Time to Privatize USPS?

[Parsad]

More losses, and possibly a cash crunch without congressional approval.  Time to sell the USPS?  They should probably cut out Saturday mail delivery altogether, and wage reductions across the board would also be prudent.  Cheers!

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48590931

[Stone19]

Go easy on USPS if it wasn't for them the Canadian Postal Service would be the worst in the world.Cheers

[turar]

Go easy on USPS if it wasn't for them the Canadian Postal Service would be the worst in the world.Cheers

Actually, US and even Canada have it pretty good compared to "the world" when it comes to national postal service.

[ERICOPOLY]

The Australian Post charges 60 cents for a small letter (vs 45 cents at USPS), yet it still loses money on the mail delivery.  However it does generate an overall profit due to the delivery of profitable parcels:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-post-increases-profit-20111012-1ll38.html

 

UPS and FedEx -- of course they look good.  They don't deliver letters!  They're taking away the profitable business from USPS and leaving them with the loss-making letter business.

 

Basically privatizing the profits and socializing the losses.  Go USA!

[ERICOPOLY]

Their solution:

 

Australia Post is required by law to provide a universal letter service which is reasonably accessible to all Australians

 

http://australia.gov.au/directories/australia/australia-post

[JEast]

A second the go easy on the USPS.  Though we are all capitalist (in the good sense) here, there are some things that are just good for society as a whole in the Benjamin Franklin theme. 

 

Cutting out Saturday delivery would be fine that would/could be picked up by the private sector.  Otherwise, I do not hold the USPS to the same standards as a profit making entity because they are somewhat facilitators for other profit making entities.

 

 

Cheers

JEast

[CONeal]

Why OS it always the suggestion to cut out Saturday.  It's the only day most people are able to pick up packages and ship things.  Wish they would they and cut out a day during the week.  Can't remember the last time I got something other then junk on a Wed. 

 

If they did go for profit would hate to inherit the pension obligations.

[bookie71]

How can the postal service even be expected to break even, little on profitable with congress mandating it to serve all the small towns and communities in the U.S.A.?  Then Congress micro manages (and who could do a worse job), requiring Saturday delivery, civil service type pensions, etc

[Parsad]

How can the postal service even be expected to break even, little on profitable with congress mandating it to serve all the small towns and communities in the U.S.A.?  Then Congress micro manages (and who could do a worse job), requiring Saturday delivery, civil service type pensions, etc

 

Correct!  If you live high on the hog and get golden parachute pensions, then how the heck do you know what real folk are actually experiencing.  Congress is the worst oversight committee you could think of to monitor any profit-making enterprise, let alone a break-even and hope we don't go broke enterprise like the USPS. 

 

And CONeal, I agree with you regarding Wednesday's instead of Saturdays.  Either day works, but better yet, maybe cut out two days.  God knows how much is now directly done online, by email, mobile phone or online banking.  Alot of services the USPS offers no longer need six days a week service.  They could afford it if they paid their employees $12 an hour like the banks, but they pay them double that, if not triple for senior employees...plus pension.  Cheers!

[oddballstocks]

I'm not a huge fan of privatization, take a look at some of the European national postal companies like PostNL.  There's really nothing different than in the US, the problem with the postal service is it's just like wirelines, it's become a thing of the past.

[rkbabang]

you don't need to privatize it.  Just get rid of the laws forbidding private companies to compete with it on first class mail delivery then in a few years when fedEx, UPS and whoever else has it covered, shut it down.

 

Those laws were passed in the mid-19th century to shut down Lysander Spooner's The American Letter Mail Company  that was eating the USPS's lunch.

The US Gov could have and should have gotten out of the postal business right then and there, but instead congress passes a law giving the USPS a monopoly.

 

Spooner vs. U.S. Postal System by Lucille J. Goodyear

'Father of 3-cent Stamp' Spooner fought Post Office

 

[rmitz]

Without the pensions problem, USPS would still be profitable, as I understand it. 

 

I don't understand the vitriol many people have for the postal service.  I have always had great service from them, they have many more convenient locations than any of the private carriers, the time it takes is minimal, and once they came in with their new pricing model a few years ago they were almost always cheaper, unless you have some large negotiation power.

 

I personally loathe dealing with the other carriers for actually shipping anything, and their delivery has given me more trouble over time as well.

 

If we were to get rid of the postal service, we would have to start regulating the other carriers to make sure they will serve the outlying areas adequately.  This will of course cut back on their profits, so I can't see why they would agree to that.

[cobafdek]

Parsad, it is time to privatize the USPS.  I believe so as an unabashed right-winger.  However, I do like to read thoughtful liberals, and this one gave me some pause:  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20120808,0,2015318.column

[Green King]

there should not be politics or sides.

Lets just discusses facts or this can get messy man.

 

Why should be Privatize ?

Will it solve the current problem ?

Would it make the economy more efficient ? Is that the goal ? What is the Goal ? Save money ?

What about the poor that capitalism frequently miss because they are not yet profitable to service ?

 

[AZ_Value]

To me this is just one of those things that people like to complain about.

 

Don't get me wrong, anything that could be done better should be done better, we all agree with that.

 

But that USPS deficit is about 0.003% of US GDP I think, so is it so awful that the country spends that much to maintain a postal system throughout the country that allows all its citizens to keep in touch? Why the hell work so hard to build a rich and powerful country if a higher quality of life isn't one of the goals? And to me this is one of the ways we provide that.

 

Like others have said eventually this will go away and everything will be done electronically, just look at the current younger generations and their usage of regular mail and you'll see that time is not far away.

 

But is it really such a big deal that the country provides this as a service? I'm more pissed at Congress pushing through spending on fighter jets that nobody will ever use just because it's built in some congressman's district.

 

People actually still use this service and however way you want to cut it it'll never be economically cost efficient to deliver an envelope to Hinsdale County, Colorado. Unless you charge them millions. But, personally, us providing that service to people who live there doesn't keep me up at night.

The same question can be asked about spending money to build dams to protect the city of New Orleans? Is that really economically meaningful to the US as a whole? How about the money spent preserving our national parks?

 

We complain about plenty of things in our societies but I guarantee you that if you were to take them away many would realize they don't want to live here anymore.