The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has in recent weeks expressed a keen interest in privatizing the U.S. Postal Service, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing three people with knowledge of the matter. The U.S. Postal Service, which has lost more than $100 billion since 2007, reported a net loss of $9.5 billion for its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, $3 billion more than last year, largely due to a year-over-year increase in non-cash workers’ compensation expense.
QUESTION: Do you think the USPS should be privatized?
Talk about it….
If the price of everything would go up, no. If the prices stay the same, why not. Losing billions of dollars every year doesn’t make any sense.
Yes
Elon , Bezos or Taylor Swift could & would do better.
That’s probably where we are headed … there is too much admin overhead and built-in legacy “gimmes” (maybe their pensions, bonuses, etc. are too costly)….. not just today – but many times recently… going into a post office, during heavy holiday mailing times (which is no surprise to the PO) …. there has been a huge long line and only one window rep! … and when inquiring about replacement reps when 2 recently retired – they’re not backfilling! Unacceptable
With the USPS, it’s a double-edged sword. They are losing money because their customers
are using private carriers, and are using the internet to take care of business, like paying the bills, and writing letters. The more they raise their prices, the more customers they will lose.
Many people don’t know this, but the USPS is protected by the US Constitution. If the USPS were to be taken over by a private company, it would take an act of Congress to make changes in the law, and one argument they can make is that sensitive government mail cannot be entrusted to a private company.
On a personal note, I like it the way it is. I have never been unhappy with their service.
I would guess that the prices would be higher if privatized.
No!
Government agencies move like they’re swimming through mud. The argument against privatization has always been it’s good to have a neutral organization to handle the mail. Of course we know now the government snoops so that is no longer valid.
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Sometimes I think it’s over and the time for the US government to collapse into oblivion. And then break in to separate countries. But then that would probably be a crazy time too.
Absolutely
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Example, space flight, Elon Musk made more advances in a decade than NASA did in 25 years. For profit companies accelerate innovation.
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“Government does not solve problems;
it subsidizes them.”
–President Reagan
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“Government is not the solution to our problem;
government is the problem.”
–President Reagan
We actually haven’t used the USPS in any way in over 2 years and we get no mail that isnt junk mail and we do not have any need to mail anything using USPS.
We actually took our mailbox out and were told we cannot do that that we have to have a mailbox at our address what a crock of crap.
The USPS is the best deal in America!
I can write a letter in California and someone will take it to New York for me, all for 73 cents! How is this not a good deal?
And, for all you people wondering about profits and subsidies, how much profit does the police department make? Or the schools? Or the military? Or the fire department?
USPS is a Service – it’s not supposed to be a profit-making enterprise. It makes the country stronger, having such a mail delivery service.
How much worse could it get? Do Fedex and UPS turn a profit? Break even? I rarely get anything of interest or value in the mail and the cost of my PO box just went up to $24 a month.
Yeah… weird ground here. Worked in Japan a lot and the Mitsui Group owned the post office and the shipyards and the large equipment ind. and the mining, railroad, medical and more so that meant they owned people. I do not know their laws on monopoly but I can only see a problem here with ours. Be careful what we wish for here. Seems funny to me that the USPS cannot figure out how to make a profit like UPS and Fedex… mayby DOGE. can cut the waste here and make this profitable
USPS can’t figure out how to make money is because they have a bunch of Neanderthals working in management there. They obviously do not and will continue to not have a effing clue how to run a business.
Nope, don’t privatize. As for the numbers, congress started the *losing money* ball rolling in 2006 when they passed a law that “… required the USPS to create a $72 billion fund to pay for the cost of its post-retirement health care costs, 75 years into the future. This burden applies to no other federal agency or private corporation.” And “If the costs of this retiree health care mandate were removed from the USPS financial statements, the Post Office would have reported operating profits in each of the last six years.” https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/
No I don’t think so. I think the postal service works very well. Rarely does any mail get lost. I have at times had problems with a local post offices, but that has to do with the delivery person, for awhile they kept delivering neighbors mail at times to my mailbox.
I’m not as suspicious of government institutions as most of you here, however nor do I think everything the government does is right. I think if the postal went private and became for profit, according to what I have read, it could hurt rural communities, because delivering to communities that is sparsely populated would not be profitable.
I generally would be opposed to privatizing the USPS. The problem, as I see it, is it is a government agency, and we know how poorly government manages everything. Let DOGE go in and clean a few things out. I am sure the waste is astronomical (didn’t they just spend $3 billion, with up to $9 billion on EV vehicles?). I am sure the organization is top heavy with over paid positions. Privatizing would be competition to FEDEX and UPS, and I do not see the government behemoth turning itself around to become efficient.
I’m sure they do a better job than the government just like anything else