# Mail and Milk



## Davey Jones (Sep 27, 2014)

Struggling Postal Service wants to deliver groceries.

Does this mean Ill have to put a little refrigerator next to the mailbox now for my 2% milk?
Can't wait till they deliver the marijuana/cocaine
in the mail too.


*http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ng-postal-service-wants-to-deliver-groceries/*


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## Falcon (Sep 27, 2014)

Just hope my ice cream doesn't melt and run all over my pension check.


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## JustBonee (Sep 28, 2014)

*Anything* the post office deliveries,  besides the onslaught of JUNK mail,  would be welcome.


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## hollydolly (Sep 28, 2014)

Bonnie said:


> *Anything* the post office deliveries,  besides the onslaught of JUNK mail,  would be welcome.



You get the junk in the mail too?...drives you to distraction doesn't it?

At least here most houses still have letterboxes in our front doors and I get mad enough with the junk mail on the door mat, I'd be madder than a sack of snakes if I had to go outside to the bottom of the garden to the mailbox to collect Junk mail!!


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## MaggieJewel (Sep 29, 2014)

I want to opt out of all 3rd class mail.... but the postal carrier says I can't.


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## QuickSilver (Sep 29, 2014)

Hey.... I don't know what we would do without our Postal Service, and the Republicans have been trying to dismantle it for years and privatize it so we can all pay more for less service, and a few big doners.. ie Fed-x or other delivery companies can make millions.


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## Davey Jones (Sep 29, 2014)

rerivatize it so we can all pay more for less service.


Pay less ??? you're joking...right?


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## QuickSilver (Sep 29, 2014)

Davey Jones said:


> rerivatize it so we can all pay more for less service.
> 
> 
> Pay less ??? you're joking...right?




I'm not joking.  Do you think Fed-x or UPS will deliver a letter for 49 cents?  NO...  privatizing the postal service is a Republian gimmic for increasing the wealth of their cronies.. and doners.  They have passed legislation forcing the post office to fully fund their pension funds out 75 years.  That is bankrupting the post office who by the way does NOT take ANY tax dollars, but does business using only postage and shipping fees.  No other company in the US is forced to fund pensions for employees not even born yet.  No the GOP has been itching for years to get the postal business into Corporate hands. 

http://www.thenation.com/blog/169234/congress-fiddles-while-post-office-burns



> In 2006, a Republican Congress—acting at the behest of the Bush-Cheney administration—enacted a law that required the postal service to “pre-fund” retiree health benefits seventy-five years into the future. No major private-sector corporation or public-sector agency could do that. It’s an untenable demand. “(The) Postal Service in the short term should be released from an onerous and unprecedented burden to pre-fund 75 years of future retiree health benefits over a 10-year period,” says US Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont. “With $44 billion now in the fund, the Postal Service inspector general has said that program is already stronger than any other equivalent government or private-sector fund in the country. There already is more than enough in the account to meet all obligations to retirees.”



Is it any wonder that the post office is struggling under the burden of this.. and may default?  The GOP just can't wait for that to happen, and voters must vote to save the Post Service. 




> Fredric Rolando of the Letter Carriers union, got it precisely right when he said: “Congress has failed to deal with the unfair and unaffordable financial burden of pre-funding, which is the one thing that could provide the Postal Service some much-needed breathing room to address its long-term challenges in a strategic way. In short, Wednesday’s default (wasn’t) be committed by the Postal Service, but by Congress.”
> To rectify the circumstance, American cannot reject the Post Office. It must reject the Congress that has failed to recognize or respect—let alone act upon—its constitutionally-defined mandate “to establish and ensure operation of the Postal Service,”
> “The Congress has a responsibility to stand up, but here in the USA., under Citizens United, everything is up for auction including the Postal Service,” shouts Kucinich. “Wake up, America. Universal service is on the line. Wake up, America and stand up for the Constitution. 575,000 Postal Service workers and our obligation to the American people to see to it that the Postal Service is rescued from those who want to push it into default or privatize it for their own profit.”


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## Davey Jones (Sep 29, 2014)

We should have a new political party called The POST OFFICE after all its really Congress connected.

The post office would have survived on its own till the union moved in.


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## QuickSilver (Sep 29, 2014)

Davey Jones said:


> We should have a new political party called The POST OFFICE after all its really Congress connected.
> 
> The post office would have survived on its own till the union moved in.



Do you know of any Unionized company  that has been mandated by congress to prefund union pensions out for 75 YEARS?  That is impossible... NO.. the Post Office is struggling BECAUSE of the mandate... designed to break it.  Remove that and the PO will be profitable.


