Another government failure wasting tax dollars.

[thundley4]

Playinghardball (59 posts)           Wed Feb-09-11 03:57 PM
Original message
Post office had $329 million loss in first quarter
   
Source: The Associated Press

The reason? A requirement to make advance health care cost payments

WASHINGTON — The post office continues to lose money at a rapid pace thanks to a requirement that it make advance payments to cover expected health care costs for future retirees.

The agency said Wednesday it had a loss of $329 million for the first quarter of the fiscal year — Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2010.

That was up from a $297 million loss in the same period the year before, which ended with a total loss of $8.5 billion.

Without the requirement for advance health care payments, the post office would have had a net profit of $226 million for the quarter, the agency announced.

Read more at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41491943/ns/business/from/t...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x381043

Wilms   (1000+ posts)           Wed Feb-09-11 04:00 PM
Response to Original message
1. "advance health care cost payments "?
   

More like ransom to the insurance companies unions.

Single-payer is what the civilized nations of the world do.

FIFY DUmmie.

SoCalDem   (1000+ posts)             Wed Feb-09-11 04:06 PM
Response to Original message
2. The problem the post office has is that they have too many former employees stilll alive & kicking
   
Edited on Wed Feb-09-11 04:17 PM by SoCalDem
and our government threw the post office under the bus..and of course bazillions of people now use computers to do stuff they used to use the post office to do. Our poor mailman is little more than a conduit between junk mail people and neighborhood trashcans.


UPS, FedEx et al stepped in & made shipping boxes easy & cheap and then put Mailboxes etc places all over the place. People are willing to pay a bit extra to NOT have to go to the post office.

Sadly, the post office is a relic from a time that has passed, but there are still employees who gave up raises for decades so they could have a decent pension..; should they all be "eliminated" so things are "easier" for congress?

Long term planning is something we do not do in this country.. we use OMG PANIC BUTTON planning

Why are there so many left living?  Could it be the cushy retirement plans that allowed them to retire at a young age?

LisaM   (1000+ posts)           Wed Feb-09-11 04:45 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. Except it's not a LITTLE extra for FedEx and UPS.
   
It's a LOT more. I mailed all my Christmas packages, to all over the country, for about sixty dollars. They all got there in three days.

I absolutely do not want to lose the services of the Post Office. I can get a letter to someone in this country in three days for less than 50 cents. I've never had the P.O. lose anything. This is something I strongly want my tax dollars to support.

FedEx and UPS are way, way more.

That's the problem you wan tax dollars to support a failing system. The USPS and Amtrak are prime examples.

Personally, I think the USPS should be granted a fee increase to cover their expenditures, but only after cuts are made that put their employees on an equal footing with Fed-Ex, and UPS.

[JohnnyReb]

The DUmmie hit on the problem but didn't quite see it. For every government job and salary there is 2 to 3 maybe even 4 people that held that job at one time and are now drawing a government retirement check and getting government healthcare for it.

They should have to plan and provide for their own retirement like people in the private sector.

[GOBUCKS]

Our poor mailman is little more than a conduit between junk mail people and neighborhood trashcans.

A rare case where a DUmbass hits the nail on the head. If bulk rates were increased by a fraction, the USPS could fund the federal budget. At least 90% of the mail delivered the the USPS is dumped into the trash without being read. I'm certain that's the case at my house, maybe more than 90%.

[thundley4]

A rare case where a DUmbass hits the nail on the head. If bulk rates were increased by a fraction, the USPS could fund the federal budget. At least 90% of the mail delivered the the USPS is dumped into the trash without being read. I'm certain that's the case at my house, maybe more than 90%.

Same here.  Aren't bulk rates cheaper? 

[JohnnyReb]

Same here.  Aren't bulk rates cheaper? 

...and congress free frank'n privileges.

[thundley4]

...and congress free frank'n privileges.

Wasn't that reported to cost in the millions of dollars each year?

[GOBUCKS]

Same here.  Aren't bulk rates cheaper? 

