My rant of the day...

shootermcgavin · Dec 9, 2011

So when I need to mail something I always go to a local store which will give me a box, tape it, and find the best place to ship it. There is never a wait and they are always helpful. So I go to the post office for the first time in probably 10 years and there is a line of like 20 people, all boxes and shipping labels are pretty much 100% done all they have to do is swipe a credit card. So explain to me how to mom and pop business stays alive, Fedex stays in business, but the united states post office is so in debt that even though we pay for a stamp it is estimated that tax dollars pay an additional $.50 per stamp on top of it just to stay in business. It just doesn't make sense to me at all, how can the government run things so horribly to make a business that should be thriving fail. If anyone has shipped anything I think they will agree that in most cases Fedex is cheaper than sending it USPS. Baffling...

bentcountershaft · Dec 9, 2011

Honestly I think it's because of bulk mailing. They do that cheap, cheaper than a regular stamp and since that crap goes to every house it creates a lot more work for less money. With more and more people paying bills online and using UPS or FedEx for anything else (less bureacracy more efficiency) the USPS probably gets an ever growing share of a less profitable market while losing more and more of their already small share of the larger profit customer base.

Derrel · Dec 9, 2011

Have you not heard??? THe United States Postal Service is about ready to cut delivery times from 1 to 3 days to 2 to 4 day. NO MORE "next day" letters...two days, MINIMUM.

The decline of the postal service can be traced to increased private shipping (UPS, DHL,FexEx,Global,etc,etc) competition that is faster, more-accessible, and more-nimble because of lower overhead, greater flexibility, and better management in multiple, smaller companies. SOmetimes multiple smaller companies can break up a industry and do things cheaper, or better, but then again, we have huge government monopolies on "some" essential services like military, roads, governing,etc.etc.. We created a huge postal system that can deliver to every single home in any "normal" town or village, with regular delivery, nation-wide, at fair prices. That is something that we all benefit from, but we do NOT pay the full price of the service when we send things using the US postal service...no...we are receiving a subsidized service, at a highly discounted rate, based on what is best for the common good of the entire country. At one time, postal mail was a critical,critical component of business communications and sales and delivery, as well as a HUGELY important communication network. But, times have changed. More communication is done by telephone/text/FAX/e-mail than ever before, but yet we still have a need, occasionally, for mail service that is affordable and dependable, and nation-wide, door-to-door. It is very expensive to maintain that type of constantly-ready, on-demand service availability...it's kind of like the way we keep the US army,navy,air force,and marines "ready", and why we have a "standing army". Same with the way we have police forces. And ambulance services. We do not need or use those services 95% of the time. But we still maintain them, at huge costs, supported by everybody's tax dollars, as well as some minor user fees (postage).

GeorgieGirl · Dec 9, 2011

I remember when the post office wanted to enjoy Internet fees for taking away their business.

As for package services and overnight mail, each company has the load balanced. If one of the lot went out, the impact would be huge. Collectively they all balance each other in their industry.

shootermcgavin · Dec 9, 2011

They should sell the postal service, I bet you someone could make a mint off it. The math I did in my head makes it hard to imagine they aren't making money but I get at least 3 things in the mail everyday maybe most people don't get anything. I think EMS and fire could definitely be privatized also, I don't know how I'd feel about police and military. Maybe they could hire the head of Fedex to come fix it.