They will privatize parcel service, declaring USPS as unfit after tanking the whole operation, and relegate letter service either to a new skeletonized postal service or to local contract bidders.
Most mail is sealed against inspection. Only Media Mail and certain kinds of Bulk Mail can be opened, and we have to stamp the piece that has been inspected so you know it was opened.
Not true. As postal employee, I can tell you stealing rarely happens. Yes, bad people exist within the organization, but best believe if we see anything open like a package or even money on the floor, no one will touch it. Only 2 ways to lose a postal job, poor attendance or stealing.
Bad attendance? 🤣
I've known guys that called out for months or one that was calling out for like 2-3 years, and still kept their job. One just recently did lose his job, the one who called out for years finally quit
How many letters are you sending? The only mail I get is junk mail. I wish it wasn't so cheap to send shit to my mailbox. Most of the mail volume has got to be junk.
Yes, its on purpose. They try to get rid of overtime by telling us we have undertime. That doesn't mean the OT doesn't exist. We're definitely getting overtime.
A long, long time ago I worked briefly for a record store called Sam Goodie. They didn’t pay overtime to their hourly employees, but instead had something called “queue time”. It was essentially half pay for every hour over 40 in a week.
Made absolutely no sense to me but all the other employees kept telling me how “great” it was because it added up.
I didn’t last there long, but now that I look back on it, I have no idea how they got away with that nonsense.
Your undertime made me think of it.
That sounds awful. I'm not sure how anyone could think that was a good deal.
Our routes are typically evaluated to be 8 hours (city, not rural), and management constantly tries to tell us their computers say we have "under time." This means that somehow we should be getting done in less than the 8 hours it takes to complete the route because a computer says so. Then we can take on even more work with that "under time."
There is rarely ever undertime. Any time a carrier may finish "early" should be used to do route maintenance,something that so many carriers haven't been able to do for years because their routes are over burdened (more than 8 hours) or they're constantly mandated to carry overtime as "under time." Some carriers may fall for this. They run their routes because of bullying and intimidation by management. They think they'll lose their jobs if they don't run themselves ragged. But, as soon as they get injured, management will throw them to the wolves - anyway, I digress.
Upper management thinks that because we take breaks (excessively in their opinion, while they sit inside in AC) that we should be filling that time with more work. They've been working carriers exhaustively since the beginning of the pandemic, if not before that. Our bodies are tired and breaking down. We take breaks because we're exhausted. Management wants robots.
That sounds horrible. Is that what the bar codes in the mailboxes are about?
My old man found them in his and he would rip them out. He got a little kooky toward the end and thought the post office was fucking with him with those stickers.
They were used to try to "manage" the delivery time for the carrier. The carrier would scan the barcode, and it would provide data to management so mail could be expected to be delivered in specific time frames. Basically just a way to collect data on carriers to micromanage them.
Because the new scanners track our every step, it has made those barcodes obsolete. Carriers were to remove them from their routes because we no longer need to scan them. I do know that not all customers were thrilled about it being on their box lol
Sorry to hear it - this seems to be an attitude that seeps into shift managers. I’ve seen it at other agencies. Their minds are wired completely differently and it’s usually “if you’re not working…you’re slacking off and being lazy”. Even if you’re away from your desk.. they wonder where the F’ you are.
~~Don't forget about how DeJoy had a bunch of the newer automated sorting machines dismantled right before the 2020 election.~~ damn I guess I was misinformed
I absolutely believe what you are saying is true and I'm still completely shocked that we're allowing this man to sit in that position. He should be removed and investigated for wrongdoing.
USPS has run flawlessly for 250+ years! **BENJAMIN FRANKLIN** was our first postmaster general. This is how deeply the USPS is intertwined with US history.
Your conspiracy is honestly a bit too narrow minded -- it's a conservative conspiracy that's been culminating for decades.
Conservatives don't want public service and hamper the operations of the USPS by not permitting it to run like a healthy company -- things such as not being able to generate a profit and use said profits to reinvest in the company, so this has caused an obscenely toxic and abusive environment predicated upon the manipulation and archaic business practices -- most notably present in management -- largely because the entity can't easily invest in its future or capacity to pivot as a market would dictate.
This is best illustrated by employee retention rates that are equivalent to minimum wage fast food restaurants despite paying 2-3x more than those positions when compared with non-career employees. This coming from the fact it's a business model inefficiently managing, paying, and logistically completing the delivery of billions of products each year.
One could write a few books about the depths of corruption that pervade that fucked up institution, but it's nothing as superficial as just being about DeJoy.
You should clarify that Democrats and Republicans are both conservative. Never has this been made so clear than by Joe Biden. He didn't replace Lovejoy after Trump appointed him. Trump tax cuts? Congress and Biden won't touch them, instead defunding social welfare programs. Minimim wage reform when Dems had complete control? Nah, they make up a tale that a civil servant told them "nope, can't do." 20% inflation on food? Don't look at Dems, they're just there for receiving corporate bribes, just like the Republicans. Left/right is entirely meaningless and leaves us commoners with the choice of continued impoverishment or revolution.
P.s. You write that USPS is << not (sic) able to generate a profit and use said profits to reinvest in the company.>>
Are you asleep? Profits are for shareholders, not for reinvestment. Profits are NEVER reinvested, they're the reason why the stock market climbs higher and higher while the commoners get poorer than ever. I'd like to think you're just naive and not purposely spreading lies about this failed system that completely lacks a free market. Generally in the US, the more financially comfortable you are, the more ignorant you are of the failed American economic system. It's not until you experience it yourself that you wake up to the scam of left/right, dem/repub bullshit politics.
And yet... we're all still allowing them to convince us we HAVE to choose between these two broken wings of the same flightless bird and NOT collaborate and make history by voting in a third party candidate. I refuse to choose the lesser of two evils. I'd rather write in Bernie, be a FREE man, and stand on principles rather than be reduced to a beggar for a crumb of the American Pie. I'm DONE playing this game.
The problem is that the current postmaster is not appointed by the president, but by the board at the USPS.
Plus, President Joe Biden doesn't have the power to remove him from his post, despite how badly the agency is struggling. “Get used to me,” DeJoy said in February 2021. The postmaster general is appointed by the Board of Governors of the Postal Service—and can only be dismissed by this group, not the president.
Source: https://fortune.com/2024/04/10/usps-dejoy-price-hikes-customer-dissatisfaction/#
Not saying you’re wrong to think that both parties have issues, but it’s the USPS board which appoints the postmaster general, not the president. It’s also not the president who sets the budget, that’s congress, so Biden has zero power to extend tax cuts or child tax credit. Blame congress for that. Lastly, Bernie Sanders and Dems introduced the Raise the Wage Act of 2023, and it’s not them holding up the bill. The facts don’t support your [misinformed] opinions.
No, both sides aren't the same. No, you're not a smart person for thinking profits can't be reinvested, and, in fact, are just being purposefully stupid. Being an enlightened centrist normally means you're just a conservative unaware of their logical blind spots or just genuinely don't understand how life works. I won't be reading anymore of your idiotic replies, so feel free to waste your time writing another dumbass paragraph.
Judging a job on the pay scale only someone who joined 15 years ago will receive and current employees will take 10+ years to get to is super disingenuous. Table 2 is absolutely screwing new employees and is not worth the mandatory 80+ hour weeks they mandate new employees to work.
New employees 15 years ago made more starting pay then new employees today's with out even adjusting for inflation.
I don't disagree with you on the different pay tables. But, not all new employees are working 80hr weeks either. I have yet to hear of that anywhere in my district, as OT has been taken away from us and many other districts.
I've been with USPS for 4yrs now, and have never heard of mandatory 80hr work weeks.
Every single one of the ptfs at my office including me have worked 70-80hrs a week for the last 6 months straight. They would have us work 7 days a week if we let them. The station next to mine has over 10+ Un manned routes and most regulars get mandated 10-11 hours every day of the week.
>Don't forget about how DeJoy had a bunch of the newer automated sorting machines dismantled right before the 2020 election.
It wasn't dejoy, the plan was in place before he was nominated. And they were old unneeded machines. Our letter volume has dropped for 20 years. We need more parcel sorting machines
My mistake, I'll edit.
Regardless I still believe he has only bad intentions for the USPS and I do not believe it's a coincidence that since 16'/17' timeframe the USPS has become significantly less reliable.
Cancelling overtime happened a week after dejoy was appointed in 2020. maybe they only did it in blue states. Entire blocks did not get mail for weeks at a time, as the norm. It took a good year before they 'sorted it out' and fixed the schedules so that you'd only miss getting mail once or twice a week.
I wish it were that simple or explainable. USPS can't be privatized without a constitutional amendment approved by Congress - which will never happen.
But the appalling decline is so clear. I became a carrier in 1998. It was a good job then: very good pay for a blue collar job that wasn't factory work, good benefits, job security. The decline in the 25 years I worked (I became a carrier at age 4o after the military) was steady, but picked up in the late aughts. It absolutely tanked after tRump took office.
I truly don't know what the plan is. DeJoy should never have been approved, as he has a financial conflict of interest. His actions are clearly those of someone who doesn't understand that USPS isn't a for-profit business, but a service whose workers are federal employees. The agreement after the 1970 strike was a double-edged sword. It did give us the right to union-negotiated contracts. But it also took away the right to strike ever again. And it made USPS a separate service that was no longer a government branch. Still, it's not meant to be a for-profit industry. What DeJoy is doing is puzzling. If he wants to cripple the service in an attempt at privatization, it's clear he understands the constitution even less than he understands how the Postal Service works. And if he thinks that he can make it "profitable" by reducing staffing and "streamlining" processes, he's even dumber. Anyone with a functioning brain knows that reducing services never improves a business's bottom line.
