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USPS To Launch Line of Smart Clothing
SpaceGhost writes "The Washington Post reports that the United States Postal Service has contracted with Wahconah Group, Inc. to produce a line of USPS-branded smart clothing. Per USPS Licensing manager Steven Mills 'This agreement will put the Postal Service on the cutting edge of functional fashion... The main focus will be to produce Rain Heat & Snow apparel and accessories using technology to create 'smart apparel' — also known as wearable electronics.' USPS Spokesman Roy Betts reports that the line will be found in premium department stores and specialty stores starting in 2014. The Washington Post points out that the USPS had done a similar retail line in the 1980s sold exclusively at Post Offices, but the line was discontinued after lobbyists complained of competition with the private sector." I hope it has hidden pockets for lost letters, and a loop for the package smashing mallet.
The package-smashing mallet has been outsourced to India. The USPS union said that it was not in the mail-carrier's contract.
sudo make me a sandwich
That feature is exclusive to UPS-brand clothing. Also available from them are the UPS-band package punting boots.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
To remedy their revenue shortfalls. Duh?
Have they gone postal?
What, like pockets?
I must say, after reading TFA ... I have no idea of what this is or why I'd want to buy it from the USPS.
I'm more baffled by this tidbit ... In 2006, Congress passed a statute requiring the Postal Service to pre-pay for 75 years worth of retiree benefits within 10 years. No other federal agency is forced to make such an investment.
Why only the Postal Service and no other agency? To make sure Fedex profits stayed high?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Who has the perception that the USPS is A) A fashion designer B) Leading edge technology in anything (Just try using their tracking that updates once a day at best), especially clothing C) A logo people want to pay for and wear. I guess if it brings in money. . .
They promise to fit no matter how big your ass gets.
My understanding is, a lot of their financial woes are coming from a 2006 Congress mandate that the USPS start pre-paying into their retirement plan to fund future-future retirement. In short, they're asking them to pay more to handle people that won't retire for years now. And that Congress is dipping into that money for something else.
And from what I've heard, if they weren't asked to be paying extra into said fund they'd actually be making a small profit.
...what with all the sticking to their core competencies and whatnot.
I hope it has hidden pockets for lost letters, and a loop for the package smashing mallet.
UPS doesn't carry their "Ground to Dust" equipment with them, so why should UPS? What happens at the hub, stays at the hub.
I ride a really old honda pacific coast in the dark, the bitter cold, and snowshowers.
if'n they have come up with some good heated gear, I'm intrigued....
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
asking WHAT THE HELL the fed seems to have as a hard on for breaking the USPS into dust?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
you can now go in style!
This sounds like one of those dumb ideas that government services come up with when they're forced to privatize.
In come the corporate consultants, they toss around buzzwords, they brainstorm, they come up with brilliant ideas, and they get paid and get out before anyone can see whether their advice worked.
The real problem is the the USPS is designed as a letter carrier. Not a shipping company.
So electronic communication is reducing the needs for letters (envelope based mail), and online shipment of stuff is being processed by Shipping companies like FedEx and UPS, who are better organized for shipping packages. No so much letters.
They are going to need to move from Mail Men either walking door to door, or in small cars and trucks. To a larger trucking service where they can handle more boxes and less envelopes.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
You know...for that fashion concious govt. official what wants to look his best on the day he goes postal ?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Ehh, Normie it all started back with the Babylonians....
I mean, clothing? Instead of focusing on issues which will actually solve their problems, they want to make clothes?
Does anyone at USPS in a leadership position have a frickin brain?
I can't wait for more random commercial ventures from government agencies. Maybe the FDIC can make an energy drink or the Coast Guard can start a cosmetics line.
When you think of the post office you think of clothes. They missed the boat to be a service like paypay which would have made more sense than this because of the postal money orders. Might as well hit this front so they don't make that mistake again.
Actually funding lavish retirement obligations instead of letting unfunded obligations overwhelm the organization and then dumping it on the government.
That's some seriously evil shit right there. Good thing you pointed it out and farmed a bunch of karma from your well trained statists. Yay.
I have to say, I hope the best for the USPS and it's workers, but the first thing that came to mind is a getting a start-up off the ground isn't cheap. Seems like a clothing line would be even more since there are goods involved meaning clothing stock, building, machines, workers, management, marketing etc... I know you need to spend money to make it, but unless someone is sure this is an idea that is worthwhile and not a pipe dream, it seems risky. How much money for all these things have been dumped into this idea that could have been used to keep the agency afloat for that much longer. Seems like one more piss poor idea after another coming from the USPS.