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## QuickSilver (Sep 29, 2014)

Let's talk Post Office for a moment..   The existance of a Post Office is MANDATED by the US Constitution.  It is under Congressional control, but does NOT use any Tax dollars.. It operates solely on revenue from postage.  It has always amazed me that you can put a stamp on a letter anywhere in the United States and that letter will be delivered to anywhere in the world. AND for a pretty reasonable price.  The cost of a first class stamp is now 49 cents.

The post office is the largest UNION employer in the USA.   It provides good living wage middle class jobs with good benefits.  Many of our retired military personnel go to work at the post office as letter carriers and sorters.  The fact that it's Union has stuck in the craw of Republicans for decades.  The fact that it generates lots of money has definately caught their attention.   IF anything generates money... why of course it should be Privatized in order for Corporations to turn a profit on it.  They have been itching to privatize the post office for years.... and to break the union.... and to do away with the good jobs in favor of the crappy minimum wage jobs private corporations love to create... you know... part time jobs... with no healthcare or other benefits.. sick pay, vacation... none of that as it eats into profit..  

In 2006.. the Republican led congress figured out a way to accomplish what they had always wanted to do.  They pushed through a bill that contained a poison pill requiring the Post Office to pre-fund ALL pensions out for 75 years.  It was quickly signed by Bush and became law.  They saw this as a way to beak the postal union and to turn operations over to companies like Fed-x or UPS.  Since then the Post office has been struggling to make those astronomical payments and the GOP is waiting for them to default so they can end our postal service as we know it..  What other company has such a requirement... none..  Do you think a for profit corporation will provide better service at that same price..?   Not a chance.   It's one more step in the Corportization and Privatization of America and the decline of the middle class.


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## Davey Jones (Sep 29, 2014)

*US Postal jobs.*
Starting Salary is $51,000 a Year. No Experience Necessary.  
 You cannot walk off the street and get a job with the postal service,it doesnt work that way you have to know somebody especially a politician.


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## QuickSilver (Sep 29, 2014)

Davey Jones said:


> *US Postal jobs.*
> Starting Salary is $51,000 a Year. No Experience Necessary.
> You cannot walk off the street and get a job with the postal service,it doesnt work that way you have to know somebody especially a politician.



As I said, the post office is controlled by the Congress...  It wouldn't surprise me in the least if jobs were given to friends and relatives of campaign contributors.  It's all about the money with politicians.   BUT that is a reason to implement campaign funding controls  NOT to privatize the Post Office.


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## Geezerette (Sep 29, 2014)

Well, I hate all the junk mail, but I am frequently impressed with how well their basic mission is carried out. Example: Sat a.m 9/27 I sent a small priority mail package & a thick First class to separate addresses in DC suburbS, From ABQ, & they were both delivered today, Mon 9/29.


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## QuickSilver (Sep 29, 2014)

And probably at not an unreasonable price.  Can you imagine a private profit driven Corporation providing better service for less money?  Not a chance!


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## Ina (Sep 29, 2014)

But the media will be the first show us when a postman dumps our mail in the woods, or when some postal worker looses it, and goes haywire, and become violent. Like that never happens elsewhere. We now even have a saying, " Going postal." It's sad. I can remember when getting the mail was a daily event to be looked forward to.


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## QuickSilver (Sep 29, 2014)

I still look forward to my mail.... except the bills that is.


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## Butterfly (Sep 30, 2014)

Since I do everything online now (paying bills, getting bills, etc.) pretty much the only mail I ever get is junk mail.  I HATE it.  I especially hate those things from credit cards that enclose checks a person could write  -- I have to go to the trouble of going through the pile of junk mail and shred that which has pre-filled out forms and checks from credit cards.  I also find it offensive that I get solicitations from idiots wanting to know if I want to arrange my funeral!  Not YET, bucko!  If I did, I'd trot down to my local funeral place and do so, not with some unknown entity 2,000 miles from me.  How dumb do those advertisers think we are??


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## QuickSilver (Oct 1, 2014)

I'm really not sure what is so annoying about junk mail...  I glance over it and pitch it..  OR put it in my shred/burn bin.  I don't spend a whole lot of time being upset by it.


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## rkunsaw (Oct 1, 2014)

Junk mail keeps the post office in business. Not many people write letters anymore.


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## JustBonee (Oct 1, 2014)

QuickSilver said:


> I'm really not sure what is so annoying about junk mail...  I glance over it and pitch it..  OR put it in my shred/burn bin.  I don't spend a whole lot of time being upset by it.



Me either. .. I've gotten in the habit, without realizing it, that I  always open my mail over the trash bin. Simple and quick.


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## Davey Jones (Oct 1, 2014)

rkunsaw said:


> Junk mail keeps the post office in business. Not many people write letters anymore.


  Ya think the Post Office would make a bundle during the Xmas season.


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