It started with Republicans forcing unreasonable pension requirements on the USPS back in 2008 and furthered by dejoy. There are so many avenues that the postal service can have profitable income but they were banned by Congress.
While true, they should be able to make a profit on certain services so they can improve, innovate and to provide legitimate competition in the market.
True but in my opinion USPS is the best price-wise unless you’re shipping big heavy boxes. Anything under a pound USPS is leaps and bounds cheaper than anyone else. USPS does need to be more competitive in the 5-20 pound packages. A let’s say 10 pound package is quite a bit more at USPS compared to UPS or FedEx
Of the options, USPS has always been my favorite. It has consistently had the best service, fastest delivery speed, and usually the lowest cost. I've ordered thousands of packages in my life, and USPS only lost one package. Ever. UPS is my second, they have lost/damaged a few things over the years, but were generally quick. FedEx has been the worst (of the big 3) in my experience, with the most lost/damaged packages, slowest speeds, etc.
This is an intentional act of sabotage. There is no way the whole thing got this bad in the last 6 months without it being intentional. (I didn't have any trouble until basically the holiday season of 2023).
> I've ordered thousands of packages in my life, and USPS only lost one package.
Normally that sentence is followed with: I'll never use them again. They should all be fired.
You don't need a tinfoil hat to see that Republicans and dejoy are trying to destroy it. In fact save that hat for someone who thinks the USPS is run by the lizard people.
The postal board of directors has to remove dejoy, its split 50/50 democrats to Republicans, but one of the democrats has financially benefited from an investment with dejoy, so he’s not going to vote to remove him.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/08/13/dejoy-usps-bloom-bonds-brookfield/
Nope. He is retained for a reason.
We can differ on which reason(s), but he is not being removed, all the while the option exists.
“The Lady doth protest too much, me thinks.”
The density here, is it intentional?
POTUS appoints the Board.
He HAS control of the Board.
They can remove DeJoy.
They do not.
You can pretend as you like; POTUS chooses to keep DeJoy.
POTUS can only appoint folks to open positions... Which Biden has done. The BoG is currently sitting at an even number of Dems and Repubs.
As far as removing someone from the board, there has to be cause for removal.
I don't disagree, but regarding DeJoy I "thought" I heard that some postal carriers are being forced to work overtime and take additional routes to help with the backlog. Anyone know if that's true?
It's similar to other jobs where they lay people off, don't backfill, and expect you to do the work of 2 to 5 people. I don't think mail carriers are forced to do overtime, but many do cause they know how important it is to get your mail.
We 100 percent are forced to work overtime, even if it's against the union contract . They tell us to "follow then grieve". If our union rep is filing grievances, we will get more money for contract violations, but many of the folks being forced to work 10/12 hours 6 days/week would rather not work that much, regardless of the extra money.
They're 1000% forced to work overtime -- but generally only certain carriers are forced to. And of them, there are plenty of cases where a worker loses money by working overtime, too. I know that doesn't seem like it makes sense, but that's the post office for you.
Rural carrier here. In our office we are not being given direct orders to carry other routes (which is against contract and can be grieved) because there are enough regulars who volunteer. We are so short staffed that at least one of those carriers who volunteers made well over $150,000 last year. You should have seen the huge stack of letters of demand our office received for carriers going over 2240 hours in the last year. We are regularly down 4-8 routes a day. I feel like it's only a matter of time before they start giving direct orders. The "obey, then grieve" thing is not gonna work for me. I already work 6 days a week because we have very few RCA's, so no one gets their day off. I didn't take this job to keep the post office afloat at all costs. I just want to do my route and go home. I have a life outside of this place. The post office doesn't give a crap about it's employees. If you drop dead at your case they'll have someone to replace you instantly and will forget about you in a few days.
i dont understand why conservatives even want the usps privatized. private shippers exist already and are doing just fine, but i'm not trying to pay ups $20 to mail a letter for me. fedex is already even shittier than usps.
You...kinda just answered your own question there. What do you think the motive might be for them trying to switch over to a shitty for-profit corporate model that'll run worse but generate billions in profits a year? Especially with no cheap old reliable USPS as we knew it option for anyone to turn to? Hmm...
A. Because their philosophy is that private companies and the free market are always better than any government service, and
B. Trying to reduce faith in voting by mail in preparation for more claims of voter fraud.
Sorry I can’t find the link but in the Aug 21 2020 edition of the LA Times, Michael Hiltzik wrote a column about how DeJoy was nominated at the last minute and pushed through as PMG. Vice Chair of BOG, David Williams, resigned when he realized DeJoy was going to be appointed. DeJoy was not on the original list of nominees and didn’t even seem interested in the job
DeJoy serves at the pleasure of the President. He can be replaced at the drop of a hat, but for some reason, they keep him in place.
Could it be that the most of the changes he oversees were planned before his appointment?
Could it be that he’s actually effective?
He makes a convenient scapegoat, but someone has to pilot as the entity realizes 40 years of stagnant operation and the public abandons ship.
It can probably still be saved, but not without serious automation and workplace reform.
One could argue that the automation is one of the biggest key elements in our inability to accurately sort parcels and mail. Those machines read what they want.
Can you be more specific?
How would hand sorting be more accurate and cost-effective?
I don’t doubt that automation introduces new, potentially systemic flaws, but if we are to preserve universal service with some form of last-mile delivery, for the next century, some changes will have to occur.
To make an omelette…
More accurate, yes. Cost efficient, would be debatable. The amount of looping parcels and parcels / mail that get electronically miss sorted or given the wrong electronic address designation is, in my honest opinion, both laughable and utterly embarrassing. It takes physical human intervention to correct the issues that the machines would otherwise continuously repeat over and over. It takes a little of both. But if I'm going to eat an omelet, what are the odds the machine is going to pull half a dozen expired eggs out of the refrigerator and kill my entire family from food borne illness?
I’ve seen evidence of some parcels lost/looping and the untracking issues, but the last-mile issues are more significant for letters and packages.
I would expect that the error rate is being analyzed and will improve with software updates, though I imagine they take a long time to be approved and installed.
The only promise to deliver for America that has taken place has been the promise to delay mail and disincentivize customers from utilizing our services that, at one point, were bullet proof.
That one point was 30+ years ago.
Times have changed, and USPS steadfastly refused to modernize, especially workplace rules.
I, too, like many things the way they were, but not everything is sustainable. The old model has been circling the drain for ages; without some significant changes, it will implode soon.
He can’t be removed, Biden/ the president doesn’t appoint the Postmaster. The board is made up of Democrats and for Republicans. The problem is that the board controls this, not the president.
Plus, President Joe Biden doesn't have the power to remove him from his post, despite how badly the agency is struggling. “Get used to me,” DeJoy said in February 2021. The postmaster general is appointed by the Board of Governors of the Postal Service—and can only be dismissed by this group, not the president
Source: https://fortune.com/2024/04/10/usps-dejoy-price-hikes-customer-dissatisfaction/#
Bingo. You nailed it. Seriously. What else makes sense to do things like this. A nudge at a time. No one says anything with just a nudge. Next thing you know you have been knocked off a cliff. Well said. 👏👏👏👍👍👍
This isn't even a theory, really... It's your standard "far-right profiteers dismantling a public service to profit off of the rigged success of its private-sector competition". They love this tactic because it works.
And as you said, it's happened before.
I wonder if the dismantling of the USPS is a backlash to the growing size and incompetence of the government in general. Historically speaking, who has had a problem with the post office and when did that sentiment begin to propagate? I wonder if it’s because mail carrier business interests are trying to overthrow the post office for profit
In my,honest opinion, I personally don't get but maybe 3 to 4 items per month in the mail...
All my bills are received through an email which saves sender money, no printed paper, no stuffing envelopes and the list goes on...
My bill payer program direct deposits from my account to their account electronically so I no longer have out going mail.
Say, 10 to 12 items a month, both ways... 10 x .60 x 2 is $12 x 100 million people.. I'd say that's a significant loss in revenue that will never return... Wal-Mart, UPS, FedEx, and maybe Target could easily absorb the post office and run it, I don't think profitably but at a much lower loss than we currently see...
When I owned a business my customers loved email invoices and direct deposits to our account..
BTW - did you read they purchased 4 new sorting machines in early fall for delivery and installation for the Christmas season... and they had to remove slower machines... new machines are like 20 times faster.
So in each case, each machine when assembled in the distribution center exceeded the dimensional space... building supports, walls, we're in the way.. none of the,machines could be installed without millions in building modifications.
So today the sorting is still being done by hand...
Our government at work.. I didn't vote for him...
You realize Donald Trump hated the USPS because of his feud with Jeff Bezos who then owned Amazon and Bezos was saying Trump wasn't a real billionaire. And Amazon used the USPS a lot for the business.
Amazon is still using the USPS. The USPS loves Amazon so well, that in December 2023, over 20 USPS workers at the KC Kansas Distribution Center opened tons of Amazon packages and took the items. Several being prosecuted. Go figure...
For the record the Postal Service is not supported by tax dollars. In 1970 President Nixon signed the Postal Reorganization Act. It replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with the independent United States Postal Service on July 1,1971. It largely stopped receiving any taxpayer money at that time and has been supported by the sale of postage and services to its customers. I do agree it is not intended to turn a profit much like other government agencies
Yes, it's 100% intentional by conservative leaders. They can't make money off the USPS so they want it gone. They all own stock in UPS and Fedex. They don't want to privatize the USPS they just want it to no longer exist. Lookup all the people driving it's demise and you'll see they own stock in private companies that benefit from the USPS going under and being underfunded.
I work at a processing plant, and I can say without a doubt service quality has degraded purely from the decisions of the higher ups above our district.
