Finnish Mail System Abandons Tuesday Delivery
Reader jones_supa writes: In a world moving to electronic communications, the snail mail traffic has seen a huge drop. Because of this, Posti, the mail delivery organization of Finland will not be delivering letters and magazines on Tuesdays anymore. Tuesday was selected because it generally has the lowest volume of mail. For example, magazines and advertisements are targeted to the end of the week, so that people have more time for shopping dreams in the weekend. Another reason is that Posti recently launched a lawn mowing service which operates on Tuesdays.
The USPS would be willing to make similar reforms, but is prevented from doing so by a congress that wants to cripple it with unreasonable pension obligations that not one single company would have to meet, and all manner of restrictions that prevent it from actually competing with private couriers.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
good grief, they couldn't manage to come up with even "Finnish Tuesday Mail Delivery Finished"?!!! Is that really asking that much?!!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
What's so "unreasonable" about keeping a government monopoly to a higher standard?
Please name one Fortune 500 company that Congress has required to fund 75 years of pension obligations NOW rather than over time?
*crickets*
That's what I thought.
And don't forget that they can no longer raise the prices of stamps....the guys that saddled the Post Office with that giant instant Pension Obligation also made it so they couldn't raise their prices to cover extra cost at the same time. Almost as if they wanted to insure they would fail. I'm sure the UPS / Fedex lobbyists loved it...
Fortune 500 companies almost all use 401(k) programs, not pensions. 401(k) funds are deposited now, not at some distant point in the future.
What if Congress pass a law that requires Fortune 500 companies to pre-fund employee matches for the next 75 years now?
Governments and unions are the last main holdouts for pension systems. Everybody else can understand the economics.
You missed my point. Congress UNDER THE LAW requires the USPS to fund 75 years of pension obligations NOW. It's the only federal agency that is obligated to pre-fund pension obligations. Because the USPS can't meet the pension obligations, their fiscal year ends in the red every year. Remove the draconian pension obligations, the USPS can turn a profit every year.