Postal stamp increase...AGAIN......

[Guest Guest]

The US Post office is not a government agency, are the employees government workers?

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Post office = an executive branch of the US Government.

 

Taxpayers are responsible for all debts and liabilities, present and future.

[Chalkie Gerzowski]

IT'S FOUR F-CKING CENTS!

 

 

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You have a very simplistic view of this. It isn't the amount of an increase, it's the principle that an increase is taking place. The Postal Service is a very wasteful and stupidly run business. The reason you are going to pay 4 more cents, not that it's going to break your wallet, is because veteran dock workers pull in around 100 grand a year with overtime. Nice racket eh? Their union is giving the govt. major grief over reforming the system. It's the biggest issue facing the Postal Service. They are adamant in not changing their ways. They are a dinosaur....all they need now is for the obligatory meteor to fall out of the sky and destroy them.

[Yard Monkey]

Rates in the transportation industry have jumped 20-25% this year. This is due to fuel price increases (20% over 2003) and insurance increases. Over the road equipment (Tractors and Trailers) are sky rocketing due to:

* increases in the cost of steel

* increases in the cost of engines due to new "clean burning" requirements

* decreases in the MPG of said "clean burning" engines

* increase in demand have pushed prices for new and used equipment up

 

Labor costs are rising some, but it is not due to market pressures vs. union pressures. These rates are rising closer to inflation.

 

With all of that beeing said, the 11-13% increase the USPS is looking for is really on the low end of the rest of the industry.

[mead107]

spend money on lance armstrong

[Yard Monkey]

You have a very simplistic view of this.  It isn't the amount of an increase, it's the principle that an increase is taking place.  The Postal Service is a very wasteful and stupidly run business.  The reason you are going to pay 4 more cents, not that it's going to break your wallet, is because veteran dock workers pull in around 100 grand a year with overtime.  Nice racket eh?  Their union is giving the govt. major grief over reforming the system.  It's the biggest issue facing the Postal Service.  They are adamant in not changing their ways.  They are a dinosaur....all they need now is for the obligatory meteor to fall out of the sky and destroy them.

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Union dock workers and the USPS have little or no connection. USPS is primarily a domestic operation -- Union dock workers are involved in international shipping. The outrageous rate of union dock workers is absorbed in the cost of all of the wonderful import products you purchase at your local Wal-Mart.

[Guest Guest]

spend money on lance armstrong  

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And Nascar.

[Alaska Darin]

Fuel costs alone are up over 20 percent from a year ago. If my memory serves me right postage has gone up less than or just about 10 cents in the last 10 years.

There may be bad management, but 41 cents is still a hell of a bargain to move a letter across the country.

How people out here complaining about the postage rate would pay over $2.50 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks?

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Back in April, there was a GAO audit that stated over the past 4 years the USPS has wasted over $1,400,000,000.00

 

76% of the current USPS budget is spent on personnel.

 

Also according to GAO, the USPS is also facing $40 to $50 billion in unfunded healthcare liabilities for its retirees and owes the U.S. Treasury $11 billion. This does not include commitments to its worker's compensation fund.

 

Like I said. Poor management.

[Chalkie Gerzowski]

Union dock workers and the USPS have little or no connection.  USPS is primarily a domestic operation -- Union dock workers are involved in international shipping.  The outrageous rate of union dock workers is absorbed in the cost of all of the wonderful import products you purchase at your local Wal-Mart.

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No......ummmmm, dock workers who work for the USPS.

[stevestojan]

You have a very simplistic view of this.

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Yes I do. Why? Because its not even a f-cking NICKEL for a service that most people use a LOT less than they did before. People are paying bills online, or over the phone, and using e-mail. When people do send a letter, if that $.04 is gonna break the bank, then we (you and me) are probably paying for that stamp anyway through welfare, etc. Everyone else will say "$.41!!! Oh my god!" and flip out, until 3 month from now, when it's the norm, and realize it doesn't really effect them AT ALL.

 

Again, it's $.04. Not even a nickel.

[Guest Guest]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/o...1,1649079.story

 

Rain, Sleet -- Phooey! It's a Money-Wasting Snowjob

Teaming up with NASCAR is just one more wrong turn for the postal service

 

By Sam Ryan

Sam Ryan is a senior fellow of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.

E-mail: ryan@lexingtoninstitute.org

Los Angeles Times

November 19, 2004

 

As the NASCAR season closes with this weekend's race, it's hard not to notice that the U.S. Postal Service has traded in its bicycle for a race car. For us poor stamp-buyers, that means the USPS is wasting our money at greater speeds than ever before.

