Should the Post Office Be Allowed to Default and/or Go Out of Business?

Canada Post has really trimmed back in the last few years, more super boxes in rural areas (no more house to house mailbox delivery), more contract workers, especially the rural carriers

Frankly, I liked the situation better back when the Postmaster General was a Cabinet post and the P.O. was a government monopoly.

But I think your two suggestions are not mutually exclusive. Prob'ly the government will do a bailout and the P.O. will still have to tighten its belt, lay off some workers and end Saturday deliveries.

we got rid of saturday delivery in Canada quite a while ago

Given the stinginess of the current congress, I don't know whether or not to agree with you.

I don't mind if they cancel Saturdays and find other ways to save. I just don't know if they will get the chance.

Why can't the P.O. go private with a commercial carrier taking over?

I would not be against that, if it could be demonstrated to work.

I have three different mail carriers that come to my house. One I know, he said they are all part time employees, cut back on everyone’s hours. I don’t see how they can last. I probably mail something twice a year. My bills are paid via bill pay online.

I get packages by mail. I like the USPS service much more than UPS, because the packages are protected. UPS just leaves them in front of the door or else drops them over the gate.

I use the post office a lot. I really love that self-service kiosk they have in the lobby -- weigh, stamp, label, pay by credit card.

I'd really miss Saturday delivery, though.

The problem, of course is that in the internet age the volume of mail has reduced by about half over a couple of decades ago and the trend is continuing. Moreover FEDEX, UPS and others have outcompeted the Post Office in the delivery of packages. I think we still benefit from a government Postal Service, but see no reason why it should be subsidised from general revenues. That means the Postal Service will have to reduce staff commensurate with their current workload, and find ways to remain competitive. That, of course is a challenge every business in the country, large or small, faces every day. Why should the Postal Service be exempt from it?

That was my thought, this may sound silly, but why can't it simply be sold into private business? Let the pros decide if it's salvable or not.

Probably no buyers. The post office pays no taxes of any kind - no local property taxes on any of its many properties across the country. It is built on capital provided by the government and has no debt or interest payments . These are real costs that are borne by any other business, including the very successful competitors of the postal service. If it can't make a go of it under these very favorable conditions, then it probably isn't worth investing in: better to start from scratch with different employees and a different culture - just as did FEDEX and UPS.

That makes sense, guess it's likely to be liquidation, or bailout.

It's a business model that's going to fail without a major overhaul. They provide a valuable service in that they reach every American household six days per week at the same cost no matter the location. The overhead required to fill that service is prohibitive in today's culture without significant subsidies. The question becomes one of supporting daily deliveries to rural areas at the same cost as urban/suburban areas.

Do we ask them to change the pricing structure a la Fed Ex or change their delivery structure to all of us to spread the cost to all users equally?

I don't know the answers. I do know I always prefer the Post Office services to the like of UPS.

The post office is in our constitution.

http://www.house.gov/house/Constitution/Constitution.html
One would need a constitutional amendment to kill it off. Not sure of the numbers but there still must be a large number in the population who still hasn't thrown their hat into the email ring/online bill paying. They still need the post office.

The post office just needs to beef up its package delivery, update its raison d'etre to become more technologically relevant, and to thirdly, streamline its workforce.

You guys do realize that the GOP is intentionally forcing the post office to fail, by requiring them to fully fund their next 75 years of retirement? Something which no business or private company does, let alone other sections of the government.

Look up the 2006 Postal Accountability Enhancement Act (PAEA). The whole thing was designed to break the back of the postal union, and it's working.

The idea that the post office has somehow become insanely unprofitable is a total joke. It was rigged by the GOP to fail. All part of their 'massively shrinking government' program.

Cycloptichorn

Since six years our former national post is privatized, now operating under the trade name Deutsche Post DHL ('Deutsche Post AG').

We still get deliveries by them on Saturdays ... which other competitors don't do.

They only can do it, because they earn there money with other lines of business - and abroad.

I liked it better before: now, it happens that I get letters by three different companies, sometimes delivered the late evening (Post-Dhl still comes as usualy, in the early morning though. And to our house - not like USPS to some collecting place.)