"(I) have this unfortunate condition that causes me not to believe a single thing any politician says when a mic's on.
Just privatize the USPS or remove the monopoly and let the free market take its course like it should have back in 1844...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Letter_Mail_Company
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
So if I understand correctly the rules are: 1. you have to pay above market rate for salaries/benefits and you are not allowed to fire anybody 2. you have to charge less than a market rate for mail delivery 3. even though the government sets the rules that force you to fail, it is not allowed to bail you out. Oh but don't worry we'll set up some arbitrary rules that give you monopoly on certain types of mail so everything should be fine. Isn't it great how we have geniuses in charge in Washington who work everything out so perfectly for our benefit.
Just privatize the stupid thing. Apart from accident of history here is no reason for the government to be in charge of mail delivery any more than pizza delivery.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
The real problem is the the USPS is designed as a letter carrier. Not a shipping company.
Interesting, considering they do a better job of delivering packages than the private specialty package delivery companies like UPS or Fedex. And by better I mean several things. The USPS loses less packages than any package delivery company-- less lost packages by a huge margin. The USPS destroys less packages than any package delivery company. The USPS is less expensive than any package delivery company. Maybe UPS and Fedex et. al, should redesign their processes for the delivery of letters.... then maybe they can match USPS record for delivering packages exceptionally.
Since they are trying to strengthen their brand awareness, they should have a catchy advertising slogan for this new clothing line.
I'd suggest "Go postal!"
Retirement plans for people who haven't even started working at the Post Office? Who potentially haven't even been born? 75 YEARS of retirement benefits! You're the dumbest fuck yet.
False dichotomy. Prefunding is fine. Prefunding 85% is insane. No organization on the ENTIRE PLANET pre funds pensions to that degree. If they were merely matching the second highest rate on the planet, they'd be making a nice profit.
So the USPS is essentially getting royalties for this, with Wahconah Group making the venture here.
Probably not much.
No, it sounds like the USPS is looking for any avenue it can to raise revenues to survive the GOP's attempt to destroy the agency.
I hope my tax dollars are not actually going to fund this. Taxation without representation to the fullest. Was there even a vote? What the fuck!?!??!?!
So if I understand correctly the rules are: 1. you have to pay above market rate for salaries/benefits and you are not allowed to fire anybody 2. you have to charge less than a market rate for mail delivery 3. even though the government sets the rules that force you to fail, it is not allowed to bail you out. Oh but don't worry we'll set up some arbitrary rules that give you monopoly on certain types of mail so everything should be fine. Isn't it great how we have geniuses in charge in Washington who work everything out so perfectly for our benefit.
Just privatize the stupid thing. Apart from accident of history here is no reason for the government to be in charge of mail delivery any more than pizza delivery.
That's why they introduced the bill in the first place - private industry wants the USPS out of business. It was doing totally fine before the deliberately-crafted-designed-to-fuck-them 2006 bill was passed.
They put rules in place that no private company would ever be expected to adhere to, that were designed to do exactly this - to push it into financial crisis so that people will say "oh look, government post services don't work! the private sector will save the day!"
where the hell are you coming from? my job is order fulfillment and everything you say in your post seems RIDICULOUS to me. if you are speaking from ACTUAL experience then, please, i am curious.
History and *legal* precedent suggest that you want to retain a government involvement in the mail. For some things you need *legal* proof that you mailed something on a certain day, perhaps to a certain address, especially when dealing with government dealings like taxes and property forms and legal paperwork. If anything, the question might be, Why didn't the USPS remain the most efficient transport service rather than allowing private companies to pass them? Who hobbled the USPS to allow "private competition"? (BTW - would you pay extra for air mail if you knew it was carried in the back seat of a fighter plane? Hey, they have to do some training flight time anyway . . . )
It would sure be nice to avoid this.
They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
Just privatize the stupid thing. Apart from accident of history here is no reason for the government to be in charge of mail delivery any more than pizza delivery.
Pizza delivery is limited to profitable areas.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
They're losing money for a variety of reasons. The most important is that they are mandated to exist by congress, and are supposed to be financially autonomous, but are micromanaged by congress. You'd have to think long and hard to come up with a worse group of PHBs. Congress told them to pre-fund in full their retirement fund for the next 75 years. The USPS has basically said, "This requirement is bankrupting us. If you relax it, or let us make our own decisions we'll be fine." People wonder why they can't compete with FedEx, UPS, DSL, etc, and the answer is simply that those companies don't have to listen to Congress dictate details like telling them to pre-fund the entirety of a 20 year-old employee's pension right now. I'm all for fiscal responsibility and responsible funding of pensions, but is ten years of secure pension funding not enough? 20? 30? I mean, 75? How do you even estimate your pension needs 75 years in advance?