 

Its high-profile, seven-year sponsorship of the U.S. Pro Cycling Team, led by six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, is finally coming to a finish. But the postal service has now embraced the roaring engines of the NASCAR track by slapping its logo onto Johnny Sauter's No. 27 stock car.

 

If the postal service were a free-market business, veering onto the NASCAR speedway might make sense. Auto racing is the nation's second most-watched seasonal sport on television, right behind football.

 

But while the USPS tries to walk and talk like a trendy private company, high-octane sports sponsorships and all, it is in fact a lumbering government agency that survives only because of its federally enforced monopoly.

 

U.S. consumers can't move to another low-cost letter delivery service for first-class mail. Private delivery companies operate under an "urgent mail" loophole in the federal statutes, which state that a company cannot charge less than $3 to deliver so much as a Dale Earnhardt Jr. postcard to your door. And it's illegal for anyone but the USPS to use your mailbox.

 

As a government agency, the postal service has all kinds of other unfair advantages as well. It doesn't have to pay real estate taxes. It's immune from truth-in-advertising regulations, so it can say anything it wants in its costly commercials. It has the power of eminent domain and is exempt from antitrust law, SEC transparency requirements, full compliance with U.S. Customs and OSHA regulations, and much of the paperwork required of non-government organizations.

 

The postal service even has its own armed police force, which it can use to enforce its own legally binding regulations designed to hinder competitors. In 1993, armed postal inspectors infamously raided the Atlanta headquarters of Equifax Inc., which was then fined $30,000 for the crime of using FedEx to deliver non-urgent mail.

 

Postal representatives say they need to advertise to compete against private companies such as DHL, FedEx and UPS in the parcel business. But these operations are completely separate from the postal service's core mission of delivering Aunt Minnie's mail. If other government agencies decided to tap into the private sector, then couldn't the Air Force offer commercial flights? Or the FCC sell cut-rate Internet access on the side?

 

USPS Vice President Jerry Whalen, touting the enormous NASCAR fan base, gushed that "every one of those fans is a customer of the postal service." You bet. They're customers because, by law, they have little choice. The race is fixed.

 

Despite its huge captive market, the postal service continues to use advertising to blow its own horn. Last year, its Office of the Inspector General released a report revealing that the USPS spent $48 million on sports sponsorships from 1996 to 2002 — and still couldn't tell whether its largess was making a wit of difference. The report found that the postal service "lacked goals and objectives" for 10 out of 11 sponsorships examined. It also found that "no single executive or office [had] complete knowledge and accountability" over sponsorships. Moreover, the postal service "was unable to verify revenue claimed as a result of sponsorships and, therefore, could not determine return on investment."

 

It's not just ratepayers who pay for these USPS adventures. The red ink also translates into a hefty drain on taxpayers. The postal service is now asking Congress for a $779-million taxpayer-funded handout. And we need more advertising?

 

The USPS is in dire need of reform. It faces more than $80 billion in unfunded liabilities, mostly future pension and health benefits that it can't pay. But free from market pressures — and in the grip of powerful labor unions — the USPS has steadily resisted cutting costs, downsizing or improving service.

 

Instead, it has used its monopoly profits to expand aggressively into sectors such as package delivery, where it steals market share by undercutting more competitive private companies. Were it not immune from federal antitrust law, the postal service would be ripe for monopoly busting.

 

None of this is to knock NASCAR. But until the postal service becomes a legitimate private company, it's got no business burning millions at the races.

[Alaska Darin]

Yes I do. Why? Because its not even a f-cking NICKEL for a service that most people use a LOT less than they did before. People are paying bills online, or over the phone, and using e-mail. When people do send a letter, if that $.04 is gonna break the bank, then we (you and me) are probably paying for that stamp anyway through welfare, etc. Everyone else will say "$.41!!! Oh my god!" and flip out, until 3 month from now, when it's the norm, and realize it doesn't really effect them AT ALL.

 

Again, it's $.04. Not even a nickel.

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Except you're not talking about a nickle. You're talking about a 13% increase by an entity takes $68,000,000,000.00 a year to run already and owes taxpayers nearly that much as well.

 

Big picture people.

[HopsGuy]

The Postal Service is mandated by the Constitution.

 

What's the over/under on when there will be a call to repeal its existence?

 

I'm not crazy about a 13% increase, but I'm still baffled by the fact that a government agency can deliver postage so efficiently at a low cost.

[stevestojan]

Except you're not talking about a nickle.  You're talking about a 13% increase by an entity takes $68,000,000,000.00 a year to run already and owes taxpayers nearly that much as well.