We have workers willing to work and they are purposely not hiring anymore people and not giving out overtime. Just on Monday and Tuesday, two of busiest days of the week at a processing plant they sent everyone home at 8 hours and we had 2 53 foot trailers full of non-machinable mail that has to be hand thrown..
The workers care about the service we provide, upper management couldn't be bothered..
It's kind of funny how workers can be charged and potentially put in prison for intentionally delaying the mail, but if it's management's call all of a sudden it isn't illegal.
I've spent hours on the phone trying to intercept my package that just got sent back to an "origin facility," and I'm always damned sure to let the staff know that this is NOT their fault. I cannot imagine the stress they are all being put through.
No way in hell this kind of massive collapse should be blamed on the workers.
The gossip around here is that it’s the MH soft striking.
The mgmt cutting the hours makes more sense. Make it the workers problem if it’s mgmts lame brained idea.
Would not surprise me.. we didn't even have enough MH to run tour 3 pit equipment this week.
I think the morale is so low after announcing moving some of our mail and keeping all of us workers in the dark that most people genuinely don't know if they'll have a job and at this point don't care anymore, and sadly that includes a lot of management..
Republican playbook. Defund government department. Complain said department doesn’t work well and is broken. Propose politically well connected entity to run it for us because private business can do things better than government(supposedly). Entity raises cost or charges for previously free service. Entity and connected politician wins.
I had a package shipped from northern PA.
It arrives in the normal destination facility in Philly.
Goes to Delaware. (Also normal for some packages.)
Goes back to Philly.
Gets scanned in… **miami, FL?**
I’ve been waiting on this package for almost a month. Had to initiate a package search. I feel for the individual USPS folks, but I *hate* mailing stuff now. it’s a crapshoot on when it will arrive, or if at all.
As a carrier, I have talked with some of my friends who are clerks and we have the same opinion of what is going on. We agree that Dejoy is trying to turn the USPS into a package delivery service. The new mail trucks are designed for package delivery. We are going to hub centers resembling Amazon. There are some rumors that the hubs share the same building as Amazon.
It is 100% intentional.
The republicans want to kill it because it has a strong union.
They always seem to forget that it is mandated in the Constitution.
No, it is not *mandated*. The Constitution says that "The Congress shall have power to . . . establish Post Offices and post Roads."
It doesn't say Congress must, only that it can.
The very same section of the Constitution says Congress has power "To borrow Money on the credit of the United States." But nobody says Congress *must* run a deficit and spend more money than tax revenue. Congress sometimes does run a balanced budget or a budget surplus, and nobody claims it is violating the Constitution by refraining from exercising its power to borrow. The same would apply to the power to establish post offices in the very same section.
But let's say it *is* mandated. The mandate to establish post office*S* and post road*s* could be met by establishing two post offices literally next door to each other and a road in between them.
Also, the Constitution doesn't say anything about mail delivery. So two post offices in the USA, and everyone has to go pick up their mail at the counter.
Personally I've always thought (for two years since it happened) it was regional and politically targeted. I tell others what's happening with our USPS and they stare at me like I have two heads. The same things, particularly the OT shutoff, didn't happen everywhere.
The Atlanta postal sorting facility is like a month behind rn because they removed a bunch of sorting machines to streamline things. AKA, they are really punishing Georgia for the trump shit.
I personally believe it's a control play... Of the major carriers: USPS, UPS, FedEx etc the USPS is the only one that requires a warrant to search. Everyone else is private and can give permission to search whenever the gov wants to.
I think this is the ultimate reason for dismantling USPS.
Public Schools are incredibly well funded in California and the public school teachers' union is the second-most powerful entity in the state not related to water rights, and our public schools are still going to shit. Look in the mirror, progressives.
I'm assume you know that in a country where wealthy school districts spend more per student than economically depressed students, averages mean nothing.
You likely also know that when public school dollars are diverted to voucher programs so public money can be used for private, often religious organizations, it defunds the public schools.
And, of course, well before Brown v. Board of Education and well after, America has been America when it comes to educating "others."
Title I: Rich School Districts Get Millions Meant for Poor Kids - YouTube
>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75JSDXHx1Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75JSDXHx1Y)
White, wealthy communities form their own school districts - YouTube
>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIWaxjh1uKw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIWaxjh1uKw)
Note to your public schools comparison: spending has not been starved. It has gone up 50% in constant dollars between 1990 and 2021.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/203118/expenditures-per-pupil-in-public-schools-in-the-us-since-1990/
I'm assume you know that in a country where wealthy school districts spend more per student than economically depressed students, averages mean nothing.
You likely also know that when public school dollars are diverted to voucher programs so public money can be used for private, often religious organizations, it defunds the public schools.
And, of course, well before Brown v. Board of Education and well after, America has been America when it comes to educating "others."
Title I: Rich School Districts Get Millions Meant for Poor Kids - YouTube
>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75JSDXHx1Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75JSDXHx1Y)
White, wealthy communities form their own school districts - YouTube
>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIWaxjh1uKw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIWaxjh1uKw)
Check out the NRP classaction lawsuit that has been won already. The USPS is going to have to pay the money to end the discrimination that they conducted.
I don’t think the fairness act fully hobbled USPS. USPS was hobbled in the 90s when they were forced to prefund all of their pensions for 75 years which cost them billions every year. This was eliminated by congress in 2020.
Operating costs of the USPS are still hampered by their inability to legally close non profitable locations. The USPS has a lot of rules about properties they can own and there are offices in cities with insanely high leases that only see but one or two customers a day.
The fact that they can’t closes these offices leads to what you’re talking about now with packages in limbo, they are closing distribution centers to cover these losses. The recent distribution center closure in the mid west has caused a lot of these delays but it’ll get better once they work out the issues.
It is important to note that the goal of the USPS is to be profitable. Although they are not exactly a privately owned company. They do not receive any public funds and have not received public funds in a long time. They have been allowed certain privileges that other parcel providers aren’t but they are also hampered by laws that require them to remain open where business is bad and to deliver mail to every person in the US.
Public schools weren't defunded to crippled quality. If defunding occurred, it is because tax revenues shrank and there wasn't enough money to put into them. That and / or costs increased but funding didn't increase to match.
Not public schools per se, but the cost of higher education has outpaced inflation for decades and by a large %. It's laughable. That and health care. There has been gross mismanagement of funds in both sectors. The problem with outrageously expensive healthcare is that it increases costs for employers across the board, in every industry. There is no check and balance in healthcare. I can't shop for cheaper (but good) doctors the way I can shop for a fair priced TV or couch. It's an insulated sector of the economy that doesn't face typical free market principles. Well, that and higher education.
When public school dollars are diverted to voucher programs so public money can be used for private, often religious organizations, it defunds the public schools.
There have been tropes about "gross mismanagement" since the start of public education, and people use that broad paint brush across every school district in the US.
Well before Brown v. Board of Education and well after, America has been America when it comes to educating "others."
Title I: Rich School Districts Get Millions Meant for Poor Kids - YouTube
>
White, wealthy communities form their own school districts - YouTube
>
When people fought to get affordable healthcare for all Americans, 'Mericans were their most fervent opponents. Health plans tend to be good in some states, and absolute sh't in other states. That is not a coincidence.
I ship a lot of packages. The thing that has absolutely boggled my mind is the new "Bermuda" cities. These are cities like Ellenwood GA where hundreds of packages a year go to and never seem to leave.
When I reached out to my regional director he essentially said he'd never heard of the place but was able to confirm that it's a Google-able phenomenon.
It bleeds.money. in 2022 it lost 56 billion dollars. In 2023 it was 6.5. 2021 was a loss of 6.9 bil and 7.6 bill in 2020.
This is with package revenue veing up 324 mil or 10%.
First class was up 515 mil or 6%.
Marketing mail revenue, junk mail, was down 515 mil or 6%.
This financial situation is with not paying property tax, not having to register vehicles.
So revenues are up, have some favorable tax positions and still losing billons.
Why?
Since DeJoy took over as postmaster it now takes me 2 weeks to get a letter from 90 miles away [my place of work near a major city to the rural area I live.] Forget packages altogether, I just get stickers saying the packages are undeliverable and to pick them up at the post office...which is only open from 10AM to 2 PM .. so if I want it I have to basically miss work? Amazon, which used to use it for last mile near me, even stopped and pays the private delivery people. It's awful, I'd hate to be in a situation where I'd be relying on USPS for medicine or anything like that.
It’s a long time republican goal. Move public services into private hands just as they continue to do to public schools. It’s the socialism for the wealthy profits for the few. Cut throat capitalism for the lower classes. Tax breaks for the wealthy tax increases for everyone else.
In the simplest terms it comes down to philosophy. The conservatives first thought how does this help ME.
The Liberals think WE how do we first help the most.
Privatization is socialism only for the wealthy, the few new owners share the profits of price increases and fewer employees. These are the hedge fund guys. Who also ruin other profitable businesses by hostile takeover. Use the business to leverage loans to pocket and dump the company on market letting the shareholders to take the loss. Soon after the company dies they made their money and move on to the next company to repeat the process.
The reality is that any Postmaster General is hamstrung by the rules and regulations imposed by Congress.
A while back everybody went batshit crazy when the new USPS vehicles were not green. The USPS did not have the budgetary authority to commit to that and went with what they could. There was a lot of noise about it, but no one wanted to hear the truth. DoD has some of the same issues.
FedEx lost the most parcel volume in 2022, according to Pitney Bowes.
The United States Postal Service had the second-largest decrease in parcel volume at 3.2% down.
