think for myself

    Think for myself Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    They should get one.

    Direct deposit.

    I hear you.
     
  5. CarlB

    CarlB New Member

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    A stupid post by a conservative- what a shock.

    Without the post office no one will be able to mail packages because there's hardly any UPS and Fedex offices, and they will jack their already high rates through the roof without having to compete with the post office.
     
  6. Beevee

    Beevee Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Good point, assuming they have a bank account and don't use a Shylock to obtain the cash.
     
  7. NewSmirkingChimp

    NewSmirkingChimp Banned

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    BRAVO! There is no need for a string of post offices spaced a mile or two apart in rural areas. Pluck out every other one, works fine for me. I own a small internet business and ship maybe 25 packages a week, I do NOT like UPS, USPS is both cheaper and more convenient for me to use. USPS ought to monitor it's postmasters, the local old witch is on the phone, talking horses, baking, skin tightening, w2ho was at the VFW and whatever leaving the customer to wait until she's good and ready to wait on you. That's life I guess, I use the next town over's PO, works fine.
     
  8. Pollycy

    Pollycy Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, but holy crap! Where will all the military retiree double-dippers go to find an easy job now?
     
  9. dudeman

    dudeman New Member

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    However, Beevee has a point. How do you persuade the old and poor population to buy in to the internet world? Don't tell me that you want my tax dollars to buy them computers?
     
  10. Yosh Shmenge

    Yosh Shmenge New Member

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    It's a good move. Five day service and ending Post Office to door delivery service should be next. Every neighborhood should have a central box where people can come get their mail.
     
  11. jthorp24

    jthorp24 New Member

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    TFM is now a conservative? Wow.
     
  12. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Granny says don't pay attention to it...

    ... is just a scare tactic...

    ... to jack the price of stamps up another 2¢.
    :fart:
     
  13. NewSmirkingChimp

    NewSmirkingChimp Banned

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    Same place I did, my OWN desk and computer. :)
     
  14. Professor Peabody

    Professor Peabody Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Think, you are now officially a conservative.
     
  15. Joe Six-pack

    Joe Six-pack Banned

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    It's time to start rationing foot and loading up on guns and water. I better go build my bunker.
     
  16. jmpet

    jmpet New Member

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    I live in a small town that has a small post office. It's not one of the ones that they will close, thankfully because the next one is 10 miles away.

    I personally don't care that they lost $8 billion last year- having a local post office is a Constitutional right. Are we going to stop paving new roads because they cost money? Of course not- so why close the post office?

    My post office has one postmaster and 3-5 employees that deliver mail to 10,000 people in a 10 mile radius. I see them every day and they work hard physically delivering the mail.

    I think we as a nation should eat the $8 billion loss every year and keep the post offices open.
     
  17. Defengar

    Defengar New Member

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    The USPS isn`t supposed to turn a profit lol.
     
  18. Goodoledays

    Goodoledays New Member

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    :mrgreen:Almost like saying Obama has brains.
     
  19. jmpet

    jmpet New Member

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    Or like saying you have brains for saying that.
     
  20. BestViewedWithCable

    BestViewedWithCable Well-Known Member

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    Ya know, we probably could have kept some open, but it would require dumping the postal workers union....
     
  21. BullsLawDan

    BullsLawDan New Member

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    DMV. Does that help? LOL
    I think this is an excellent plan. It's a way to circumvent the strongarming by the Postal Workers' union and still maintain retail services in rural areas.

    A lot of postal services used to be provided this way. My local office growing up was a place like this - a little general store that also happened to be where we got the mail. It was considered a relic, and the USPS closed it during consolidation moves in the 1980s.

    Funny that 19th-century quaintness is meeting back up with 21st-century efficiency.
    Then they can't pay their bills. Sorry, internet is a utility now, it's no longer a luxury. Gotta have it.
    First, you're incorrect.

    Want to know what the majority of mail carried by the USPS is? It's JUNK MAIL. http://www.newsweek.com/2008/09/26/to-postal-workers-no-mail-is-junk.html
    "The Postal Service lost $1.1 billion in its latest quarter. That number would be even larger if it weren't for direct mailings, which now constitute 52 percent of mail volume, up from 38 percent in 1990."

    Second, as other people have pointed out, sending money via electronic means is not only more efficient, it's safer, faster, and more reliable.
    The USPS will still (always has) pick up at your door. And you didn't read the article. Flat-rate shipping will still be available through local retail offices opened in small stores and other locations.

    You know all those USPS ads, "If it fits, it ships"? That's what they're talking about. You buy a standard-sized box and it ships.
    As far as the old, they'll die before it really hits them, just like old people that refused to get phones or electricity.
    No, it isn't. You must have the "Postal Workers' Union" abridged copy of the Constitution.
    Roads are necessary for commerce and basic survival. Increasingly, local post offices are not.
    Good. They are hardworking people. That means they won't have a problem getting another job.
     
  22. Think for myself

    Think for myself Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Indeed. Shall we agree that they are tied for the lamest possible examples of government efficiency?
     
  23. Rapunzel

    Rapunzel New Member Past Donor

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    I don't think the post office should totally end as there is still a need for it at least right now but they need to close all the post offices that running in the red and cut delivery down to how ever many days it takes to become profitable. If that's 3 days a week, then that's what it is.
     
  24. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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

    Consmike New Member Past Donor

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    They really don't need to deliver on Saturdays either.

    I heard somewhere that the post office collective bargaining agreement has a "no layoff" clause. Not sure if that's true or not.
     

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