Bulk rates are cheap as dirt. That's how they can afford to churn out millions of tons of junk mail that one person in ten thousand might read and become a customer. So the USPS loses money delivering trash, and raises the first class rates that normal people pay. You'd think the DUmp would be all over that. The volume of trash going into landfills would drop like a rock if we could reduce junk mail.  

[AllosaursRus]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x381043

FIFY DUmmie.

Why are there so many left living?  Could it be the cushy retirement plans that allowed them to retire at a young age?

That's the problem you wan tax dollars to support a failing system. The USPS and Amtrak are prime examples.

Personally, I think the USPS should be granted a fee increase to cover their expenditures, but only after cuts are made that put their employees on an equal footing with Fed-Ex, and UPS.

Back in, I dunno '95 to '98, "Toots" was a temp for the PO. Ya wanna know how many times she came home bitchin' because of the lazy POS's workin' along side her that couldn't be fired? She basically worked as many hours and did more work than any civil servant, but because she was labeled a Temp, she had no benefits!

Wonder if the DUmbasses know the gubmint does exactly the same thing as Wally World and McDonald Ducks?

The amount of waste at the PO is the same as it is on any other gubmint controlled program. If the private sector took it over they could do it for half their budget or less!

[ScubaGuy]

leftstreet Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Feb-09-11 04:48 PM
Response to Original message
6. unRec for an anti working class article
   
Not you, the article




That 'loss' is based on lack of funding

Lack of funding?  WTF?  What happened to you DUmmies always holding up the USPS as a model of efficiency and the shining example of how well the government can run an enterprise?

The only reason the USPS lasted was because competition was not allowed.  Now that the Internet has short circuited the no competition decree the USPS is failing.

Obamanaut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Feb-09-11 04:52 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. Do you mean anti the working class that is paying this quarterly loss
   
via taxes that could be going elsewhere?

[jukin]

The Post Office soon coming to your doctor's office.

[diesel driver]

leftstreet    Wed Feb-09-11 04:48 PM
Response to Original message
6. unRec for an anti working class article
   
Not you, the article




That 'loss' is based on lack of funding

The Postal Service is self-funding.  It doesn't get any tax dollars, DUmbass!  It's "funding" comes from the sale of postage.

[DumbAss Tanker]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x381043
That's the problem you wan tax dollars to support a failing system. The USPS and Amtrak are prime examples.

Personally, I think the USPS should be granted a fee increase to cover their expenditures, but only after cuts are made that put their employees on an equal footing with Fed-Ex, and UPS.

Actually it sounds like the system is doing pretty well, except for a legacy retirement system they can't get out from under.  The USPS has a separate retirement system from the rest of the Feds, so I can only speak for the Fed system - the old Fed CSRS system (Which was 100% defined-benefit with a high paycheck, but no Medicare or Social Security integration) enrolled its last new entrants in the mid-80s, and there is no escape legally from the obligation to pay them; the newer FERS system has a very puny defined-benefit element, but offers participation in a 401K-type saving plan plus Medicare and SS integration of benefits.  If the USPS retirement system is like that, they could be privatized tomorrow and the obligation to pay those old-system retirements would go with the keys to the shop, so it wouldn't save a dime to do that.  The numbers make it sound like current operations are actually running a healthy net gain, minus a Congressional mandate to dump money into a retirement fund which sounds like a thing the private sector companies would not have to do (Except Congress could pull a very similar stunt with them at any time if they did take it over on contract).

It therefore sounds like the problem has a lot more to do with Congress sticking its oar in the water than it does with how unutterably horrible it is to have a government-run postal service.   

[jukin]

It therefore sounds like the problem has a lot more to do with Congress sticking its oar in the water than it does with how unutterably horrible it is to have a government-run postal s

According to Dr. Sowell, 99.9% of all problems are due to government interference.

[diesel driver]

According to Dr. Sowell, 99.9% of all problems are due to government interference.

That percentage sounds a little low to me. 

[DefiantSix]

That percentage sounds a little low to me. 

+1.  First time I've seen good Doctor Sowell miss a figure like that.