Should protecting the US Postal Service be an issue in the presidential campaign?

[limpyhobbler]

I haven't heard too much about it from the candidates. It seems like this would be a good chance to get middle America on our side and maybe even swing some voters over. Could this be a winning issue?

[xchrom]

1. yes.they're talking -- what is it? 34,000 usps jobs are on the line.

i don't remember exactly but it's a big number.

[Justice wanted]

2. YES! Obama needs to explain exactly how the Bush Administration screwed the post office

It should also be known WHICH congress members have vested interest in DHL and UPS getting all the work USPS would loose.

[Vincardog]

35. Bingo , Why are "Conservatives" working to kill the USPS?

[abelenkpe]

3. YES nt

[RegieRocker]

4. Yes

[loli phabay]

5. probuably not such a big issue as it would have been at one time

all i get from USPS is circulars and trash mail, all my correspondance and bills etc is by electronic means, and all deliveries are fedex and ups, so personally it would not be a major issue that it might have been once apon a time.

[HockeyMom]

7. One example

My daughter is going to Basic Training in Texas in a few months. She is not allowed to bring her laptop, or cell phone. The only way we will be able to contact each other is through SNAIL MAIL. The same is also true for our military overseas.

I can think of many, many other pieces of mail, including official government documents (Driver's License for one) we get through through the Post Office.

Fed Ex all this? This seems to me as just one more elimination of a government entity/job, and the for profit privatization of same.

[loli phabay]

8. and that effects a percentage of the population, probuably fed ex or something would take over

i simple think that the post office is no longer the neccesity that it was say 20 years ago. as i said if they disappeared tomorrow i wouldnt notice as i dont use or get anything from them.

[HockeyMom]

20. Small number of people get Driver's Licenses?

How about Passports? So the government will now be giving all that money instead to a for profit company?

Also, do all poor, and old people, have computers? Again, this sounds like another way to separate "them" from "us".

[loli phabay]

23. no if you look the question was would it be a good idea as part of the campaign

im asking and saying that to me the post office is of minimal importance in my life so it would not be a priority in an election, and what percentage of the population would care if the post office was no more and companys like fed ex etc delivered the driving licences and passports etc. DO you think the post office will be around in 10, 20 or 50 years going by the advances we have in tech.

[nadinbrzezinski]

50. I guess union busting and privatization of a service

Mentioned in the constitution matters little to you. One more insight, not a good one.

[robinlynne]

68. I ship my merchandise via USPS every week. Fedex/UPS almost twice the price.

Never has a package been lost. And all the purchases I amke online also come via USPS. for the same reason, probably.
only really expensive purchases come via fedex.

[customerserviceguy]

47. Maybe the junk mailers

should be paying the costs of having the USPS be their "litter carriers". Yes, some older, poorer, and computer illiterate folks still do things the old fashioned way, why not have the folks who rape forests to send advertising mail subsidize their dwindling numbers?

[Doremus]

58. Well, how nice for you. There are millions of people who DO depend on USPS

I have a mail order business and use USPS to the tune of $20K+ year. Private couriers like UPS and FedEx are less reliable, farther away, and more expensive.

The people cheering for the demise of the USPS must have deep pockets and an inexplicable desire to empty them faster.

[loli phabay]

61. well people will always order stuff maybe the business plan will change

As more and more people use the tech. I just look at the letter wrkting i did twenty years ago and how insend none now and i cant be the only person who has changed their habits and whenni die my kids willnprobuably never mail a letter.

[former9thward]

45. "The same is also true for our military overseas. "

That is not true. The military overseas has access to the internet and video communication. They had that even in the ancient days when I was in.

[loli phabay]

62. i loved getting mail.when i wss in but now my friends still in use skype and email.

[nadinbrzezinski]

48. FYI I got email with hubby from a sub

They get access to computers once out of basic.

That said, the USPS needs to be protected.

It's kind of funny, the 2 Ammendment sacred, the postal service not so much...both are in the constitution. Actually the USPS precedes in mention the 2 Ammendment. The bill of rights came after the constitution.

[senseandsensibility]

6. Yes

All Dem need to be more vocal about this.

[Starry Messenger]

9. I can't see any downsides.

If the right-wing was going to demonize the post office as ebil socialism, they would have started awhile ago. It would take some effort I think, most Americans like the mail system.

[loli phabay]

11. do people actually still use it, i ask this in all innocence as i cant remember the last time i used

them for anything, yes i still get the occasional letter or something but they sit for weeks as i just dont check the mailbox.

