WASHINGTON - Massive deficits could force the U.S. post office to cut out one day of mail delivery per week, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday.
Postmaster General John E. Potter asked lawmakers to lift the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week.
Faced with dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year and, "if current trends continue, we could experience a net loss of $6 billion or more this fiscal year," Potter said in testimony for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee.
Because, you know, when your business is down, the best way to crank things back up is to... cut back on services, right? Especially when you have competitors who work 24/7.
And another thing... What are those "rising costs"? The price of gasoline has come back down to normal levels. The Big Three are practically giving away cars. Could those "rising costs" have anything to do with, oh, say, the US Postal Union and the exhorbitant benefits afforded Federal employees?
First they came for the Superbowl, and I said nothing. Then they came for the USPS, and I was too busy laughing my ass off at the Superbowl to say anything about that. And whatever comes next, I'll most likely be too busy laughing like a tickled hermit about the USPS to care about that, either...
Maybe that's the plan - flood us with crap we don't care about so we don't notice when something really bad happens...
That is all.
9 comments:
Eh, go to five days for delivery. . . who cares? Anything important will be sent by Fed-Ex or UPS anyway. . . don't really see it as an issue unless you want to discuss how irrelevant the USPS has become. Personally they have lost too much of my mail - bill payment, mortgage payments. . . now I pay it all on line so I know it got there. . .
Agreed USPS is irrelevant. When was the last time you received a piece of mail that was simply so urgent it couldn't wait a day.
Utility bills ? Christmas cards? Discount 'coupons' from the local car dealers?
Meh. one day a week would be fine for me.
+1 In the age of Emails, and parcel services like UPS and FedEx, their volume must be WAY down anyway.
Go to M-F....hell Go 4 Days a week, I don't think the world will notice.
Actually Dump the USPS compleatly and let the private guys deliver my mail...that way I won't have to disarm just to buy a book of stamps!
Saw this yesterday . . . . noticed the Postmaster General was considering Tuesday as the "down" day. I'm in the mail-order business, and this is a big deal for us. I have to ask, will that down day shift to Wednesday when Monday is a federal holiday, ie Labor Day?
Don't get me wrong . . . . I'm not opposed to dropping a day, just not a weekday.
- Brad
Yesterday I got a letter that was mailed to me 10 days ago from 75 miles away.
Fuck 'em. One day a week would suit me.
What does it mean when the flag in front of teh post office is at half mast? They're hiring.
The brits have cheap mail, and they can afford to have a post office in a village of 150 people, yet we can't have one in every town. Maybe if the USPS didn't hire from the bottom of the barrel at top wages this wouldn't be an issue? Seriously, how is it that for every rock solid employee you meet, there's a half dozen mongoloids effing off.
Maybe I can FINALLY get off those #&%* catalog lists... :-)
[YHGTBSM]
No need to be so polite & formal, Jay. YGBSM is a perfectly good abbreviation with a long and honorable history.
I'm thinking you should change your blog to MAruined. It just feels that everything the gov't touches is going to get ruined.
Last week, I finally received a Christmas card in the mail from my neighbor across the street. The sad thing is, the main post office here where I live is a half mile away and is manned till 10 p.m. After that it goes into autopilot mode for the rest of the night.
They should stop working in the days they deliver bills and jury duty notices.
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