On another note, one idea I've heard that was intriguing would allow them to operate something like a bank. Not a financial investment house, but a low-end and low-cost branch bank. Sure, I might not switch all my finances over to it, and most people probably wouldn't either. But I might open an account and seed it with some cash if it were convenient. I could send mail and have it draw on the account without having to buy stamps or wait in line. Just drop it in a box at the post office and enter my account number/pin. It could work really nicely. There's already a branch in every city. And for a lot of working poor that have no bank affiliation, it might be the most convenient place to open an account, reducing the population of unbanked. Basically a public option for retail banking.
Believe it or not, it works like this in most other places, mostly with success. And this is the way it used to work in the US as well, but it was not FDIC insured, and was phased out in the 60s or 70s.
The USPS has been self funding for a long time; no taxes are used. They are also not losing money that was a corrupt law in 2006 to fund their pension for unborn children. (Some employee's are not even born yet but their pension is being setup for them... the excuse is to undermine the USPS while helping prop up the investment fund... will somebody please follow the money trail on this one? any reporters left?)
Seriously, they should have eliminated Monday mail service and kept Saturday.
Well that makes sense. Honestly, good for them if they can fund pensions for their unborn children. The only other concern left is their special privilege and how that relates to loans and things like that. If they are going to be starting clothing lines, their line of credit should be the same as the average business.
All areas are profitable for the right price. Plus mail companies will average the cost out. Last I checked USP and FedEx will deliver packages anywhere in the country, not just in profitable areas.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
No
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45018432/The_Truth_About_The_Post_Office039s_Financial_Mess
Maybe they can get a refund on the Team USPS sponsorship?
Congress needs to reinterpret the meaning of the requirement in the Constitution that provides for the USPS. The intent, I believe, was to simply to provide a channel of communication among the citizens. That in mind, the federal government should shut down the USPS as we know it and just provide net access to all. I read that the FCC is already working on that so shut down the letter operation, with all the brick and mortar, and problem solved.
The real problem is the the USPS is designed as a letter carrier. Not a shipping company.
Interesting, considering they do a better job of delivering packages than the private specialty package delivery companies like UPS or Fedex. And by better I mean several things. The USPS loses less packages than any package delivery company-- less lost packages by a huge margin. The USPS destroys less packages than any package delivery company. The USPS is less expensive than any package delivery company. Maybe UPS and Fedex et. al, should redesign their processes for the delivery of letters.... then maybe they can match USPS record for delivering packages exceptionally.
And yet the USPS is failing financially. UPS and Fedex are not. Go figure. Delivering mail requires FAR less manpower than delivering packages. If our mailman at work had to bring all the same packages that UPS did, he'd have to make a special trip for us most days. We'd fill that truck.
This appears to be purely a licensing deal...USPS licensing their trademark to generate another income source. Lots of private sector companies do this (Cat, Harley). When seen from that perspective, it's not such a dumb idea. The licensee is taking on the risk on whether the line will sell or not. Whether the sales are good or bad, USPS still collects royalty fees according to the terms of the license.
Not true. If there are no buyers at your price point you will not be profitable.
That's not actually true. The USPS has always been at a disadvantage versus private enterprise. They're legally required to send a 1st class envelope anywhere in the country for the same price, regardless of actual cost to provide the service.
This a joke right? The USPS needs to focus on doing their job well. They loose and damage all too many packages. Their postal clerks are all too often poorly trained and give wrong advice. They make excuses for their poor service citing regulations. Then they wonder why people are switching to UPS and FedEx for packages and email for letters. Service.
Yes, I've worked for UPS and FedEx. One year, UPS sent out a letter to all employees congratulating them. They only lost 36,000 packages that year IN THAT STATE. Both companies are NOTORIOUS for delivering goods that are DESTROYED in transit. Wired.com did a test... sent packages via all the package companies. USPS blew away the competition. Packages arrived on time and intact, and for less.
On the bright side if the Republicans succeed in destroying them it's the rural republican voters who will be affected. Those in the cities will have private enterprises delivering their letters without having to subsidize the more expensive rural deliveries.
"but the line was discontinued after lobbyists complained of competition with the private sector"
Yes, we wouldn't want the USPS to interfere with the people who line the pockets of our elected officials.