[limpyhobbler]

12. I get mail every day.

Also have a PO Box there and send some mail, especially bills for some who don't take over the phone or online payments. If it's any kind of official document sometimes you need to mail things. I like to use their certified or registered mail services. You can request the receiver to sign for the letter. I use that when I mail in my health insurance payments so I have proof that they received it.

[loli phabay]

13. therefore it would be an issue for you, i just wonder what the percentage of the country would even

notice if it was gone. Thinking about it now the way emnails have taken over from snail mail is amazing.

[limpyhobbler]

18. There always seem to be customers in the post office when I go there.

They seem to do a pretty brisk business. While it is certainly less business than it used to be. It might need to change and evolve, maybe even shrink a little until volume stabilizes. I just think it's a basic public service in the same category as police and fire service. If need be they could offer some extra services to bring in extra money.

[loli phabay]

19. not sure how they will survive the tech advances, i would never have believed ten years ago

that i would do all my correspondance via email, and pay all my bills electronically. I wonder if they have a new gameplan for the future or if junkmail is the future.

[limpyhobbler]

29. I ordered some shoes online and they came by mail

So until somebody figures out how to email a pair of tennis shoes I think we're good.

[loli phabay]

32. erm thats the question, there are companys that will bring them to you ie fedex etc

as technology advances people and not everyone rely less on the post office.

[limpyhobbler]

39. I feel like the American people love the US Postal Service.

Just like they love having public libraries. Most people almost never go to a public library. But no politician runs on a kill the library platform. Even though some people rarely use it, most are glad it is there. Same with the post office.

[loli phabay]

41. good point, just wonder if the new generations will feel the same as those who grew up with it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

57. Packages

You surely noticed eBay uses the USPS.. Wait, you are not good with the googE, sorry.

[Johonny]

40. 40 — percent of the world’s mail volume handled by the Postal Service

1.2 million — number of people who visited usps.com each day

I'm pretty sure the American public would notice if USPS just went away. Particularly older Americans that vote, small business owners that vote, the poor that vote and US service men and women that vote. Nearly everyone, even my GF that is rarely at home to see her snail mail, uses the USPS. Not just the US, the whole world uses it. The economic impact to it going away would be HUGE. So yes it is a great campaign topic as it highlights conservatives vision of the world and liberals. More important it points out workers are not just disposable.

You've said your point a lot yet it is not very convincing as the real world figures seem to trump it.

[loli phabay]

42. actually in the context of the question it is very convincing, as i stated that to me its not an

important election issue as i just dont use it. i just wonder how many years until all snail mail except junk mail is gone. tech seems to be taking over.

[customerserviceguy]

49. It's not even a question of it being gone

Only cut back. You don't need to have every one-horse town have a post office, and if there's that much demand, it can be contracted out to the local convenience store. Also, six-day delivery is a luxury we simply can't afford, unless we really want to stick it to the majority users of the USPS, the junk mailers.

Double the cost of junk mail as often as it takes to balance the books, and you'll see the problem correct itself over time. Having the trash mail cost less to mail than an ordinary person pays for a 'Forever' stamp is the path to financial insanity.

[limpyhobbler]

59. The so called funding crisis has been manufactured by the Republicans as an excuse to cut services .

They would like to kill the Postal Service all together if they could, or leave it as a shell and have all the services contracted out. Because they are opposed to it for ideological reasons. Privitizing is a religion for those people.

It's a Bush-era law that requires the USPS to fund it's workers health benefits for 75 years into the future. That's a ridiculous burden that almost no business could meet.
It's designed to kill the USPS. That is the problem that needs to be fixed.

[customerserviceguy]

73. While it might be part of the problem

The USPS pension system is the ONLY well-funded one out there that I know of. Most are functioning on unsustainable shoestrings. There's got to be a happy medium someplace.

[Starry Messenger]

16. Postal Facts

http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-facts/welcome.htm

SIZE AND SCOPE

The United States Postal Service delivers more mail to more addresses in a larger geographical area than any other post in the world. The Postal Service delivers to more than 151 million homes, businesses and Post Office boxes in every state, city, town and borough in this country. Everyone living in the U.S. and its territories has access to postal products and services and pays the same postage regardless of their location.

