Election Junk Mail Keeps Post Office Treading Water
Oct 15, 2012 Political
The United States Post Office is on the brink of insolvency and has been several times. The PO is losing money hand over fist and every few months there are dire predictions about insolvency and cuts in service.
The PO states that this is because it is required to pay billions each year into its pension fund to pay for its retirees. Perhaps that is so but the PO had generous retirement plans and it must pay for them. I guess the PO, like all other government and union entities expects the taxpayer to pick up the tab for these retirees.
I have discussed the PO in detail before so I won’t rehash it here. Suffice it to say that I think it would be better off if it were, at least party, privatized.
In any event, the PO has gotten a slight reprieve this year because this is an election year and it is an important election year. Couple the increased political activity among the electorate with the increased spending PACs are allowed to engage in and there are a lot of items being mailed to people.
The Post Office is getting a boost from increased political mailings so I know that entity is praying that the race remains close and more organizations get involved in the process.
Regardless, when November rolls around and the election is behind us the PO will need to face reality and work to make things more efficient and cost effective.
When the PO was the only means of sending written communication it did well and money was no object. Now there are other companies that deliver and email as a means of communication. Not to mention that many companies have their catalogs on their websites for viewing or download. No need to spend a few dollars per catalog to mail them out.
One way or another the PO will have to reduce costs. It will probably have to reduce delivery to five days a week (is Saturday deliver really necessary) and it will probably have to reduce the workforce and number of branches.
If not it will certainly go belly up.
At least until Congress takes OUR money and uses it to bolster the PO.
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: election, insolvency, junk mail, post office, restructure, unions
You Can’t, Unless You Are The Government
Jul 16, 2009 Political
In February of this year, during a speech. Barack Obama admonished companies by exclaiming:
“You can’t get corporate jets, you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime.”
This was a direct stab at the companies that had taken, or in many cases forced to take, bailout money. He wanted to make it clear that as long as the taxpayer was footing the bill there would be no trips to these kinds of places no matter what the reason.
Of course this idea did not stop Obama from attending a fundraiser for Harry Reid in, you guessed it, Las Vegas. And he did it on the taxpayer dime.
It would appear as if it is OK to take these kinds of trips if you are the government because now we have word that the Social Security Administration sent at least 675 employees to Phoenix Arizona for a conference at the Valley resort. The cost of the trip was $700,000. This is 700 thousand dollars spent by an organization that has been raped of all its money by the federal government and will be in the red by 2016. They spent close to three quarters of a million dollars on a conference with classes such as “Techniques to Empower You,” “Mentoring the Generations,” and “Emotional Intelligence.”
The article also states that the SSA did not mention the after hours activities though I am not sure any of them cost the taxpayer because I would assume they were not paid for with taxpayer money (though it would not surprise me if taxpayer money was used).
Considering how terrible Social Security is and how it only allows people to live at poverty level while it plummets toward insolvency, one has to wonder who thought this would be a good idea.
Social Security is a boondoggle to begin with and should be gradually moved over to the private sector where the money people pay in belongs to them and they can decide how to invest it. This would generate more wealth and allow people to retire in comfort (something Democrats oppose because self sufficient voters are harder to scare into voting Democrat). This incident just demonstrates the atmosphere in the SSA. Waste money, make poor decisions, and don’t worry about it. The taxpayer will foot the bill.
If accounts were private we would not need 675 managers to run things (not to mention the tens of thousands of employees) and they could not go to training conferences that cost a fortune. There would be no need for all these people who run a poor system that has a return of less than 1% on investment.
Maybe that was their share of the bailout money.
You can’t waste taxpayer money unless you are the government.
Gotcha.
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Tags: boondoggle, insolvency, social security, taxpayer, trip, waste