If they made their delivery business more efficient they wouldn't have to sell stuff that's not relevant to their core business. WTF are they thinking? Why not sell delivery vehicles and dog bite kits? I repeat, WTF?
So you'd be okay with the government spending $100 of your tax money to deliver an official letter to Joe Blow in Bumfuck, Nowhere?
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
No they aren't. No intersection of demand and supply curves is a perfectly feasible situation.
Don't need to privatize it. The people pushing for privatization are the ones screwing up the USPS. Just leave it alone. USPS was self sufficient and self funding. Granted there are some problems with the USPS but these are exacerbated by small government idealogues focusing on tearing down the USPS by passing laws designed to drive it out of business (likely in collusion with for-profit competitors). If someone really does fervently want to cut back on government waste then the post office should be the last agency they need to look at.
If the USPS really is in trouble then it'll fail on it's own. If there really are viable competitors then its failure will not harm the American people. If USPS is broken then Congress doesn't need to hasten it along; if USPS is not broken then it is irresponsible to purposely break it. So the only reason that Congressional morons are stepping in here is either to get more money from corporate lobbyists or to chalk up victory points to help them in the next primary election.
And no other government agency has to follow those rules. And the postal unions are not asking for this prefunding and say that they don't want it. So this mandate clearly has only one purpose which is to force a crisis on the USPS.
Last I checked USP and FedEx will deliver packages anywhere in the country, not just in profitable areas.
For some values of "deliver" and "anywhere"
For deliveries outside my rural town, Fedex just dumps the packages at the local office store or at the post office. UPS usually delivers to the door, in and out of town, but I've lately noticed a certain amount of package-dumping as well--probably because their location databases for this area are screwed up.
Actually they're remarkably efficient. I don't have the link handy, but USPS handles an amazing amount of stuff, and their overall track record is excellent. They have two basic problems, or three depending on how you count. 1) Congress saddled them with a requirement to pre-fund the retirement account for all their workers, which no other company is required to do; 2) mail volumes of all types (and thus, revenues) have been dropping by 10-20% per year; and 3) bulk emailers (catalogs, junk mail - the stuff that really pays the bills) have pulled way back due both to the internet and to the economy. One might also note that in most countries the cost to mail a letter is substantially (often multiple times) more than in the US, and/or is subsidized or run by the government. USPS, like AmTrak, is a bastard concoction created by Congress to look like a business, act like a business, and be required to be profitable like a business, while being saddled with an impossible set of rules. Others than myself have described both as 'designed to fail'.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
Launch a useable tracking system first!
If this is all true, how do explain that only the USPS has to follow these rules and no other agencies need to do so? The USPS does not get funded by the taxpayers and is self sufficient, and yet it's held to a higher standard than agencies that have no income stream? If this is such a great idea, then force the military to follow the same rules as it is by far the most massive drain on tax payer dollars that we have.
You mentioned depositing money in an account with the post office and the first place that comes to mind is Japan, where the Japan Post is the single largest deposit holder in the country, more than all the other banks combined.
Who delivers letters then? This is the reason this was originally set up as a government agency and not kept as a private business, because there's a government interest involved in supporting service to all citizens. Same reason AT&T was given monopoly rights. Yes, some people today can use the internet instead, but this does not cover 100% of all citizens, it probably doesn't even cover half of all citizens. We certainly can not expect everyone to afford FedEx letter rates. There is still a need for an affordable letter delivery service.
Indeed, I used to work security at a loading dock for a high rise, and you'd be surprised how many courier services there are out there that do just that. Mostly small batches of mail on demand moving them between a small number of addresses. They can't legally use the mailboxes, but it's a moot point.
USPS does generally do a much better job with packages than with mail in my experience. But, that's highly dependent upon whose route you're on and how closely the postmaster general is watching.
Net access to all means ALL. The reason AT&T was granted a monopoly was to ensure that it would spend the huge amounts of money necessary to get service to people in the boondocks. Right now the internet is still somewhat of a luxury service, it is in no way even close to being universal in the same way that the post or telephone service is.
Maybe some day the network may be the alternative, but I don't think this will happen for at least two or three decades and probably more.
they've covered rain, snow, and heat but they're missing "gloom of night". Maybe the wearable electronics will have high beams?
These views express my own personal opinions, not those of the other voices in my head
Wired.com did a test...
It was Popular Mechanics that did the test... likely Wired picked up the story. USPS does indeed treat your packages the kindest.