By the Numbers

66 billion — revenue in 2011, in dollars
167.9 billion — number of mail pieces processed in 2011
554 million — average number of mail pieces processed each day
23 million — average number of mail pieces processed each hour
384,000 — average number of mail pieces processed each minute
6,400 — average number of mail pieces processed each second
40 — percent of the world’s mail volume handled by the Postal Service
1.9 billion — dollar amount paid every two weeks in salaries and benefits
546,000 — number of career employees
31,509 — number of Postal Service-managed retail offices
34 million — number of work hours reduced equals 19,000 full-time employees
213,881 — number of vehicles — the largest civilian fleet in the world
1.2 billion — number of miles driven each year by letter carriers and truck drivers
39.9 million — number of address changes processed in 2011
35.5 — percent of retail revenue from alternative access channels in 2011
1.2 million — number of people who visited usps.com each day
62 million — number of inquiries handled by Postal Service Contact Center in 2011
236 million — dollar amount of online stamp and retail sales at usps.com in 2011
467 million — total revenue, in dollars, from Click-N-Ship label purchases in 2011
5.6 million — number of passport applications accepted in 2011
116 million — number of money orders issued in 2011
543 million — amount in revenue from 2,500 Automated Postal Centers
71,000 — number of stores, banks and ATMs that sell postage stamps
636,530 — number of new delivery points added to the network in 2011
0 — tax dollars received for operating the Postal Service

[loli phabay]

17. number of pieces of mail in my mailbox this week that i want zero

if you want people to make this a big political thing then you have to make it personal, im sure there are lots of people who use the post office, but as tech becomes more prevelant that number will dwindle. I just dont see it as a big part of my life and i cant be the only person who gets nothing but junk mail in my mailbox.

[Starry Messenger]

25. Only 19% of households making $25,000 or under have internet access.

High-income households are
more likely to have computers
or Internet access.

Among family households with
incomes of $75,000 or more during
the 12 months prior to the survey,
88 percent had at least one comput-
er, and 79 percent had at least one
household member who used the
Internet at home in 2000. Among
family households with incomes
below $25,000, only 28 percent
had a computer, and 19 percent had
Internet access (Table A).

https://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/p23-207.pdf

[loli phabay]

27. okay so a lot of people have internet, and a lot of them probuably use email rather than snail mail

and a lot of them probuably do bill pay etc. Thats the point 20 years ago everyone use the post office for these things, but the the world is changing and its not as important a part of life to many people as it once was.

[Starry Messenger]

28. A lot of them don't actually.

That's the part you're not hearing.

[loli phabay]

33. lol even if its 20% thats still a lot of people, i dont know the number

but the point is that you have to concede the world has moved on for a lot of people and emial etc are becoming the easy way to communicate.

[Starry Messenger]

34. You have to concede that the world has not moved on for nearly 2/3rds of people in poverty.

You can find the number on this thing called the internet. I suppose you're familiar with it?

[loli phabay]

37. bazinga lol i was just looking, not to good with the google im afraid

yup as i said there are people who still use the post office, i just dont and im interested in if people in general would list it high on their priorities when it comes to an election.

[nadinbrzezinski]

52. Yes, and I have Internet and I am good with the google

It comes down to union busting, heard of that term? The right is hell bent on it since...one more USPS fact...it's the largest public employee union.

[loli phabay]

60. you know in ten twenty or thirty years it will probuably be gone

Times are changing people are going more tech. Frinstance my kids would never think of mailing a letter when they can just send an email instantly. Were one it took weeks to receive a letter it went to days then next day now instantly. Itsnlike travel were we used to spend forever sailing the ocean now we fly and maybe someday there will be something quicker. As i said think of all the people who would send letters twenty years ago and how many of them nkw email.

[nadinbrzezinski]

65. Because you think so, does not make it so

Your kids will still order packets, and just try to use FedEx to send a package for the equivalent price.

What congress wants to do is destroy a union and privatize this very lucrative service.

I hope though that your kids live in a rural area where they either pay insane rates or get no delivery from UPS. Oh wait, sins of father and all that. I hope you do, and get NO DELIVERY or so expensive you are going to wish for it. Like many seniors who get their meds that way RIGHT NOW

So tell me, what other public union should we destroy next?

ADM life is not just I AND ME.

[loli phabay]

66. just an opinion. probuably lots of businesses failed due to tech making them obselete

Im sure your google could help you out. The future is still unknown but just look at the trend with mail o er the past twenty years and you will see were its going.

[Occulus]

26. Stop thinking only about yourself.

All I see from you here is I, I, I, me, me, me.

I sort fifty or sixty THOUSAND pieces of mail a day, oftentimes more. This, in one of the smallest facilities in the country. My coworkers each so the same. Daily.

[loli phabay]

30. no this is about self, and the perception of people and the importance of the post office

to you its important and i get that but to a lot and growing part of the populace the post office is no longer as important as it was. question how many of those pieces of mail are junk mail or circulars cause i pretty much know none of it is mail i want.