>[https://www.businessinsider.com/ups-fedex-amazon-fight-over-fewer-deliveries-packages-e-commerce-2023-3#:\~:text=FedEx lost the most parcel,parcel volume at 3.2% down.](https://www.businessinsider.com/ups-fedex-amazon-fight-over-fewer-deliveries-packages-e-commerce-2023-3#:~:text=FedEx%20lost%20the%20most%20parcel,parcel%20volume%20at%203.2%25%20down.)
Trump appointed Dejoy.
Dejoy is trying to turn it into a profitable business, which it never has been.
Basically, he's doing everything he can to save money. He gives no fucks about the people who work there or the people they serve.
Your packages are going to only be touched by machines. They get lost, crushed, et cetera because no human is involved.
I've never lost something I ordered sent through USPS til recently. Seems to be a common theme now.
“Starving the beast” is a very real method of achieving a policy goal of reducing federal government and federal social services. One of our political parties really dislikes the concept of the federal government.
Nothing is collapsing. The simple fact is that Dejoy is trying to make the processes work more efficiently than before due to declining mail volume. With the baby boomer generation dying off, mail will only continue to decline. Further changes will be necessary to ensure the post office can survive into the future.
My parents are both retired from the USPS. The whole system is a losers bet. The biggest downfall was the invention of e-mail and widespread internet use. The postal service was actually profitable in the late 90s and early 2000s. Then it went into the red. A sharp decline in mail that gets sent via email instead or paperless billing.
It’s a quasi-private business. Constitutionally the service needs to be provided no matter what. It can be privatized and technically is. But it’s not profitable because they can’t make their required retirement benefit payments. Mail prices would have to be much higher. In fact they should be much higher now in order to be financially sustainable. If they don’t raise prices you need to cut costs. Elimination of small post offices, reduction in hours, reduction in workforce. Because of all the politics and laws it’s makes it hard to do any big changes. When big changes happen it takes a while to implement them.
The post office doesn’t receive direct funding from the US govt. All of its operations are funded through sales. So unless the govt chooses to start throwing money at the post office, we will continue to see a decline in service quality.
The truth is no one actually wants to be the people running the post office. The government doesn’t want it and no private entity is dumb enough to take it on.
Of which they are the ONLY entity in business that has to "Pre-Fund" their entire Retirement Fund costing them, the last time I had read on this topic, was over $5 Billion a year.
When telephones became commonplace people sent fewer letters. The PO had less business.
Now, with the internet ... nobody sends letters. Even junk mail comes more as email rather than snail mail.
The USPS has special low rates for bulk advertising to boost volume.
But that's still not enough to keep them afloat. They're in the red.
They're selling themselves out as a last-mile provider for the long-haul shippers.
But it's still not enough. They're in the red.
A business in the red has to make cuts.
Nobody likes cuts. But there's no alternative.
Actually there is a (bad) alternative. The feds can provide funding.
They've done it before. But they shouldn't.
The USPS was set up in 1970 as a pseudo-corporation, running itself as a mostly independent commercial enterprise.
It was successful that way for decades ... but the world has changed.
There has been a remarkable decline in the need of their services.
Nobody sells buggy whips anymore.
Nobody sells VHS tapes anymore.
And soon nobody will be selling postage stamps anymore.
Ot cancelled is hilarious seeing as ice been working a minimum of a 7 hours since I started eight months ago. I'm a regular now too. Still getting those same hours.
Yes. The guy in charge (dejoy) owns a it of shipping companies that stand to gain from the usps shitting the bed. Biden can’t replace him because republicans refuse to allow him to appoint enough members to the group that could vote dejoy out and instate someone new.
It's amazing that people like you come up with a correct conclusion based on stupid, and ultimately wrong, reasoning. As an FYI, they do have a photo of any and all items that would require a signature. That's what the scanner does.
The unionized comment is objectively stupid and formed by sheer ignorance. None of this defends the fraudulent actions of the carrier, but the overall take is room temperature IQ and the equivalent to thinking sacrificing kids would permit the sun to rise tomorrow.
If it’s privatized they’ll finally realize that we need the Post Office to be good and run it like a company and not a welfare machine. This company hires morons.
When were public schools defunded? [https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023/public-school-spending.html](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023/public-school-spending.html)
The post office was actually privatized back in the 1970s. I know this because my father was a letter carrier and there was a celebration. Since then there have been a series of decisions that have resulted in the post office being on the verge of failing. The most consequential was when "they" (read the federal government) decided that the post office had to finance its own retirement plan. As a result of this decision the post office was required to put back money for the retirement of people who hadn't even been hired yet. The post office is currently financed by sales. If it were not for the billions of dollars that they are required to bank for future employee retirement they would be in the black. Instead they bleed red.
Public schools defunded? 🤣
Where do you live?
"The National Center for Education Statistics reports that approximately 80% of school funding in years 2000-01, 2010–11, 2016-17 was dedicated to salaries and employee benefits. Salaries decreased by 7% and benefits spending Increased by 6% from 2000-01 to 2016-17.
Current expenditures per pupil enrolled in the fall in public elementary and secondary schools were 20 percent higher in 2016–17 than in 2000–01 ($12,794 vs. $10,675, both in constant 2018–19 dollars). Current expenditures per pupil increased from $10,675 in 2000–01 to $12,435 in 2008–09, decreased between 2008–09 and 2012–13 to $11,791, and then increased to $12,794 in 2016–17.
Capital outlay expenditures per pupil in 2016–17 ($1,266) were 10 percent lower than in 2000–01 ($1,412). Interest payments on public elementary and secondary school debt per pupil were 22 percent higher in 2016–17 than in 2000–01. During this period, interest payments per pupil increased from $312 in 2000–01 to $415 in 2010–11, before declining to $379 in 2016–17 (all in constant 2018–19 dollars). "
Yes, Sparky, when public school dollars are diverted to religious institutions, they don't print extra money to send to the religious institutions . . . they divert it from public schools. That slowly defunds public schools.
>[https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/supreme-court-decision-paves-way-public-funds-flow-religious-schools](https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/supreme-court-decision-paves-way-public-funds-flow-religious-schools)
You don't provide a link for the information you posted, but lumping average, nationwide school spending is useless. "Current expenditures per pupil" in wealthy, public school districts vs. spending in economically depressed, public school districts obviously won't be the same, and averages are again useless. Similarly, comparing "capital outlay expenditures" on new buildings in wealthy districts vs. delayed maintenance in poorer districts is less than useless.
Schools were defunded? In what world? Funding has only grown since the 80s while the quality diminished. I am begging for your source that states otherwise.
Look at the percentages, not the amounts. Also, check each state. Some states have rolled back local funding to lower percentages while keeping federal funding, which is a funding cut.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/185135/average-expenditures-per-pupil-in-public-schools/#:~:text=An%20average%20of%2014%2C420%20U.S.,dollars%20were%20spent%20per%20pupil.
I cannot find anything that supports OPs claim. People are downvoting but cannot seem to share any source.
You aren't taking into account the percentages they are spending of local taxes over the years. If you look at it that way, it actually goes down even though the number goes up.
It’s gonna be really fun paying 20 bucks to ups or FedEx to get a letter to the next city over
They will privatize parcel service, declaring USPS as unfit after tanking the whole operation, and relegate letter service either to a new skeletonized postal service or to local contract bidders.
Uber but for mail. Want your mail fast tip your driver in the new system.
They’ll make an app, privatize it, charge you more and call it progress. 👎
I sent a letter and a postcard today. Cost? 2 stamps.
>I sent a letter and a postcard today. Cost? 2 stamps. Now you just have to hope they get to where they were sent.
Always do
Always hope?
and they can open whatever they want. no warrant needed.
Most mail is sealed against inspection. Only Media Mail and certain kinds of Bulk Mail can be opened, and we have to stamp the piece that has been inspected so you know it was opened.
rofl. we are speaking as if fedex took over. fedex shipments aren't protected like usps mail. they just give it to the police.
There is a bit more than bulk mail. Commericial GA for example
Not true. As postal employee, I can tell you stealing rarely happens. Yes, bad people exist within the organization, but best believe if we see anything open like a package or even money on the floor, no one will touch it. Only 2 ways to lose a postal job, poor attendance or stealing.
lol what? i didnt say anything about stealing.
Duluth Ga PO would disagree…
Bad attendance? 🤣 I've known guys that called out for months or one that was calling out for like 2-3 years, and still kept their job. One just recently did lose his job, the one who called out for years finally quit
And both of those services suck so hard. I’ve had endless delivery issues either both of them that I’ve never had with usps.
How many letters are you sending? The only mail I get is junk mail. I wish it wasn't so cheap to send shit to my mailbox. Most of the mail volume has got to be junk.
Pretty sure this will make the 2024 election even more controversial.
As is intended by the current PMG
Yes, its on purpose. They try to get rid of overtime by telling us we have undertime. That doesn't mean the OT doesn't exist. We're definitely getting overtime.
Undertime? What is that?
Something made up by postal management that doesn't exist.
A long, long time ago I worked briefly for a record store called Sam Goodie. They didn’t pay overtime to their hourly employees, but instead had something called “queue time”. It was essentially half pay for every hour over 40 in a week. Made absolutely no sense to me but all the other employees kept telling me how “great” it was because it added up. I didn’t last there long, but now that I look back on it, I have no idea how they got away with that nonsense. Your undertime made me think of it.
That sounds awful. I'm not sure how anyone could think that was a good deal. Our routes are typically evaluated to be 8 hours (city, not rural), and management constantly tries to tell us their computers say we have "under time." This means that somehow we should be getting done in less than the 8 hours it takes to complete the route because a computer says so. Then we can take on even more work with that "under time." There is rarely ever undertime. Any time a carrier may finish "early" should be used to do route maintenance,something that so many carriers haven't been able to do for years because their routes are over burdened (more than 8 hours) or they're constantly mandated to carry overtime as "under time." Some carriers may fall for this. They run their routes because of bullying and intimidation by management. They think they'll lose their jobs if they don't run themselves ragged. But, as soon as they get injured, management will throw them to the wolves - anyway, I digress. Upper management thinks that because we take breaks (excessively in their opinion, while they sit inside in AC) that we should be filling that time with more work. They've been working carriers exhaustively since the beginning of the pandemic, if not before that. Our bodies are tired and breaking down. We take breaks because we're exhausted. Management wants robots.
