Is Post Office running near default because of the Forever stamp?

Stamps had always gone up in price. I remember when they were 25 cents and then up to 39 cents, and then I lost track and they came out with a "Forever" stamp that would always be good. Well, the problem is, while they may raise the price of the forever stamp, people who have stamps from previous years will be paying a cheaper shipping rate because they "bought in" early, so to speak. That means the post office is running mail with a percentage of its delivery from forever stamps that were purchased maybe 6 months, a year, two years ago, or maybe more. So they are doing the work but not making new money. Is this causing the near default?

This would also reflect on how inflation is unavoidable and anything the government does to try and protect against this is only a short term solution and will eventually break. So to justify this in the global meltdown thread, the government will continue to make short term solutions until everything finally bursts at the seams. The post office being just one example.

Originally posted by filosophia
This would also reflect on how inflation is unavoidable and anything the government does to try and protect against this is only a short term solution and will eventually break. So to justify this in the global meltdown thread, the government will continue to make short term solutions until everything finally bursts at the seams. The post office being just one example.

I think USPS is sitting on a failed business. World has moved against it.
Courier company like Fedex has stolen package delivery from it, and email has stolen letter delivery.
Economy is down so promotions (junk mail) are down too.
USPS labour and infrastructure costs are inflexible.

They have to slim down to survive.

You could only blame it on the Forever Stamp if the price for stamps had increased significantly since the start of the Forever Stamp. For example, if the original Forever Stamps were $.46, and the price for a stamp now was say $.98, then they would be potentially losing money. However, without an increased price your theory doesn't work.

This has nothing to do with the forever stamp. This has to do with scamming the American people.

Whatever "solution" they come up with to help USPS out of their planned problems will cost the "we the people" money somewhere.

It's a con and a sting pulled off by the same grifters who have been pulling them off for decades.

It's not the forever stamp that is the problem. It's how long did it take you to use a that 100 stamps?
People are not mailing letters anymore.The only thing holding the PO up at all is all the unemployed mailing out resumes. They would have folded in 2008 otherwise.

The problem is simple. They are dealing with an outdated business model and union protectionism. Where I live there are five Post Offices within a six mile radius. I wonder what the costs are for maintaining all of those facilities? The mail in my town is shipped over 40 miles away, sorted and then sent back. I have no problem with eliminating Saturday mail delivery, but, I bet their union does.

reply to post by JIMC5499


Not just one union, three! The rural letter carriers union, city carriers union, clerks union, and management. Like all government agencies, middle management is fat and costs too much for what they do. Every year the post office also pays out more money in retirement benefits to people that don't work. This is a big deal because tons of postal workers have already retired from one gov't job, usually military.

The go into the military at 18, at 38 they retire and get a postal job and work 20 more years. For some reason, the last government agency you worked for is responsible for your retirement which leaves the post office paying 40 years service retirement to people the spent half that time in the army. It's killing them.

Just to leave you with my favorite example of middle management there, I was covering a route that I wasn't familiar with one morning. The supervisor told us all to shut-up but I had a question for a sub that knew the route better than I did. She came down pretty hard on me and when I explained that I had a question about the route she actually said to me, "You gotta question you don't ax somebody that knows! You ax me!" I laughed really hard right at her face and the whole zone burst out laughing...typical of the people they put in charge there.

I would go with fax machines and e-mail myself

OK so incase anybody doesn't know here is what's going on with the post office.

First off, yes they are a government entity. No they do not get federal funding. The U.S. postal system collects all of it's revenue through the sale of stamps and other services. The reason they are in trouble financially is because they now have to PAY the government in order to continue running. Basically they need to generate a profit for the feds. If they didn't have to do this then they could continue to run as wel as they do.

Check out political director of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, Chuck Zlatkin on the September 7th episode of Citizen Radio. Fair warning they do use bad language on the show. It's a great interview though and explains some of the more complex issues facing the U.S.P.S..

reply to post by syrinx high priest


Can't e-mail a box, or fax a package. That would be amazing though. Seriously... I would LOVE that.

Originally posted by filosophia
Stamps had always gone up in price. I remember when they were 25 cents and then up to 39 cents, and then I lost track and they came out with a "Forever" stamp that would always be good. Well, the problem is, while they may raise the price of the forever stamp, people who have stamps from previous years will be paying a cheaper shipping rate because they "bought in" early, so to speak. That means the post office is running mail with a percentage of its delivery from forever stamps that were purchased maybe 6 months, a year, two years ago, or maybe more. So they are doing the work but not making new money. Is this causing the near default?

This would also reflect on how inflation is unavoidable and anything the government does to try and protect against this is only a short term solution and will eventually break. So to justify this in the global meltdown thread, the government will continue to make short term solutions until everything finally bursts at the seams. The post office being just one example.

'

The internet is causing the Post Office to go bellyup bro, not stamps. People aare paying the majority of their bills over the internet now because of this so called "green" movement.

When people pay bills over the internet instead of mailing their bills in, they are not buying stamps and other paraphanelia the Postal Service sells to keep funding itself. So not only do we have the Postal Service thats going to fail, but hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost because the factories that make envelopes/paraphanelia and make stamps will be going belly up as well which will actually increase the unemployment rate.

Is anyone else getting the feeling that Obama doesn't know jacksh*t about what he is doing? If you want to postal service to succeed you need to stop these companies from offering to pay bills over the internet. You cant have this "green" movement and create jobs at the same time because the green movement is designed to kill jobs, not create them. All these paper products that would normally be made and used are being replaced with digital information, paying bills online and other paperless alternatives that kill what's left of Americas jobs. The day is coming and its coming a hell of alot sooner than people think, that the unemployment rate will be like 90% and the remaining 10% of people with employment will become to new aristocracy. Think it won't happen? Pay real close attention to the things i just mentioned and think about it.

Originally posted by lpowell0627
You could only blame it on the Forever Stamp if the price for stamps had increased significantly since the start of the Forever Stamp. For example, if the original Forever Stamps were $.46, and the price for a stamp now was say $.98, then they would be potentially losing money. However, without an increased price your theory doesn't work.

Actually if the price of the stamp doesn't increase, that would be a bigger problem, because inflation would increase the cost of business while they are selling their product for the same price. Forever stamp prices do increase but if they didn't that would mean even less money for the post office.

Ok, some of you are saying the increased offices are causing a drain, as well as internet and fed ex out doing them, and that's all true, but remember that the stamp is the only "product" they sell. That's the only place they are making money. So if the forever stamp stays the same price while the rest of the business is experiencing increases in overhead due to inflation, the forever stamp is destined to cost them their business. In an economy where prices continue to rise, the only way you can keep a product the same price is if you cut elsewhere. So they could save the post office by cutting, but that isn't likely, so the stamp price will continue to drain the business.