Post Office To Charge More For Less
Dec 6, 2011 Political
The United States Postal Service is a bloated government agency that is charged with delivering our mail efficiently. It charges for the service so the money it gets to operate is not supposed to come from the taxpayer. The establishment of the Post Office is a Constitutional requirement but there is no Constitutional requirement for that service to be run by the government.
Government does NOTHING efficiently and money is never a concern because government begs, borrows, or steals the money it gets and since it makes the laws, it can beg, borrow, or steal as much as it wants without the fear of being jailed.
The Post Office is a prime example of government inefficiency. It has grown, and grown, and grown, over the years while offering extravagant benefits to the people who work for it. The Postal Service has tens of thousands more employees than it needs but can’t seem to downsize appropriately.
In addition, those tens of thousands of employees retire and receive very generous benefits. Those benefits are a huge part of the Postal Service’s fiscal problems because the Service is required to pay into the benefit fund up front and the cost has risen to more than the Service can afford.
This has not stopped the Service from keeping employees on or from closing facilities over the years regardless of the dire circumstances. It seems to live in a vacuum ignoring the reality of its fiscal circumstances in hopes that some Congressman will bail it out.
The Postal Service claims it is finally doing something because it is facing bankruptcy. Some sorting facilities will be closed and the cost of a First Class letter will rise to 45 cents (up one cent) starting January. I doubt the increase will have an immediate impact because the Postal Service sells what it calls forever stamps. Purchase them at the current price and you can use them forever regardless of what the actual rate is. People will be buying a lot of forever stamps this month. In addition, the Service will have reduced service in that letters will take longer to arrive. Yes, we will pay more for decreased service.
There are several problems with what the Postal Service is doing. The biggest is that it is retaining its employees. No one who works at the closing facilities will be released, they will just be reassigned. The amount of mail has decreased year after year but they can’t seem to downsize the workforce.
Another problem is that the Postal Service is a branch of government. It is, by its very nature, inefficient. There is little regard given for costs or to fiscal responsibility (until they start talking about reducing pensions) and there is no concern for efficiency. One only needs to go to a Post Office this time of the year to see one clerk at the counter with a line around the block. It is not like they don’t have enough people to man the place, they just don’t do so. It is almost as if they do it on purpose to fool the public into believing they need more help (or to punish us)…
The government is responsible for the Post Office. This cannot change as it is a Constitutional requirement. However, serious consideration should be given to making the Postal Service a private entity that can work efficiently and for profit. The government would still have legal and oversight authority but a private company would work to deliver our mail. It could earn a certain profit and all other money would go to the federal coffers. If several companies were allowed to carry out postal functions they could compete for our business and provide better service.
Don’t look for this to happen any time soon (if at all).
Perhaps it is time to go postal on the Postal Service…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: bankrupt, constitution, disaster, government, pensions, post office. inefficient
Pension Spending
Jan 18, 2011 Political
Oh, this should be good. The article linked talks about the $2 trillion (that’s $2,000,000,000,000.00) shortfall in pension funding. That is money that states have promised to give to state employees. Remember now, the states are out of money. They have simply spent it all. So, what are they going to do? What’s the most likely plan?
The very unfortunate consequence is that various safety nets for the most vulnerable citizens will be cut back.
So this is the Democrat Party, saying that they’re going to reduce funding for social issues so they can pay pensions. Oh, did you notice this was New Jersey? The place where huge numbers of public “servants” get 6-digit pensions? Tell me again how the Democrat Party is for the “little guy.” Oh, and try and tell me in a way that’s at least partly serious while paying retired bureaucrats $100+K and shorting medicaid.
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Seizing Our Pensions Will Cause Civil Unrest
Oct 19, 2010 Political
If you want to see all 435 members of the House and the 100 members of the Senate impaled on pike poles as their bodies slide down in agony until their torture ends in death ala Vlad The Impaler or if you want to see these same 535 members of Congress hanging from light posts around DC while birds peck at their lifeless bodies then let them go ahead with their plan to seize private pension plans to pay off the union and public pensions.
Yes, our government is considering confiscating the money we have in our 401(k) plans and the redistributing it in a more fair manner. On top of that they will impose a 5% payroll tax on everyone and that will go into the retirement fund to pay everyone a retirement. This would be on top of the Social Security we already pay for.
In a nutshell, under the GRA system government would seize private 401(k) accounts, setting up an additional 5% mandatory payroll tax to dole out a “fair” pension to everyone using that confiscated money coupled with the mandated contributions. This would, of course, be a sister government ponzi scheme working in tandem with Social Security, the primary purpose being to give big government politicians additional taxpayer funds to raid to pay for their out-of-control spending. Human Events
If these people have a death wish for this country then they should press ahead with their plans to take money that we saved and decide who gets it and how much. Then they should press on and force higher income workers to pay much more into a system that will never pay back what they put in.
This will lead to massive civil unrest and there will be nothing standing between Congress and the people with the pitchforks.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. US Declaration of Independence [emphasis mine]
If this happens and Americans do not end it quickly then we will deserve what we get.
The Congress needs to know we will not waste time with the courts and that we will not negotiate. If they steal OUR money, the money we have worked hard and saved FOR OUR OWN RETIREMENTS, then we need to replace them as our Founders did.
And if that is to harsh for them then they need to reconsider.
Because we are done playing games.
…that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…
Congress will become a domestic enemy if they steal our money.
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: civil unrest, confiscation, Congress, Declaration of Independence, enemy, pensions, revolution, seize, theft