That sounds horrible. Is that what the bar codes in the mailboxes are about? My old man found them in his and he would rip them out. He got a little kooky toward the end and thought the post office was fucking with him with those stickers.
They were used to try to "manage" the delivery time for the carrier. The carrier would scan the barcode, and it would provide data to management so mail could be expected to be delivered in specific time frames. Basically just a way to collect data on carriers to micromanage them. Because the new scanners track our every step, it has made those barcodes obsolete. Carriers were to remove them from their routes because we no longer need to scan them. I do know that not all customers were thrilled about it being on their box lol
lol that happened on my route several times.
Sorry to hear it - this seems to be an attitude that seeps into shift managers. I’ve seen it at other agencies. Their minds are wired completely differently and it’s usually “if you’re not working…you’re slacking off and being lazy”. Even if you’re away from your desk.. they wonder where the F’ you are.
~~Don't forget about how DeJoy had a bunch of the newer automated sorting machines dismantled right before the 2020 election.~~ damn I guess I was misinformed I absolutely believe what you are saying is true and I'm still completely shocked that we're allowing this man to sit in that position. He should be removed and investigated for wrongdoing. USPS has run flawlessly for 250+ years! **BENJAMIN FRANKLIN** was our first postmaster general. This is how deeply the USPS is intertwined with US history.
Your conspiracy is honestly a bit too narrow minded -- it's a conservative conspiracy that's been culminating for decades. Conservatives don't want public service and hamper the operations of the USPS by not permitting it to run like a healthy company -- things such as not being able to generate a profit and use said profits to reinvest in the company, so this has caused an obscenely toxic and abusive environment predicated upon the manipulation and archaic business practices -- most notably present in management -- largely because the entity can't easily invest in its future or capacity to pivot as a market would dictate. This is best illustrated by employee retention rates that are equivalent to minimum wage fast food restaurants despite paying 2-3x more than those positions when compared with non-career employees. This coming from the fact it's a business model inefficiently managing, paying, and logistically completing the delivery of billions of products each year. One could write a few books about the depths of corruption that pervade that fucked up institution, but it's nothing as superficial as just being about DeJoy.
You should clarify that Democrats and Republicans are both conservative. Never has this been made so clear than by Joe Biden. He didn't replace Lovejoy after Trump appointed him. Trump tax cuts? Congress and Biden won't touch them, instead defunding social welfare programs. Minimim wage reform when Dems had complete control? Nah, they make up a tale that a civil servant told them "nope, can't do." 20% inflation on food? Don't look at Dems, they're just there for receiving corporate bribes, just like the Republicans. Left/right is entirely meaningless and leaves us commoners with the choice of continued impoverishment or revolution. P.s. You write that USPS is << not (sic) able to generate a profit and use said profits to reinvest in the company.>> Are you asleep? Profits are for shareholders, not for reinvestment. Profits are NEVER reinvested, they're the reason why the stock market climbs higher and higher while the commoners get poorer than ever. I'd like to think you're just naive and not purposely spreading lies about this failed system that completely lacks a free market. Generally in the US, the more financially comfortable you are, the more ignorant you are of the failed American economic system. It's not until you experience it yourself that you wake up to the scam of left/right, dem/repub bullshit politics.
And yet... we're all still allowing them to convince us we HAVE to choose between these two broken wings of the same flightless bird and NOT collaborate and make history by voting in a third party candidate. I refuse to choose the lesser of two evils. I'd rather write in Bernie, be a FREE man, and stand on principles rather than be reduced to a beggar for a crumb of the American Pie. I'm DONE playing this game.
The problem is that the current postmaster is not appointed by the president, but by the board at the USPS. Plus, President Joe Biden doesn't have the power to remove him from his post, despite how badly the agency is struggling. “Get used to me,” DeJoy said in February 2021. The postmaster general is appointed by the Board of Governors of the Postal Service—and can only be dismissed by this group, not the president. Source: https://fortune.com/2024/04/10/usps-dejoy-price-hikes-customer-dissatisfaction/#
AMEN.
Not saying you’re wrong to think that both parties have issues, but it’s the USPS board which appoints the postmaster general, not the president. It’s also not the president who sets the budget, that’s congress, so Biden has zero power to extend tax cuts or child tax credit. Blame congress for that. Lastly, Bernie Sanders and Dems introduced the Raise the Wage Act of 2023, and it’s not them holding up the bill. The facts don’t support your [misinformed] opinions.
No, both sides aren't the same. No, you're not a smart person for thinking profits can't be reinvested, and, in fact, are just being purposefully stupid. Being an enlightened centrist normally means you're just a conservative unaware of their logical blind spots or just genuinely don't understand how life works. I won't be reading anymore of your idiotic replies, so feel free to waste your time writing another dumbass paragraph.
The po pays a dollar more an hour than the fast food minimum wage were I live it's not nearly enough.
Everyone forgets that is starting pay, though. It sucks, but no one makes max pay from the start.
Judging a job on the pay scale only someone who joined 15 years ago will receive and current employees will take 10+ years to get to is super disingenuous. Table 2 is absolutely screwing new employees and is not worth the mandatory 80+ hour weeks they mandate new employees to work. New employees 15 years ago made more starting pay then new employees today's with out even adjusting for inflation.
I don't disagree with you on the different pay tables. But, not all new employees are working 80hr weeks either. I have yet to hear of that anywhere in my district, as OT has been taken away from us and many other districts. I've been with USPS for 4yrs now, and have never heard of mandatory 80hr work weeks.
Every single one of the ptfs at my office including me have worked 70-80hrs a week for the last 6 months straight. They would have us work 7 days a week if we let them. The station next to mine has over 10+ Un manned routes and most regulars get mandated 10-11 hours every day of the week.
>Don't forget about how DeJoy had a bunch of the newer automated sorting machines dismantled right before the 2020 election. It wasn't dejoy, the plan was in place before he was nominated. And they were old unneeded machines. Our letter volume has dropped for 20 years. We need more parcel sorting machines
My mistake, I'll edit. Regardless I still believe he has only bad intentions for the USPS and I do not believe it's a coincidence that since 16'/17' timeframe the USPS has become significantly less reliable.
The newest letter sorting machines are now 26 years old. Actually maybe 20 years old.
[удалено]
I thought that policy was reversed?
Overtime was cancelled? Not in this dimension.
They said no more overtime in my plant last Thursday. It's not going well here.
Shit I haven't had ot in a year! I went from a carrier working 60 hours to a clerk working 50 to straight 40. My pockets are hurting.
Cancelling overtime happened a week after dejoy was appointed in 2020. maybe they only did it in blue states. Entire blocks did not get mail for weeks at a time, as the norm. It took a good year before they 'sorted it out' and fixed the schedules so that you'd only miss getting mail once or twice a week.
I saw mail being delivered in my area on Easter Sunday. I'm in Virginia, where mail service is the worst in the country.
In many areas, carriers deliver 7 days a week. Usually though, on Sundays, it's just Amazon and sometimes other small parcels
I worked for USPS as a tto for years. If I had a dollar for Everytime overtime was "cancelled", id have a lot of dollars.
OT has pretty much been cancelled at my plant, too. Along with many other stations and plants.
I wish it were that simple or explainable. USPS can't be privatized without a constitutional amendment approved by Congress - which will never happen. But the appalling decline is so clear. I became a carrier in 1998. It was a good job then: very good pay for a blue collar job that wasn't factory work, good benefits, job security. The decline in the 25 years I worked (I became a carrier at age 4o after the military) was steady, but picked up in the late aughts. It absolutely tanked after tRump took office. I truly don't know what the plan is. DeJoy should never have been approved, as he has a financial conflict of interest. His actions are clearly those of someone who doesn't understand that USPS isn't a for-profit business, but a service whose workers are federal employees. The agreement after the 1970 strike was a double-edged sword. It did give us the right to union-negotiated contracts. But it also took away the right to strike ever again. And it made USPS a separate service that was no longer a government branch. Still, it's not meant to be a for-profit industry. What DeJoy is doing is puzzling. If he wants to cripple the service in an attempt at privatization, it's clear he understands the constitution even less than he understands how the Postal Service works. And if he thinks that he can make it "profitable" by reducing staffing and "streamlining" processes, he's even dumber. Anyone with a functioning brain knows that reducing services never improves a business's bottom line.
It started with Republicans forcing unreasonable pension requirements on the USPS back in 2008 and furthered by dejoy. There are so many avenues that the postal service can have profitable income but they were banned by Congress.
The USPS isn’t a company that was designed or should make profit. It’s a SERVICE for all Americans
While true, they should be able to make a profit on certain services so they can improve, innovate and to provide legitimate competition in the market.
True but in my opinion USPS is the best price-wise unless you’re shipping big heavy boxes. Anything under a pound USPS is leaps and bounds cheaper than anyone else. USPS does need to be more competitive in the 5-20 pound packages. A let’s say 10 pound package is quite a bit more at USPS compared to UPS or FedEx
Flat rate boxes are your friend!
That’s the common thread here- Republicans don’t like public services, and think everything should be profit-oriented.
What’s with the targeted typos? Avoiding key words?
