Postal Service: 7,500 workers, $20,000 buyouts

[MJ DeMarco]

The Postal Service is offering a $20,000 buyout to thousands of veteran workers as part of its bid to eliminate 7,500 administrative jobs, the agency announced Thursday.

More...

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Paul Gallo]

this is crazy... So much for the "safe and secure government jobs"......

 

[GlobalWealth]

this is good news. maybe its the start of shrinking government

 

[jen]

Newman is not going to be happy about this.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Paul Gallo]

@ globalwealth - true, government may be shrinking, however I wonder were these newly unemployed will go with limited skill sets....

 

[CommonCents]

The postal service is required to pre-fund all future benefits. They are claiming they have overpaid by tens of billions of dollars. They kind of get a bum rap for losing money, relative to other public/private benefit plans since others are underfunded, some of which are shockingly so.

I think their latest qtr loss of 300+ million included $2billion in prefunds.

Just think how bad of shape other public/private pension funds would be in if they had to do the same.

 

[GlobalWealth]

I wonder were these newly unemployed will go with limited skill sets....

that is their problem to find out. every worker, self employed or otherwise, should always be improving themselves and their skillsets.

keep in mind tax dollars (as well as a shrinking revenue stream from postage) pay their salaries. the usps is a dinosaur that needs to die, or at a minimum shrink dramatically.

if it weren't illegal for private carriers to deliver 1st class mail, the usps could be fully privatized. then it has to compete like any other business instead of having the federal backstop.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[theBiz]

this is good news. maybe its the start of shrinking government

exactly

I wonder were these newly unemployed will go with limited skill sets....

That's their problem.



hahaha i was going to comment on this but you said it perfectly below.

keep in mind tax dollars (as well as a shrinking revenue stream from postage) pay their salaries. the usps is a dinosaur that needs to die, or at a minimum shrink dramatically.

if it weren't illegal for private carriers to deliver 1st class mail, the usps could be fully privatized. then it has to compete like any other business instead of having the federal backstop.

Im excited to know that so many parents are going to see this article soon, hows that for "job security" mom?

 

[Russ H]

Funny story:

At our very last meet up w/Robert Kiyosaki (the one where he screamed at us and called us all "f***ing losers" for spending any time on the internet), he had us watch him do some video shorts for his website (for the INSIDERS's section).

I remember him evaluating a piece of property that had a long-term lease as a post office, in a middle- sized town. And he characterized this as "a smokin' deal, because the US Postal Service isn't going away, so that's a sure long term lease."

And I remember sitting there, thinking: Email is replacing regular mail at an alarming rate, so this is NOT a smokin' deal. It's like buying a buggy whip factory when some guy named Henry Ford is building cars down the street.

I'd just read (online) a few weeks before our meetup back then that the overall volume of mail sent via US Post Office had gone down enormously over the past few years.

And I wanted to point this out to RK, but since he'd already called us losers for spending time online, it didn't seem like a wise thing to do-- so I kept my mouth shut.

I wonder how many post office locations have closed since that meet up?

-Russ H.

 

[NoMoneyDown]

Isn't there a provision in one of the early documents (Constitution? Amendment? Other?) that basically says the federal government HAS to have a mail system? I know it can probably be scratched with a majority vote, but I think until then there HAS to be such a system.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GlobalWealth]

Isn't there a provision in one of the early documents

nope, there is not.

 

[Russ H]

nope, there is not.

BZZZT!

Thanks for playing, Bobby. We have a lovely version of the home game for you . . . :smxB:

Postal Clause - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-Russ H.

 

[GlobalWealth]

that basically says the federal government HAS to have a mail system?

Russ,
I didn't say the USPS was not created and granted power by the Constitution.

I was disagreeing with the above statement that the Federal Govt HAS to have a postal system.

There is nothing requiring the govt to maintain a postal system to my knowledge.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Paul Gallo]

@ THEBIZ... if the unemployed end up on the dole and further draining tax dollars then it becomes everyone's problem, wouldn't you agree?

 

[GlobalWealth]

@ THEBIZ... if the unemployed end up on the dole and further draining tax dollars then it becomes everyone's problem, wouldn't you agree?

I know this was not directed at me, but I will respond anyway.

As long as their income is already subsidized/provided by tax dollars, it is already everyone's problem.

I mean really, where do you think federal and state worker's salaries come from?

 

[theBiz]

@ THEBIZ... if the unemployed end up on the dole and further draining tax dollars then it becomes everyone's problem, wouldn't you agree?

Yes and no. I would rather pay unemployment than have them make 50 k per year. I would say they produce nothing at their jobs so we pay 50 for them to do nothing or 20k for unemployment lol. On a more serious note though it will be a good thing, just because the car is driving toward the cliff dosent mean we shouldn't hit the brakes, any non stastainingble system will in fact eventually end. Maybe now these people will have to get jobs that actually produce something. I just think too many jobs for cops, postal workers, fireman etc is ridiculous. I believe we need them but we do not need 3 people doing 1 persons job, any system should be treated like a business.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[FDJustin]

Why? The governments already take money from the citizens to fund these systems, so why should these systems- Already funded- Be treated like a business- to produce profit?

Without treating it that way, you stand to have a more altruistic approach to the service provided. I cringe to think of a society where I have to pay a scaled fee for an officers time, or something that would feel like a racketeering scheme for fire "protection".

*Too many people trained and hired for a service such as fire fighting or the police force means there's room to transfer these people to other places that are at a shortage.

 

[theBiz]

Valid points Justin I just feel like making things operating like a business keep them efficient and if they can not remain efficient someone else will come in and figure out how to do it.

 

[Paul Gallo]

Yes and no. I would rather pay unemployment than have them make 50 k per year. I would say they produce nothing at their jobs so we pay 50 for them to do nothing or 20k for unemployment lol. On a more serious note though it will be a good thing, just because the car is driving toward the cliff dosent mean we shouldn't hit the brakes, any non stastainingble system will in fact eventually end. Maybe now these people will have to get jobs that actually produce something. I just think too many jobs for cops, postal workers, fireman etc is ridiculous. I believe we need them but we do not need 3 people doing 1 persons job, any system should be treated like a business.

good point...
similar to the idea of outsourcing.... outsource your less skilled work, retrain the workers for higher skilled jobs and you can grow a company or an entire economy. Unfortunately with the political landscape as it is, i don't see any good changes ( job retraining tools, job placement assistance ) occurring. I do see more entitlements....

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.