...you really figure the banking lobbyists would let such a thing pass, now?
I couldn't even laugh at the concept. :(
So electronic communication is reducing the needs for letters
I suppose you haven't noticed the huge proliferation of junk mail delivered by the postal service in the past couple decades? When I was growing up, I remember running with excitement after the post office truck went by to see if there was anything in the mailbox. On at least half of the days, nothing came -- if there was something, it was one letter or a bill... except around holidays or birthdays or something.
Nowadays, it's incredibly rare for a day to go by where the mail carrier doesn't dump at least a half dozen random fliers, ads, etc. in my box. And that's even after I have switched to electronic billing, estatements, etc. for most things.
Conservatively, I'd say I receive at least 4-5 times the volume of letterish size mail compared to my parents a few decades ago.
Maybe you're right about what the USPS needs to worry about in 10 or 20 years, but right now they seem to be delivering more letter-sized stuff than probably ever before. So I don't think your argument that this is the current "real problem" is correct -- or, if it is, they need to charge more for bulk mail.
I'm not an expert on constitutional law (or any law), but I don't think it would require much of Congress. Just a bill that says something like, "The USPS can manage itself as a completely independent entity until further notice by Congress". The USPS could then get into retail banking, or not, of their own accord at any point they so choose.
Surely all those people who talk so loud about ineffective government management would be all for a scaling back of congressional control of the Post Office, right? Right? Oh wait, they'd rather micromanage it into oblivion to make a political point. Maybe you're right.
And they do a fantastic job I might add btw. Better service than any bank or post office I've been in while living in the US my entire life.
Yeah, I'm sure the Republican rural voters will be highly upset when they don't get their junk mail anymore.
They expect to market, to geeks, clothing marketing snail-mail. Must be playing to the nostalgia factor.
Implant brains and rudimentary organics into robotic hardware for the ULTIMATE MAILMAN. Years of on-the-street programming including advanced indolence, surliness, slowness and turbidity in a mailman-cyborg that never needs sleep or coffee breaks! YOU-HAVE -27-CENTS -POSTAGE -DUE- ON -THIS- LETTER - YOU - NOW-HAVE- 5-SECONDS-TO-COMPLY.....THOOMTHOOMTHOOMTHOOMTHOOMTHOOMTHOOMTHOOMTHOOMTHOOMTHOOM
www.chihuahuarescue.com- Help to end dog abuse, abandonment and cruelty
It's Fedex and UPS that appear to deliberately maim packages.
They really are desperate for revenue.
They may, possibly, delver to an outlying area but next day or even second day service is nonexistent. Not to say that it won't keep them from still accepting packages and charging you a premium price for two-day service that they don't intend to honor.
Remember back in 2007 when a guy almost got shot at an airport for wearing a tech-art shirt with a only small motherboard attacked? Slashdot reported it here. Or in Nov 2012, a got arrested at an airport for wearing a strange watch.
Oh what fun a whole ensemble of tech-clothing will be.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
If they are so damned efficient then let them continue to be so in the private sector.
Not sure what point you were trying to make by bringing Amtrak into this, talk about disaster.
None of the clothing will function on Sundays, holidays, (and now) Saturdays.
That's an incredibly simpleminded view. UPS and FedEx don't particularly enjoy competing with USPS, but at the same time the existence of USPS sets price floors for many services. If USPS didn't exist, private industry would actually have to compete on price. Further, many of the private couriers have partnered with USPS. They make a shit-load of money on hub-to-hub delivery and they let USPS do the doorstep delivery that normally costs them a lot of money.
Finally, I'd argue that picking the 2006 date is pretty close to cherry picking. 2006 was before the financial crisis and the USPS highwater mark for delivery volumes. Their volumes have been declining every year since then. Moreover, they're doing less high-profit first-class mail and more low-profit junk mail. USPS is not alone in this boat, as it's happening all over the first world: Printing and mailing paper costs money that business don't want to spend and that environmental groups would rather nobody did.
Or their magazine subscriptions and ability to send mail.
Then let nature take it's course and let them go through bankruptcy.
AIUI Private carriers are legally prevented from effectively competing with the USPS on regular letter deliveries. Private carriers can take letters but unless they fall into one of a small set of exceptions (all designed to prevent companies operating under them from competing with the USPS's regular letter delivery service) they have to pay for the USPS service they didn't use.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
There is a very good reason not to privatise postal delivery.
Private enterprise optimises profits.
A publically funded enterprise *should* optimise service.