[Vincardog]

36. Can you agree that while the PO is no longer important TO YOU there are people to whom it is?

The 80 YO farmer in NW Iowa, without the internet, who gets his SS check in the mail. Maybe it is important to him?

[loli phabay]

38. never said it wasnt, just the world is moving on and something like this is personal

its whether you feel its an important thing to you or not, im wondering as tech increases if the post office will shift or if it will die.

[Vincardog]

43. So you would agree.

[loli phabay]

64. yes sorry i missed your reply but i think as tech advances and time

It will change. You will always get some who want mail but like horses when cars came people change.

[Vincardog]

70. Good I was concerned that you agreed with the GOP and wanted to privatize every good thing

the government does, and replace it with less efficient privatized operations.
I am glad to see that my impression was wrong.

[customerserviceguy]

51. May I ask how much of it

is junk mail? And don't tell me you don't know the difference, I can always tell at a glance if something is a bill, a credit card, a greeting card, or a letter from an individual (even though I haven't gotten the latter in many years). I'm sure you can, too.

What would you say is the proportion that is simply unsolicited advertising mail of all kinds, commercial, charitable and political?

[TeamPooka]

54. I had a half a dozen things I wanted show up in my mail this week.

Books that I buy on ebay or amazon.

[Wounded Bear]

10. It should be a campaign issue....

although Pres Obama's record against privatization isn't the greatest.

The Postal Service is mentioned in the Constitution. It' shouldn't be as easy to destroy as the Repubs want to make it.

Funny, but rural (read "red state&quot America is the one group who would be hit hardest by this.

[1-Old-Man]

14. It is good to keep in mind that at its heart the assault on the post office is an assault on labor.

Two strong forces are at play here, both fully supported by Republicans. One is the privatization of parts of the services that are already provided at low cost and with great efficiency by the post office and the other is an assault of the Postal Workers Union, which I believe is the largest in Government and possibly in the nation.

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. Absolutely. Stop wall street style disaster capitalism/privatization!

[HockeyMom]

21. My husband subscriptions to a lot of magazines

I guess they could stop publishing them and just put them online instead. Charge to read them online?

Does Fed Ex have a magazine rate too?

[former9thward]

46. FedEx is not allowed to put packages in the mailbox.

Federal law prohibits it. So they would not have a "magazine rate".

[customerserviceguy]

53. That's the trend with magazines, too

I get Wine Spectator, but only because I can buy it with Delta airline miles that I can earn for free here and there, and redeem for a mailed subscription. Any periodicals that I need to be up to date, I prefer to get on my smartphone, and there's no charge for reading them at this time.

Oh, and I pay for the online version of Wine Spectator, so I can quickly look up a wine's ratings at a shop if I'm thinking of buying it. I really don't want to keep paper lists in my wallet.

[loli phabay]

63. yeah i prefer my magazines etc online as well. always accessible and easier to store.

[Solly Mack]

22. Yes

[DirkGently]

24. Absolutely. The way Republicans have gone after it is pretty "un-American."

[loudsue]

31. YES YES YES!! Thank you for bringing it up.

This issue is so indicative of how the republicans hate government, and that they will do anything to destroy a government agency.

[B Calm]

44. Hell yes! Low informative republican

voters need to know just what the hell republicans are doing to this country!

[peacebird]

55. YES! And Protecting the USPS should be much More than a campaign issue.

[no_hypocrisy]

56. Fuck yes

[robinlynne]

67. YES!

[Nye Bevan]

69. Obama says the Post Office should end Saturday deliveries.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE81C20N20120213?irpc=932

I agree with him.

[Teamster Jeff]

71. That was in February but

now it's August and President Obama is a Progressive again. So he might at least give some lip service to postal workers

[limpyhobbler]

72. He can still support the USPS there are bigger issues than Saturday delivery...

The reason why cuts are being called for in the first place is because of a Bush-era law that requires the USPS to fund it's workers health benefits for 75 years into the future. That's a ridiculous burden that almost no business could meet. It's designed by the gop to force the USPS into crisis. That is the problem that needs to be fixed. Repeal Bush's 2006 law. That's the political issue I think President Obama could support in the election, to draw a contrast with the Republicans.

Here is one of the articles about it:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/169234/congress-fiddles-while-post-office-burns

The President can still support some cuts to the Postal Service while drawing a clear line to say "this far and no further".

[Festivito]

74. Okay, but it's a Constitutional issue.

Getting rid of it is silly.