 

Big picture people.

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And this is exactly why people have heat attacks at young ages, and stress levels are through the roof everywhere. Because people look at it like $68,000,000,000. To you and me, and everyone else, PERSONALLY, its four cents every time i send a letter. It gets there in 3 days. I say, well worth my $.41. If you don't like it, find another way to send things. UPS will do it for you, and charge you $4.00 for a letter. If you think of everything in terms of the "big picture" like that, like $68 Billion, you won't be able to sleep at night.

 

Don't sweat the small stuff people.

[Campy]

Here we go again....they are asking for another increase to 41 cents per first class stamp....what a bunch of crap.....they will not stop until they reach 50 cents or even a dollar to mail  a letter......gimme a break. GRRRRRR 

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Considering that I can't drive across town for under 50 cents, paying somebody 41 cents to take my cell phone bill half way across the country just doesn't seem like too big a deal to me.

[Alaska Darin]

And this is exactly why people have heat attacks at young ages, and stress levels are through the roof everywhere. Because people look at it like $68,000,000,000. To you and me, and everyone else, PERSONALLY, its four cents every time i send a letter. It gets there in 3 days. I say, well worth my $.41.  If you don't like it, find another way to send things. UPS will do it for you, and charge you $4.00 for a letter.  If you think of everything in terms of the "big picture" like that, like $68 Billion, you won't be able to sleep at night.

 

Don't sweat the small stuff people.

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I've never had a heat attack. I drink plenty of water and limit my exposure.

 

It has nothing to do with not sending things through the post office. It has to do with the fact that the entity wastes billions of dollars via inefficiency that is picked up at taxpayer expense. Since I'm a taxpayer, I don't have much say in not feeding that beast.

[Guest Guest]

You guys are kidding right? Complaining about a 4 penny increase in the postal rate!!!!

Let's understand this. You can send a letter any place in the US for 41 cents. On top of that, you are 99%+ sure that it will get there in a matter of a few days.

 

There isn't a better bargain in the world.

[theesir]

I've never had a heat attack.  I drink plenty of water and limit my exposure.

 

It has nothing to do with not sending things through the post office.  It has to do with the fact that the entity wastes billions of dollars via inefficiency that is picked up at taxpayer expense.  Since I'm a taxpayer, I don't have much say in not feeding that beast.

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Considering all the waste you are pointing out, it is STILL Only .41cents. There must be something being done right if they can provide the service they do for only 41 cents. There is waste in all business and in ALL of government. If they were even 20 times more efficient and less wasteful, it might cost me 34 or 35 cents to mail a letter.

The alternative is some other service like UPS or Airborne Express who charge 10 to 15 times as much.

[_BiB_]

I guess I'll jump in too (why not?).

 

Without looking it up, it seems like we went several years without or between postal increases. I have a sheet of Elvis stamps somewhere about 10 years old that are .28 cents.

 

At what point do you begin to get concerned? $1.00 per stamp? This seems to be moving exponentially. E-Commerce, FEDEX and others are changing the dynamics of this. On top of that, the postal service IS mismanaged. They need to be studying some lean techniques and figuring out ways to join into the information exchange changes taking place.

 

That said, do not discount the effects of the Anthrax problem. Decontamination of facilities and the resulting bio-detection systems now being installed throughout the system aren't cheap. And the USPS is not going to make loud of it for public relations reasons (which could decrease their market share further).

[Guest Guest]

Considering all the waste you are pointing out, it is STILL Only .41cents. There must be something being done right if they can provide the service they do for only 41 cents. There is waste in all business and in ALL of government. If they were even 20 times more efficient and less wasteful, it might cost me 34 or 35 cents to mail a letter.

The alternative is some other service like UPS or Airborne Express who charge 10 to 15 times as much.

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Funny - all you d*ckheads out there seem to be strangely silent about the $779 million handout (see LA Times article) that the USPS is currently asking from the government. This isn't part of the rate increase - this is IN ADDITION to the rate increase.

 

"Sweat the small stuff"?!? I sure as swell sweat about giving 779 million of my taxpayer dollars towards a bloated, inefficient organization with lazy people.

[Alaska Darin]

Considering all the waste you are pointing out, it is STILL Only .41cents. There must be something being done right if they can provide the service they do for only 41 cents. There is waste in all business and in ALL of government. If they were even 20 times more efficient and less wasteful, it might cost me 34 or 35 cents to mail a letter.

The alternative is some other service like UPS or Airborne Express who charge 10 to 15 times as much.

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No reason to worry about the federal deficit using that logic.