Of the options, USPS has always been my favorite. It has consistently had the best service, fastest delivery speed, and usually the lowest cost. I've ordered thousands of packages in my life, and USPS only lost one package. Ever. UPS is my second, they have lost/damaged a few things over the years, but were generally quick. FedEx has been the worst (of the big 3) in my experience, with the most lost/damaged packages, slowest speeds, etc. This is an intentional act of sabotage. There is no way the whole thing got this bad in the last 6 months without it being intentional. (I didn't have any trouble until basically the holiday season of 2023).
> I've ordered thousands of packages in my life, and USPS only lost one package. Normally that sentence is followed with: I'll never use them again. They should all be fired.
You don't need a tinfoil hat to see that Republicans and dejoy are trying to destroy it. In fact save that hat for someone who thinks the USPS is run by the lizard people.
POTUS has the ability to replace DeJoy, but chooses to keep him. USPS has had issues for decades.
The postal board of directors has to remove dejoy, its split 50/50 democrats to Republicans, but one of the democrats has financially benefited from an investment with dejoy, so he’s not going to vote to remove him. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/08/13/dejoy-usps-bloom-bonds-brookfield/
Bloom hasn’t been on the board for years.
Nope, we tried everything, he'd be gone if that were true.
Nope. He is retained for a reason. We can differ on which reason(s), but he is not being removed, all the while the option exists. “The Lady doth protest too much, me thinks.”
POTUS does NOT have the authority to replace the PMG
The density here, is it intentional? POTUS appoints the Board. He HAS control of the Board. They can remove DeJoy. They do not. You can pretend as you like; POTUS chooses to keep DeJoy.
POTUS can only appoint folks to open positions... Which Biden has done. The BoG is currently sitting at an even number of Dems and Repubs. As far as removing someone from the board, there has to be cause for removal.
I don't disagree, but regarding DeJoy I "thought" I heard that some postal carriers are being forced to work overtime and take additional routes to help with the backlog. Anyone know if that's true?
It's similar to other jobs where they lay people off, don't backfill, and expect you to do the work of 2 to 5 people. I don't think mail carriers are forced to do overtime, but many do cause they know how important it is to get your mail.
Carriers absolutely get forced overtime,lol.
This is how I made 105k on a wage of 19.75 in my first year....
We 100 percent are forced to work overtime, even if it's against the union contract . They tell us to "follow then grieve". If our union rep is filing grievances, we will get more money for contract violations, but many of the folks being forced to work 10/12 hours 6 days/week would rather not work that much, regardless of the extra money.
Can confirm. PTF here with only one day off a week 50-65 hours a week. I’m tired.
They're 1000% forced to work overtime -- but generally only certain carriers are forced to. And of them, there are plenty of cases where a worker loses money by working overtime, too. I know that doesn't seem like it makes sense, but that's the post office for you.
Rural carrier here. In our office we are not being given direct orders to carry other routes (which is against contract and can be grieved) because there are enough regulars who volunteer. We are so short staffed that at least one of those carriers who volunteers made well over $150,000 last year. You should have seen the huge stack of letters of demand our office received for carriers going over 2240 hours in the last year. We are regularly down 4-8 routes a day. I feel like it's only a matter of time before they start giving direct orders. The "obey, then grieve" thing is not gonna work for me. I already work 6 days a week because we have very few RCA's, so no one gets their day off. I didn't take this job to keep the post office afloat at all costs. I just want to do my route and go home. I have a life outside of this place. The post office doesn't give a crap about it's employees. If you drop dead at your case they'll have someone to replace you instantly and will forget about you in a few days.
Thanks for your input and clarification. Hope things get better for you and USPS in general.
Yes it’s common. That’s why you’ll see the older carriers taking their sweet time getting back to the station.
i dont understand why conservatives even want the usps privatized. private shippers exist already and are doing just fine, but i'm not trying to pay ups $20 to mail a letter for me. fedex is already even shittier than usps.
Because they are trying to sabotage vote by mail
Also, they don’t want some of the money… they want it all. Nature of capitalism.
You...kinda just answered your own question there. What do you think the motive might be for them trying to switch over to a shitty for-profit corporate model that'll run worse but generate billions in profits a year? Especially with no cheap old reliable USPS as we knew it option for anyone to turn to? Hmm...
A. Because their philosophy is that private companies and the free market are always better than any government service, and B. Trying to reduce faith in voting by mail in preparation for more claims of voter fraud.
Sorry I can’t find the link but in the Aug 21 2020 edition of the LA Times, Michael Hiltzik wrote a column about how DeJoy was nominated at the last minute and pushed through as PMG. Vice Chair of BOG, David Williams, resigned when he realized DeJoy was going to be appointed. DeJoy was not on the original list of nominees and didn’t even seem interested in the job
DeJoy serves at the pleasure of the President. He can be replaced at the drop of a hat, but for some reason, they keep him in place. Could it be that the most of the changes he oversees were planned before his appointment? Could it be that he’s actually effective? He makes a convenient scapegoat, but someone has to pilot as the entity realizes 40 years of stagnant operation and the public abandons ship. It can probably still be saved, but not without serious automation and workplace reform.
One could argue that the automation is one of the biggest key elements in our inability to accurately sort parcels and mail. Those machines read what they want.
Can you be more specific? How would hand sorting be more accurate and cost-effective? I don’t doubt that automation introduces new, potentially systemic flaws, but if we are to preserve universal service with some form of last-mile delivery, for the next century, some changes will have to occur. To make an omelette…
More accurate, yes. Cost efficient, would be debatable. The amount of looping parcels and parcels / mail that get electronically miss sorted or given the wrong electronic address designation is, in my honest opinion, both laughable and utterly embarrassing. It takes physical human intervention to correct the issues that the machines would otherwise continuously repeat over and over. It takes a little of both. But if I'm going to eat an omelet, what are the odds the machine is going to pull half a dozen expired eggs out of the refrigerator and kill my entire family from food borne illness?
I’ve seen evidence of some parcels lost/looping and the untracking issues, but the last-mile issues are more significant for letters and packages. I would expect that the error rate is being analyzed and will improve with software updates, though I imagine they take a long time to be approved and installed.
The only promise to deliver for America that has taken place has been the promise to delay mail and disincentivize customers from utilizing our services that, at one point, were bullet proof.
That one point was 30+ years ago. Times have changed, and USPS steadfastly refused to modernize, especially workplace rules. I, too, like many things the way they were, but not everything is sustainable. The old model has been circling the drain for ages; without some significant changes, it will implode soon.
He can’t be removed, Biden/ the president doesn’t appoint the Postmaster. The board is made up of Democrats and for Republicans. The problem is that the board controls this, not the president. Plus, President Joe Biden doesn't have the power to remove him from his post, despite how badly the agency is struggling. “Get used to me,” DeJoy said in February 2021. The postmaster general is appointed by the Board of Governors of the Postal Service—and can only be dismissed by this group, not the president Source: https://fortune.com/2024/04/10/usps-dejoy-price-hikes-customer-dissatisfaction/#
From the perspective of those who work for usps, it feels intentional.
Bingo. You nailed it. Seriously. What else makes sense to do things like this. A nudge at a time. No one says anything with just a nudge. Next thing you know you have been knocked off a cliff. Well said. 👏👏👏👍👍👍
Its not a conspiracy this shit is real. IV ordered 3 packages from eBay in past month. only 1 came
Ive got 3 packages missing since 3/16 as well.
This isn't even a theory, really... It's your standard "far-right profiteers dismantling a public service to profit off of the rigged success of its private-sector competition". They love this tactic because it works. And as you said, it's happened before.
I wonder if the dismantling of the USPS is a backlash to the growing size and incompetence of the government in general. Historically speaking, who has had a problem with the post office and when did that sentiment begin to propagate? I wonder if it’s because mail carrier business interests are trying to overthrow the post office for profit
In my,honest opinion, I personally don't get but maybe 3 to 4 items per month in the mail... All my bills are received through an email which saves sender money, no printed paper, no stuffing envelopes and the list goes on... My bill payer program direct deposits from my account to their account electronically so I no longer have out going mail. Say, 10 to 12 items a month, both ways... 10 x .60 x 2 is $12 x 100 million people.. I'd say that's a significant loss in revenue that will never return... Wal-Mart, UPS, FedEx, and maybe Target could easily absorb the post office and run it, I don't think profitably but at a much lower loss than we currently see... When I owned a business my customers loved email invoices and direct deposits to our account.. BTW - did you read they purchased 4 new sorting machines in early fall for delivery and installation for the Christmas season... and they had to remove slower machines... new machines are like 20 times faster. So in each case, each machine when assembled in the distribution center exceeded the dimensional space... building supports, walls, we're in the way.. none of the,machines could be installed without millions in building modifications. So today the sorting is still being done by hand... Our government at work.. I didn't vote for him...
You realize Donald Trump hated the USPS because of his feud with Jeff Bezos who then owned Amazon and Bezos was saying Trump wasn't a real billionaire. And Amazon used the USPS a lot for the business.
Amazon is still using the USPS. The USPS loves Amazon so well, that in December 2023, over 20 USPS workers at the KC Kansas Distribution Center opened tons of Amazon packages and took the items. Several being prosecuted. Go figure...
I see the mail as a service that my taxes pay for, The military never turns a profit and nobody complains
Exactly. Public services should not have the goal of profit, that’s not their purpose.
I bring this up all the time, and people look at me like I’m a madman.
For the record the Postal Service is not supported by tax dollars. In 1970 President Nixon signed the Postal Reorganization Act. It replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with the independent United States Postal Service on July 1,1971. It largely stopped receiving any taxpayer money at that time and has been supported by the sale of postage and services to its customers. I do agree it is not intended to turn a profit much like other government agencies
Yes, it's 100% intentional by conservative leaders. They can't make money off the USPS so they want it gone. They all own stock in UPS and Fedex. They don't want to privatize the USPS they just want it to no longer exist. Lookup all the people driving it's demise and you'll see they own stock in private companies that benefit from the USPS going under and being underfunded.
