USPS Ends Saturday Delivery

Bob wrote:That was inevitable. So is a lot of other stuff associated with the USPS. That thing is is a dying entity.
As the percentage of those who want to continue to use it is decreasing, there will be a corresponding increase in the price per mailing. And at some point it's gonna become like the Garcon Point Bridge. You can only raise the toll so much before you chase off the toll payer. Same with this.

Slicef18 wrote:

Bob wrote:That was inevitable. So is a lot of other stuff associated with the USPS. That thing is is a dying entity.
As the percentage of those who want to continue to use it is decreasing, there will be a corresponding increase in the price per mailing. And at some point it's gonna become like the Garcon Point Bridge. You can only raise the toll so much before you chase off the toll payer. Same with this.

Agreed. It's the small businessman who will object the most. Many count on receiving payments on their accounts receivable.

ZVUGKTUBM wrote:The Post Office is already dead. The people just haven't figured it out yet.

What Congress needs to get hot on is passing a "Do Not Mail" law that is similar to the Do Not Call list. This would allow citizens to opt-out of receiving direct mail solicitations. It would save millions of trees, tons of fuel, manhours, and lots of money. It likely would also put the Post Office out of business, as their total mail volume would be reduced by about 50%.

I mean, why should the Post Office deliver mail that gets 80% thrown away unread, or shredded (credit card offers). This is something that truly needs to be addressed.

Nekochan wrote:Call me crazy, but I think there's still a need and a place for the US mail service. Maybe not 6 day a week delivery, but there is a need for it.

Bob wrote:

Nekochan wrote:Call me crazy, but I think there's still a need and a place for the US mail service. Maybe not 6 day a week delivery, but there is a need for it.

Of course there is. How is your Great Granny gonna mail her great grandkids their birthday cards when all email is to Great Granny is some conspiracy theory the devil devised.
Just like all Granny knows about reading news is sitting on the john with her newspaper.
lol

Nekochan wrote:

Even if great granny uses email, there is nothing like opening a real card.

Bob wrote:

Nekochan wrote:

Even if great granny uses email, there is nothing like opening a real card.

Maybe to granny. But for a cheapskate like me there is a big difference between an email card and a real card. The email card is free. lol

Nekochan wrote:

Bob wrote:

Nekochan wrote:

Even if great granny uses email, there is nothing like opening a real card.

Maybe to granny. But for a cheapskate like me there is a big difference between an email card and a real card. The email card is free. lol

But how are you going to put a $5 bill in an email card?

Slicef18 wrote:

Bob wrote:That was inevitable. So is a lot of other stuff associated with the USPS. That thing is is a dying entity.
As the percentage of those who want to continue to use it is decreasing, there will be a corresponding increase in the price per mailing. And at some point it's gonna become like the Garcon Point Bridge. You can only raise the toll so much before you chase off the toll payer. Same with this.

Agreed. It's the small businessman who will object the most. Many count on receiving payments on their accounts receivable.

Nekochan wrote:Call me crazy, but I think there's still a need and a place for the US mail service. Maybe not 6 day a week delivery, but there is a need for it.

Sal wrote:If Congress would get out of the way and allow the USPS to innovate, set its own rates, and make its own business decisions independently, it would be just fine.

Instead, they've sought to actively sabotage the service by forcing them to fund up front pensions and health care costs for retirees decades down the road.

It's all part of the privatize everything philosophy.

Generations of taxpayers have been investing in this service, and now they want to let a private company come in and reap the benefits without having made the investments, Mitt Romney style.

FedEx and UPS are licking their chops.

The silver-lining in all of this is that once privatization is completed, it means no local delivery of Soldier of Fortune to RR13, Bumfuck, ND, for less than $30.00.

Floridatexan wrote:
Sal, there is no place named that in ND. I agree that the push to end the postal service is motivated by a desire on the part of Republicans, who think the answer to absolutely everything is privatization and who receive big bucks from UPS and Fedex. So the Congress, under the Bush administration, voted to require postal service pensions to be funded 75 years into the future.

Bob wrote:Nekochan's comment about how to deliver the $5 is just another part of the whole issue of how we use money.

My bank has just decided to close all it's Pensacola branches. So now I've had to move to another bank.
So now I learn for the first time that brick and mortar banks no longer provide free checks for new checking accounts, only with accounts where that's been grandfathered in. Wells Fargo wants $25 for checks. To somebody who has never ever had to buy checks that gave me culture shock which I conveyed to the nice woman opening my account.
So she then tells me "you don't really need to use checks anymore, I haven't used checks in nine years". And then explains "bill pay" to me.
I had heard the term but thought it mean automatic electronic withdrawal which I don't always like because once an automatic withdrawal has been made to pay a bill (especially credit card bill), that means they've got my money before I can file a dispute if need be.
I didn't know what "bill pay" exactly is. It don't mean that. When I use bill pay I choose the time the payment is made. And I've now used it several times already and it's so convenient to use that it's actually easier than writing a damn check and stuffing it in an envelope and mailing it. Plus I don't have to pay for a stamp.

The bottom line is I will probably never buy and use checks ever again.

Bob wrote:I'll let you in on something about the price increase. It's not just a penny on a first class letter.
I'm a collectible record dealer who only does mail order. The market for the stuff I sell is Europe and Japan. For years I've been able to mail a 45 RPM record internationally for about $6.
When the price hikes took effect in January that price went from $6 to $12. A fricking 100% overnight increase.
What does that do to me? Well it eliminates the sale of a lot of lower priced items because the percentage of mailing cost is now more than can justify the transaction.

Slicef18 wrote:

Nekochan wrote:Call me crazy, but I think there's still a need and a place for the US mail service. Maybe not 6 day a week delivery, but there is a need for it.

When I was a small lad, mail was delivered twice a day.