[JB in TV]

Originally Posted by zcaveman

Sorry - that was the way I read your note.

No worries, my post was probably ambiguous..

[PaPaLarry]

Originally Posted by Bavarian

Any one wanting to do away with rural post Offices and their P.O. Boxes, never lived in a rural area. Many of these post offices were in the general store and people came there for their mail, no home delivery. And they traveled from their farms. New areas have rural post boxes at the end of the driveways for over forty years.

I know a development built in mid '70s, the builder did not like post boxes so he built community post boxes at the end of each cul-de-sac. But the newspapers put their boxes at each driveway, so no benefit.

The USPS does a good job as they must deliver everywhere in all 50 states.

There good and bad to that!!! The good part is, the customers come to the little Post Office to pick up their mail, but the bad part is, The Postal Service is renting the building (and the costs that go with the building). I think that's why The Postal Service wants to go to a more centralized way of delivering the mail, with more customers in one section. (again, like The Villages) They are also trying to negotiate with local Super Markets for free space, so they can have postal service in a building that has no cost factors. Like I had said before, it's a win, win situation. The PO gets free space, (no charge for electric, rent etc) and the Supermarket has more customers coming to their store. Of course that just a tiny savings, to the overall picture!! I would love to see the Postal Service survive, but I think the younger generation doesn't see it that way. Just hope the importance of receiving birthday cards, sometimes checks, Christmas cards, and other important letters, lives on forever. Eliminating Saturday delivery, would be a good start!!

[SoccerCoach]

My question of the day. When was the last time that YOU can remember the USPS operating without a fiscal loss?

[PaPaLarry]

Originally Posted by SoccerCoach

My question of the day. When was the last time that YOU can remember the USPS operating without a fiscal loss?

I think when Nixon was president!! I could be wrong.

[Villages PL]

Forever stamps are forever until they file for bankruptcy.

[coralway]

WOW !!!!!!!!!!!

Folks still use stamps?

[twinklesweep]

Originally Posted by billethkid

what the postal system needs is to be taken out from under the control of the government and privatized.

How many years in a row would a private company be allowed to lose multi billions of dollars with no hope in sight to EVER do any better?

The one cent increase is a joke.....with or without it the bottom line (if there was one) will not be affected.

btk

We don't need a privatized postal system. We already have the closest thing to that with UPS and FedEx. But let's see: How much would these services charge for delivering the equivalent of a first class letter to some remote village in Alaska which requires a bush pilot to land where he or she can, who is then met by someone running a snow machine (called a snowmobile in the lower 48 states) to take it to its final destination? And before anyone says it, is the American at that final destination not worthy of the same, say, first class mail service as the American in the heart of any big American city? This is called a governmental service; of course it will never be profitable and may always run a loss.

On the other hand, I do agree that "the one cent increase is a joke." The basic letter rate within our neighbor to the north, Canada, is 63 cents. Maybe it's time for a dramatic postal rate increase (and I don't mean anything like UPS or FedEx rates). You cannot beat the service we get from the post office, but it certainly can handle a reasonable price adjustment—as long as it remains the same service for ALL Americans, no matter where within the U.S. they live.

The Postal Service was founded back in colonial times: 'Three weeks after the battles of Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in May 1775 to plan for the defense of the colonies against British aggression and “to take into consideration the state of America.” The conveyance of letters and intelligence was essential to the cause of liberty. A committee, chaired by Benjamin Franklin and including Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee, Philip Livingston, Thomas Lynch, and Thomas Willing, was named to consider the creation of a postal system.'

The Postal Service Begins

(Emphasis above mine.) Granted the Postal Service was not created via the U.S. Constitution, it still comes from that time, and one of its purposes was that it was "essential to the cause of liberty." True, we cannot compare the available technology then with that of now, but that technology is not part of the daily lives of countless Americans. For them, the Postal Service may well be their sole means of communication. Let's not be insensitive to the needs of these Americans as well....