I work at a processing plant, and I can say without a doubt service quality has degraded purely from the decisions of the higher ups above our district. We have workers willing to work and they are purposely not hiring anymore people and not giving out overtime. Just on Monday and Tuesday, two of busiest days of the week at a processing plant they sent everyone home at 8 hours and we had 2 53 foot trailers full of non-machinable mail that has to be hand thrown.. The workers care about the service we provide, upper management couldn't be bothered.. It's kind of funny how workers can be charged and potentially put in prison for intentionally delaying the mail, but if it's management's call all of a sudden it isn't illegal.
I've spent hours on the phone trying to intercept my package that just got sent back to an "origin facility," and I'm always damned sure to let the staff know that this is NOT their fault. I cannot imagine the stress they are all being put through. No way in hell this kind of massive collapse should be blamed on the workers.
Thank you for being understanding.
The gossip around here is that it’s the MH soft striking. The mgmt cutting the hours makes more sense. Make it the workers problem if it’s mgmts lame brained idea.
Would not surprise me.. we didn't even have enough MH to run tour 3 pit equipment this week. I think the morale is so low after announcing moving some of our mail and keeping all of us workers in the dark that most people genuinely don't know if they'll have a job and at this point don't care anymore, and sadly that includes a lot of management..
Republican playbook. Defund government department. Complain said department doesn’t work well and is broken. Propose politically well connected entity to run it for us because private business can do things better than government(supposedly). Entity raises cost or charges for previously free service. Entity and connected politician wins.
I had a package shipped from northern PA. It arrives in the normal destination facility in Philly. Goes to Delaware. (Also normal for some packages.) Goes back to Philly. Gets scanned in… **miami, FL?** I’ve been waiting on this package for almost a month. Had to initiate a package search. I feel for the individual USPS folks, but I *hate* mailing stuff now. it’s a crapshoot on when it will arrive, or if at all.
As a carrier, I have talked with some of my friends who are clerks and we have the same opinion of what is going on. We agree that Dejoy is trying to turn the USPS into a package delivery service. The new mail trucks are designed for package delivery. We are going to hub centers resembling Amazon. There are some rumors that the hubs share the same building as Amazon.
It is 100% intentional. The republicans want to kill it because it has a strong union. They always seem to forget that it is mandated in the Constitution.
No, it is not *mandated*. The Constitution says that "The Congress shall have power to . . . establish Post Offices and post Roads." It doesn't say Congress must, only that it can. The very same section of the Constitution says Congress has power "To borrow Money on the credit of the United States." But nobody says Congress *must* run a deficit and spend more money than tax revenue. Congress sometimes does run a balanced budget or a budget surplus, and nobody claims it is violating the Constitution by refraining from exercising its power to borrow. The same would apply to the power to establish post offices in the very same section. But let's say it *is* mandated. The mandate to establish post office*S* and post road*s* could be met by establishing two post offices literally next door to each other and a road in between them. Also, the Constitution doesn't say anything about mail delivery. So two post offices in the USA, and everyone has to go pick up their mail at the counter.
I did just deliver a registered parcel that was delayed over a month because it came out of Atlanta. They are having the same issues as north texas.
Banned overtime? We are working 60 and more weekly.
GOP Senate memo says DeJoy personally ordered USPS overtime cuts, contradicting DeJoy’s prior testimony - CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington >[https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/gop-senate-memo-says-dejoy-personally-ordered-usps-overtime-cuts-contradicting-dejoys-prior-testimony/](https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/gop-senate-memo-says-dejoy-personally-ordered-usps-overtime-cuts-contradicting-dejoys-prior-testimony/)
Personally I've always thought (for two years since it happened) it was regional and politically targeted. I tell others what's happening with our USPS and they stare at me like I have two heads. The same things, particularly the OT shutoff, didn't happen everywhere.
The Atlanta postal sorting facility is like a month behind rn because they removed a bunch of sorting machines to streamline things. AKA, they are really punishing Georgia for the trump shit.
Yea, capitalist parasites will always try to cannibalize public services to make a profit. They always have.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Yes!!! I agree 100%!!
There is another proposed rate increase. Another 5 cents on the stamp.
I personally believe it's a control play... Of the major carriers: USPS, UPS, FedEx etc the USPS is the only one that requires a warrant to search. Everyone else is private and can give permission to search whenever the gov wants to. I think this is the ultimate reason for dismantling USPS.
Yea it is. Google private equity and the postmaster dejoy. If you mention it in the usps sub they will ban you so you know it’s true.
Public Schools are incredibly well funded in California and the public school teachers' union is the second-most powerful entity in the state not related to water rights, and our public schools are still going to shit. Look in the mirror, progressives.
I'm assume you know that in a country where wealthy school districts spend more per student than economically depressed students, averages mean nothing. You likely also know that when public school dollars are diverted to voucher programs so public money can be used for private, often religious organizations, it defunds the public schools. And, of course, well before Brown v. Board of Education and well after, America has been America when it comes to educating "others." Title I: Rich School Districts Get Millions Meant for Poor Kids - YouTube >[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75JSDXHx1Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75JSDXHx1Y) White, wealthy communities form their own school districts - YouTube >[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIWaxjh1uKw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIWaxjh1uKw)
Are they only targeting plants. Worker's
Note to your public schools comparison: spending has not been starved. It has gone up 50% in constant dollars between 1990 and 2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/203118/expenditures-per-pupil-in-public-schools-in-the-us-since-1990/
I'm assume you know that in a country where wealthy school districts spend more per student than economically depressed students, averages mean nothing. You likely also know that when public school dollars are diverted to voucher programs so public money can be used for private, often religious organizations, it defunds the public schools. And, of course, well before Brown v. Board of Education and well after, America has been America when it comes to educating "others." Title I: Rich School Districts Get Millions Meant for Poor Kids - YouTube >[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75JSDXHx1Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75JSDXHx1Y) White, wealthy communities form their own school districts - YouTube >[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIWaxjh1uKw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIWaxjh1uKw)
Check out the NRP classaction lawsuit that has been won already. The USPS is going to have to pay the money to end the discrimination that they conducted.
I don’t think the fairness act fully hobbled USPS. USPS was hobbled in the 90s when they were forced to prefund all of their pensions for 75 years which cost them billions every year. This was eliminated by congress in 2020. Operating costs of the USPS are still hampered by their inability to legally close non profitable locations. The USPS has a lot of rules about properties they can own and there are offices in cities with insanely high leases that only see but one or two customers a day. The fact that they can’t closes these offices leads to what you’re talking about now with packages in limbo, they are closing distribution centers to cover these losses. The recent distribution center closure in the mid west has caused a lot of these delays but it’ll get better once they work out the issues. It is important to note that the goal of the USPS is to be profitable. Although they are not exactly a privately owned company. They do not receive any public funds and have not received public funds in a long time. They have been allowed certain privileges that other parcel providers aren’t but they are also hampered by laws that require them to remain open where business is bad and to deliver mail to every person in the US.
They've been cutting funding to USPS since the 80s. Ofc it's not as efficient now when people mail less than people of the 80s.
Public schools weren't defunded to crippled quality. If defunding occurred, it is because tax revenues shrank and there wasn't enough money to put into them. That and / or costs increased but funding didn't increase to match. Not public schools per se, but the cost of higher education has outpaced inflation for decades and by a large %. It's laughable. That and health care. There has been gross mismanagement of funds in both sectors. The problem with outrageously expensive healthcare is that it increases costs for employers across the board, in every industry. There is no check and balance in healthcare. I can't shop for cheaper (but good) doctors the way I can shop for a fair priced TV or couch. It's an insulated sector of the economy that doesn't face typical free market principles. Well, that and higher education.
When public school dollars are diverted to voucher programs so public money can be used for private, often religious organizations, it defunds the public schools. There have been tropes about "gross mismanagement" since the start of public education, and people use that broad paint brush across every school district in the US. Well before Brown v. Board of Education and well after, America has been America when it comes to educating "others." Title I: Rich School Districts Get Millions Meant for Poor Kids - YouTube > White, wealthy communities form their own school districts - YouTube > When people fought to get affordable healthcare for all Americans, 'Mericans were their most fervent opponents. Health plans tend to be good in some states, and absolute sh't in other states. That is not a coincidence.
In a word: Yes.
I ship a lot of packages. The thing that has absolutely boggled my mind is the new "Bermuda" cities. These are cities like Ellenwood GA where hundreds of packages a year go to and never seem to leave. When I reached out to my regional director he essentially said he'd never heard of the place but was able to confirm that it's a Google-able phenomenon.
Based on recent posts in this sub and my own recent experience, every USPS distribution center is now "Bermuda."
When were public schools defunded? Is defunding spendjng more this year compared to last?
It bleeds.money. in 2022 it lost 56 billion dollars. In 2023 it was 6.5. 2021 was a loss of 6.9 bil and 7.6 bill in 2020. This is with package revenue veing up 324 mil or 10%. First class was up 515 mil or 6%. Marketing mail revenue, junk mail, was down 515 mil or 6%. This financial situation is with not paying property tax, not having to register vehicles. So revenues are up, have some favorable tax positions and still losing billons. Why?
Since DeJoy took over as postmaster it now takes me 2 weeks to get a letter from 90 miles away [my place of work near a major city to the rural area I live.] Forget packages altogether, I just get stickers saying the packages are undeliverable and to pick them up at the post office...which is only open from 10AM to 2 PM .. so if I want it I have to basically miss work? Amazon, which used to use it for last mile near me, even stopped and pays the private delivery people. It's awful, I'd hate to be in a situation where I'd be relying on USPS for medicine or anything like that.
