U.S. Postal Service to reduce workforce by 10,000 in 2015

[Travis_0004]

27. Most of what you are proposing has been done.

Flat rate envelopes do exist. And you can order flat rate boxes/envelopes, and have them delivered to you.

In the last 7 years the post office would have lost 11 billion, even if they did not have to prefund the retirement plan.

Mail volume has dropped significantly. At my job we spent about 100 dollars a week in first class mail. We have dropped it to under 20.00 a week. At home I use online bill payment, and don't get a lot of mail. I go through less than 5 stamps a year.

As to the pre-funding retirement, I don't think its really a bad thing. If you are a letter carrier who is retiring today, and you were promised a monthly payment of X dollars, I think it would be good to know that the NPV of that promise is sitting in an investment account.

Compare that to a city like Detroit, which has been underfunding liabilities, and then they declare bankruptcy, and break a lot of promises that were made to the pensions.

Lets put it another way. If I owe you 10,000 dollars a year, for the next 10 years, would you rather know that I have 75k dollars in a savings account allocated to that payment, or would you rather me have 15,000, and tell you, don't worry, I got it covered.