The Post Office Canard

I just watched yet another FreedumbWork representative spew the usual shit about how the US Post office fails to make a profit, and does not compete well with FedEx or UPS.

Why do we even listen to these flat-earth, Ayn Randers?

The general welfare of America means the GENERAL WELFARE. Our constitution required the construction of roads and post offices to the benefit of all. Not for the profit of the government. When you consider how hard of a slog it was to beat the British, with mud, swamps, impenetrable forests, and mountains, the value of a system of roads throughout our fledgling country becomes obvious.

Article I, Section 8 states that our government shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare.
This includes "To establish post offices and post Roads."

WHY ON EARTH SHOULD THEY BE PROFITABLE? It is to the benefit and general welfare that the government create an efficient, yet easily accessible to all. Is the military profitable? Is the Immigration Services profitable? Are the federal courts profitable? Is any investment in the science and the arts profitable (well, they are, but not in a sense that Ayn or Dickey the Arm would understand) Is our effort to defend against piracy a profitable venture? No. It benefits fleets of commercial, even private ocean-goers, but having a navy parked outside of Yemen is hardly in a position to make a profit for anyone.

It is a canard, pure and simple. Enough of this crap already. We should stand up to this rampant randism, which in its own way is just as bad and destructive as Stalin"s application of Lenin-Marxist thought.

in order to allow widespread distribution of newspapers so people would have the information neede for self government.

Social services like the post office and health care come to mind.Roads and police also.

they covered war, peace, roads, science, arts, but they never expected a George Bush to be president.

serious.

And as long as people keep playing the game as if this was a sport, Adams has won

and that was the first step.

By the way, you know who has the contract for the cheapest packages for the UPS and FedEx folks?

You guessed it, the USPS.

Not that these Randians will ever get it, their only goal is to privatize ALL in the US... and I mean ALL. Their ideal is not short of anarchy, it is anarchy.

FedEx and UPS are laying people off and bleeding money:

FedEx:

FedEx, the nation's second largest package shipper, lost more money in the last quarter, as consumers and businesses downsized shipments and the company took over $1 billion in one-time charges.

Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx Corp. also said Wednesday that it expects a rough ride for some time.

"The operating environment for our first two quarters in fiscal 2010 is expected to be extremely difficult," executive vice president and chief financial officer Alan B. Graf Jr. said.

FedEx lost $876 million, or $2.82 per share in the three month period ending in May. the company lost $241 million, or 78 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding one-time charges, earnings were 64 cents per share in the recent quarter.

UPS:

United Parcel Service, the world’s largest package delivery company, said on Thursday that its second-quarter earnings fell 49 percent as the recession cut business demand.

It forecast that its profit in the third quarter will be lower than analysts’ projections.

Second-quarter profit declined to $445 million, or 44 cents a share, compared with $873 million, or 85 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales dropped 17 percent, to $10.8 billion.

People don't ship if they don't sell or buy.

The actual price would be around 70 cents. However the law does not allow the increase in postage to exceed inflation.

which is the whole point. This is a governmental SERVICE.

who pulled the $5.00 number out of the ether. I was quoting a number provided by the Postmaster General to a question at the Gov't Oversight hearing a week or two ago.

Sorry if I was not clear.

I misunderstood.

I am still pretty impressed that every single day except weekends a postal worker stops at every mail box that is receiving mail that day and leaves the mail. That for less than 50 cents, I can put a birthday card in a mailbox in Florida and within 2 working days it is received in Virginia. That I receive subscription magazines every week or month like clockwork. That at Christmas all the Christmas cards are delivered. That for my house alone during the holidays, my mailperson delivers probably 20 pounds of catalogs. That priority mail IS priority and overnight mail IS overnight. That in the many years of getting and sending mail, I would have to say the USPS accuracy rate is 99.9%

To compare FEDEx and UPS with the USPS is a false comparison. Other than package delivery,and overnight document delivery, they perform none of the other functions I mentioned above.

$2.50 to send.

Can you imagine if people that are crying about 'socialism' didn't have USPS to rely on?

They take pride at getting things right, and they always, ALWAYS greet you with a smile.

I offer my delivery guy a cold drink when he comes by, and he makes sure that my mail is perfectly cared for in my absence.

I LIKE my USPS, at least here in the suden suburbs of Chicago.

to know your name, etc. My UPS guy knows my name and I haven't known him nearly as long. He waves to me on the street. The folks at the post office look at me as though I was something they just threw up. And I'm patient and polite.

Then there are the ever more convoluted postage rate rules. No more 'printed matter' to Canada. Size will now be a factor in postage along with weight, etc.

They should STOP THAT!

We're looking for a win-win. They're looking to make losers out of the American consumer.

Will put the insurance industry out of business?

If that were the case, then there should not be any FedEx or UPS. But now, they say that FedEx & UPS does a lot better than an alleged failing USPS.

They can't have their argument both ways.

Just like the roads. Just indirectly.

Having a postal system like we do creates so much economic growth that it causes increases in the tax base. Just like effective roads benefit everyone so much by creating an effective business environment.

How many people receive bills through the postal service?

PRECISELY THE POINT!

After all, they're taking money from users and the excess profit goes to government coffers, right?

And Congress has made sure that the Postal Service serves business very cheaply, delivering all sorts of advertising junkmail at very low costs.