The difference is very apparent: postal fees should be the national average, twice the cost of a local delivery, but half the cost of the longest range letter - scaled for volume, of course.
Remote communities depend considerably on a reliable and costly postal service.
Shit, I don't know why I'm even writing this.
The national postal service is the *same shit* as a national health system, a national welfare scheme, and national public transport: at the end of the day, the more wealthy *half* of the population has to subsidise the less weathly half of the population...PERIOD. For everything, all the time, regardles of reason, let alone political affiliation, etc...
And the USA does not get this, and I doubt, it ever will.
"Remote communities depend considerably on a reliable and costly postal service."
I meant a "reliable and affordable postal service."
USPS isn't self funding.... Congress has to pass a tax for it to operate. USPS runs off TAXES on every stamp you buy!!! That is why it is unfair to private companies.
(That is the way "old people" view USPS... As a tax and not a paid service)
Adding new business lines outside your core business rarely works. The solution is to get congress to admit they were wrong to force an unprecedented pension funding.
Will this increase the intelligence of US Postal Delivery Slaves giving them the ability to steal MY mail, above the already huge pile that is stolen daily !
Ditto
XD
What the F**K is 'Future-future Retirement' !
Now that is a Ponzi scheme I want to the the pinnacle of success of.
XD
The problem is that what they were failing at was funding health care benefits for retired workers. Thats right, the USPS pension included health care benefits and it was completely unfunded using pay-as-you-go financing.
Its not a problem until a hundred thousand people retire at about the same time.
The only choice on the table was deciding when to fund it.
"His name was James Damore."
They just cut saturday delivery because they were hurting to save money so bad. This is how their spending the money they save? New clothes?
I happen to have a link handy. only has stats up to 2011, but still very enlightening.
http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-facts/welcome.htm#H2
1) Pre-funding the retirement is a lot better than the companies that don't fund it and screw their employees when they go under. It also has an advantage as the USPS is shrinking its employee base (mostly by contracting out jobs and routes to avoid paying outrageous benefits for smei-skilled labor)
2) Overall mail volume is dropping 2-3% per year. Advertising still accounts for over 1/2 of the revenue.
3) Overall revenue is declining about the same rate as the mail volume.
USPS isn't self funding.... Congress has to pass a tax for it to operate. USPS runs off TAXES on every stamp you buy!!! That is why it is unfair to private companies.
(That is the way "old people" view USPS... As a tax and not a paid service)
Bullshit.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/consumerawareness/a/uspsabout.htm
That $96 million in taxes is to compensate them for delivering free mail for the legally blind. Pretty tiny compared to $66-billion in revenues.
Correction: Advertising was about 1/4 of their revenue.
How do you even estimate your pension needs 75 years in advance?
a) Eliminate pensions
Pensions are a relic of the past and don't just suffer from underfunding but also unknowns. Defined contribution should be where all government employees are. As a citizen, it is my opinion that future promises of payment are unrepresented taxation. Given the choice, I wouldn't tax anybody in the future to pay for past obligations. There are exceptions but given that defined contributions are an option, this isn't one of them.
Sounds like the auto-dry jacket in Back To The Future 1. Now, where is my hover board?
Printing postage does not prove anything was ever mailed. Until the post office accepts receipt of the letter/package/whatever you cannot prove anything other than you printed postage. I can print postage all day and never mail anything. I no longer trust dropping things into unattended box since I had bill payments (including mortgage) lost when a mailbox was vandalized years ago.
Your argument is pointless anyway. The original thread was a rebuttal to the assertion that the USPS does a better job than UPS or FedEx. You want to split hairs about avoiding counter service as though it somehow makes it alright. It is demonstrable that the USPS customer service is worse and apathetic. Their "tracking" system is nearly worthless. Their endpoint carriers frequently shirk their responsibilities in order to save time. The lines in their offices at all hours of the day are long and much slower compared to both UPS Stores and Kinko/FedEX. Their "open" hours are much fewer than UPS Stores or Kinko/FedEx. The only bright spot is that they are cheaper. For now...
I could tell easily a dozen more stories about the five post offices I have used over the past 20 years. I could tell a dozen more from complaints I hear from my boss. You want to argue that I don't "have to" go inside the building. BFD. I still have to deal with everything else including lost/damaged mail, hit and run carriers not knocking on the door, misdelivered mail, refusal to answer the phones, incorrect/non-updated tracking, missed deadlines, ad naseum.
The USPS is a SERVICE company and their service sucks. We use it because we have to, not because we want to. No other service company could survive with customers that feel that way.