The U.S. Post Office seems to have this efficiency thing a little backwards. Revenue is supposed to expand at a faster rate than expenses. Of course, your feckless Congressional puppets blocked the USPS from closing money losing post offices that would have saved $2 billion per year, because they might lose a few votes. I wrote a little ode to the Post Office a little over a year ago that drew a bunch of clueless trolls.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2013/04/13/the-great-postal-fraud/
The clueless dolts who believe the USPS is not a government agency also believed Freddie and Fannie weren’t part of the US government. The USPS is on track to lose $8 billion this year. They have a cumulative deficit of $47 billion. Business organizations in the real world with negative net worth of $47 billion declare bankruptcy. They don’t operate in the real world, but the surreal world of Congressional oversight.
Their volumes will continue to decline. Someone forgot to tell them about the digital age. Their solution will be to increase prices while delivering poor service. That’s a can’t miss business plan. They will default on their pension payment obligation on September 30. You the taxpayer will be on the hook, even though the USPS is not a government agency. So it goes.
US Postal Service: Over $47 Billion In Losses In The Past Decade And Counting
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/11/2014 12:09 -0400
Curious what pure, unadulterated government efficiency in practice, if not in theory, looks like? Then the following chart of USPS operating profits, pardon, losses over the past decade should be sufficient. The punchline: having generated revenues of nearly $700 billion in the past 40 quarters, the USPS has been bleeding red ink more or less consistently since 2006, and has now generated just over $47 billion in operating losses over the past ten years.
It gets better.
From the WSJ: “The USPS said its total liabilities were $67.16 billion at the end of the period, compared with $23.16 billion in assets.”
That means the net capital deficiency, or “cost”, to keep the USPS alive, amounts to some $44 billion as of this moment (which includes $3.1 billion in contributions from the US government and a $47 billion deficit since the 1971 reorganization).
Continuing: “The Postal Service reached its $15 billion credit limit with the Treasury Department in 2012. Under law, the USPS must pay its own way. It doesn’t receive an annual taxpayer subsidy, but is reimbursed by Congress for some services such as delivering mail to the blind and overseas voters. The agency is saddled with a congressional mandate that requires it to prefund more than $5.5 billion annually for health benefits for future retirees. The service said Monday that it won’t be able to make its required $5.7 billion payment by Sept. 30.”
In other words, more pension accruals that will never be paid out until, finally, the administration has no option but to make the payment on behalf of the postal service (thank you PBGC).
Finally, one may ask: why doesn’t this bloated, anachronistic, money-losing zombie just go away and make way for the far more efficient and nimble private sector? After all, there are countless companies which could step in and do what the USPS does for a fraction of the cost?
Simple. The answer:
- 489,727 career employees.
- 137,037 non-career employees.
Or, as they are better known in D.C., voters.
When all the programs run dry and the initial cry deafens even the hard of hearing….followed by what follows such emotions, I want to be no where near those big metros the day the music stops. The whole world is 211.9 degrees and the seething is palpable.
Come on, print print print.
The people running the post office obviously went postal.
Damn, you mean losing tens of thousands of small businesses and self-employed businessmen has an effect on sales of businesses that relied on them?
Who’ld thunk it?
They better offshore to China and import some H1-B’s to fix it.
The USPS was saddled in 2006 by an onerous law that required the pre-funding of employee pensions for 75 years. (for employees that had not even been born yet alone employed yet) No other institution public or private has had to try and clear such a high hurdle in just 10 years.
The pre-funding has probably been dropped into a black hole like our SS and medicare taxes to be used for wars and tax cuts for the elite/corporations, and wont be available for the “little people” when the needs arise. The benefits of that law are going to the elite/corporations/financiers/privatizers/politicians.as the union busting and privatizing that is going on only benefits the aformentioned
GO
You made this exact same post on my article from two years ago. Is it your job to search any article about the USPS being a total clusterfuck and making this pre-packaged counterpoint.
Your pre-funding comment is a complete lie. Only an idiot would believe it. You don’t even understand the concept of future liabilities. Funding for future pension and health liabilities of EXISTING workers is required. The fact that the US government has $200 trillion of unfunded liabilities does not make it onerous that a SUPPOSEDLY private enterprise like the USPS fund its future liabilities.
Go troll somewhere else. We understand math here.
I also notice by the .gov on your email address that you are a government drone. I should have known you would be clueless about money. You only know how to spend ours.
Last night I went to the public library to pick up a book for my wife. I grabbed it from the reserved section and then went to look at some books. It was like 7 min before closing. Soon after one of the attendants says it’s five minutes. I keep looking for just a little longer and one of the attendants tells me: “Sir, it’s 2 min. to closing”. So I immediately go toward the front desk, which is only 8-10ft away and the librarian, an old, sick-looking, bitter/cranky woman goes: “You need to do it in the self-check out, I already turned off the computer”. So I tell her I have never done it, if she can show me, to make it faster. She tells me to just give it to her. She’ll just do it, with a dose of attitude, again. This whole interaction happened in just 30 secs or so. It took her 5 seconds to turn on the computer…5 fucking seconds. Checked me out in another 5. Costumer service govt style.