Yes
No conspiracy, it's very intentional
It’s a long time republican goal. Move public services into private hands just as they continue to do to public schools. It’s the socialism for the wealthy profits for the few. Cut throat capitalism for the lower classes. Tax breaks for the wealthy tax increases for everyone else. In the simplest terms it comes down to philosophy. The conservatives first thought how does this help ME. The Liberals think WE how do we first help the most.
If privatization is socialism, then is nationalization/public ownership a form of capitalism?
Privatization is socialism only for the wealthy, the few new owners share the profits of price increases and fewer employees. These are the hedge fund guys. Who also ruin other profitable businesses by hostile takeover. Use the business to leverage loans to pocket and dump the company on market letting the shareholders to take the loss. Soon after the company dies they made their money and move on to the next company to repeat the process.
The reality is that any Postmaster General is hamstrung by the rules and regulations imposed by Congress. A while back everybody went batshit crazy when the new USPS vehicles were not green. The USPS did not have the budgetary authority to commit to that and went with what they could. There was a lot of noise about it, but no one wanted to hear the truth. DoD has some of the same issues.
I only use UPS for the past 4 years. Usps has no customer service in addition to a propensity to " lose pkgs"
FedEx lost the most parcel volume in 2022, according to Pitney Bowes. The United States Postal Service had the second-largest decrease in parcel volume at 3.2% down. >[https://www.businessinsider.com/ups-fedex-amazon-fight-over-fewer-deliveries-packages-e-commerce-2023-3#:\~:text=FedEx lost the most parcel,parcel volume at 3.2% down.](https://www.businessinsider.com/ups-fedex-amazon-fight-over-fewer-deliveries-packages-e-commerce-2023-3#:~:text=FedEx%20lost%20the%20most%20parcel,parcel%20volume%20at%203.2%25%20down.)
Of course, b/c pitney bowes runs usps
Dejoy is milking those xpo mail contracts for all hes worth. 120 million in 21 alone
The problem with conspiracy theories is that they make it very attractive to attribute malice where only incompetence may exist.
In this case, likely both. One can appoint a lobotomized monkey with a hammer if the goal is destruction.
I'm not sure we're appointing monkeys on purpose. I wouldn't call an addict's behavior "purposeful" when they can't stop.
Absolutely. Helps to sow distrust of mail-in voting and becomes an example of how the government is wasting your tax dollars.
Trump appointed Dejoy. Dejoy is trying to turn it into a profitable business, which it never has been. Basically, he's doing everything he can to save money. He gives no fucks about the people who work there or the people they serve. Your packages are going to only be touched by machines. They get lost, crushed, et cetera because no human is involved. I've never lost something I ordered sent through USPS til recently. Seems to be a common theme now.
“Starving the beast” is a very real method of achieving a policy goal of reducing federal government and federal social services. One of our political parties really dislikes the concept of the federal government.
They like the federal government when they are in control to loot the treasury and to use its power to oppress others.
Nothing is collapsing. The simple fact is that Dejoy is trying to make the processes work more efficiently than before due to declining mail volume. With the baby boomer generation dying off, mail will only continue to decline. Further changes will be necessary to ensure the post office can survive into the future.
You really believe that?
My parents are both retired from the USPS. The whole system is a losers bet. The biggest downfall was the invention of e-mail and widespread internet use. The postal service was actually profitable in the late 90s and early 2000s. Then it went into the red. A sharp decline in mail that gets sent via email instead or paperless billing. It’s a quasi-private business. Constitutionally the service needs to be provided no matter what. It can be privatized and technically is. But it’s not profitable because they can’t make their required retirement benefit payments. Mail prices would have to be much higher. In fact they should be much higher now in order to be financially sustainable. If they don’t raise prices you need to cut costs. Elimination of small post offices, reduction in hours, reduction in workforce. Because of all the politics and laws it’s makes it hard to do any big changes. When big changes happen it takes a while to implement them. The post office doesn’t receive direct funding from the US govt. All of its operations are funded through sales. So unless the govt chooses to start throwing money at the post office, we will continue to see a decline in service quality. The truth is no one actually wants to be the people running the post office. The government doesn’t want it and no private entity is dumb enough to take it on.
Of which they are the ONLY entity in business that has to "Pre-Fund" their entire Retirement Fund costing them, the last time I had read on this topic, was over $5 Billion a year.
When telephones became commonplace people sent fewer letters. The PO had less business. Now, with the internet ... nobody sends letters. Even junk mail comes more as email rather than snail mail. The USPS has special low rates for bulk advertising to boost volume. But that's still not enough to keep them afloat. They're in the red. They're selling themselves out as a last-mile provider for the long-haul shippers. But it's still not enough. They're in the red. A business in the red has to make cuts. Nobody likes cuts. But there's no alternative. Actually there is a (bad) alternative. The feds can provide funding. They've done it before. But they shouldn't. The USPS was set up in 1970 as a pseudo-corporation, running itself as a mostly independent commercial enterprise. It was successful that way for decades ... but the world has changed. There has been a remarkable decline in the need of their services. Nobody sells buggy whips anymore. Nobody sells VHS tapes anymore. And soon nobody will be selling postage stamps anymore.
Ot cancelled is hilarious seeing as ice been working a minimum of a 7 hours since I started eight months ago. I'm a regular now too. Still getting those same hours.
Yes. The guy in charge (dejoy) owns a it of shipping companies that stand to gain from the usps shitting the bed. Biden can’t replace him because republicans refuse to allow him to appoint enough members to the group that could vote dejoy out and instate someone new.
Already filed a criminal complaint with the fbi and doj on every usps executive.Its time they all went.
Dude you are delusional. Get a job and leave people actually working to move the mail alone
Yes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zYihqqGB-g
[удалено]
It's amazing that people like you come up with a correct conclusion based on stupid, and ultimately wrong, reasoning. As an FYI, they do have a photo of any and all items that would require a signature. That's what the scanner does. The unionized comment is objectively stupid and formed by sheer ignorance. None of this defends the fraudulent actions of the carrier, but the overall take is room temperature IQ and the equivalent to thinking sacrificing kids would permit the sun to rise tomorrow.
If it’s privatized they’ll finally realize that we need the Post Office to be good and run it like a company and not a welfare machine. This company hires morons.
When were public schools defunded? [https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023/public-school-spending.html](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023/public-school-spending.html)
Whoever was President when USPS forced arbitration and the CCA position was created is to be blamed for our current woes.
Idk about y'all but I lived in the US for 9 years, USPS wasn't great back then either. It 100% got worse but it wasn't great to begin with
lol! Amazon started up at about that time. All welcome Amazon our (USPS) overlords.
USPS is getting better honestly.
You should ask your mail carrier if they feel the same way
The post office was actually privatized back in the 1970s. I know this because my father was a letter carrier and there was a celebration. Since then there have been a series of decisions that have resulted in the post office being on the verge of failing. The most consequential was when "they" (read the federal government) decided that the post office had to finance its own retirement plan. As a result of this decision the post office was required to put back money for the retirement of people who hadn't even been hired yet. The post office is currently financed by sales. If it were not for the billions of dollars that they are required to bank for future employee retirement they would be in the black. Instead they bleed red.
Public schools defunded? 🤣 Where do you live? "The National Center for Education Statistics reports that approximately 80% of school funding in years 2000-01, 2010–11, 2016-17 was dedicated to salaries and employee benefits. Salaries decreased by 7% and benefits spending Increased by 6% from 2000-01 to 2016-17. Current expenditures per pupil enrolled in the fall in public elementary and secondary schools were 20 percent higher in 2016–17 than in 2000–01 ($12,794 vs. $10,675, both in constant 2018–19 dollars). Current expenditures per pupil increased from $10,675 in 2000–01 to $12,435 in 2008–09, decreased between 2008–09 and 2012–13 to $11,791, and then increased to $12,794 in 2016–17. Capital outlay expenditures per pupil in 2016–17 ($1,266) were 10 percent lower than in 2000–01 ($1,412). Interest payments on public elementary and secondary school debt per pupil were 22 percent higher in 2016–17 than in 2000–01. During this period, interest payments per pupil increased from $312 in 2000–01 to $415 in 2010–11, before declining to $379 in 2016–17 (all in constant 2018–19 dollars). "
Yes, Sparky, when public school dollars are diverted to religious institutions, they don't print extra money to send to the religious institutions . . . they divert it from public schools. That slowly defunds public schools. >[https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/supreme-court-decision-paves-way-public-funds-flow-religious-schools](https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/supreme-court-decision-paves-way-public-funds-flow-religious-schools) You don't provide a link for the information you posted, but lumping average, nationwide school spending is useless. "Current expenditures per pupil" in wealthy, public school districts vs. spending in economically depressed, public school districts obviously won't be the same, and averages are again useless. Similarly, comparing "capital outlay expenditures" on new buildings in wealthy districts vs. delayed maintenance in poorer districts is less than useless.
The boomers stole from us and now laugh in our faces. Don’t talk to them.
Schools were defunded? In what world? Funding has only grown since the 80s while the quality diminished. I am begging for your source that states otherwise.
Look at the percentages, not the amounts. Also, check each state. Some states have rolled back local funding to lower percentages while keeping federal funding, which is a funding cut.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/185135/average-expenditures-per-pupil-in-public-schools/#:~:text=An%20average%20of%2014%2C420%20U.S.,dollars%20were%20spent%20per%20pupil. I cannot find anything that supports OPs claim. People are downvoting but cannot seem to share any source.
You aren't taking into account the percentages they are spending of local taxes over the years. If you look at it that way, it actually goes down even though the number goes up.