Comment of the Day: The Case for Letting the Postal Service Die

22.21K

Richard Lawson

09/07/11 06:00PM

Filed to: We read you

Today we learned that the USPS, you know where the mail comes from, will soon be broke. Yikes! Should we help it? Save it? Rescue it? No, says one commenter.

From Nesbiteme:

Look, if we bailout the Post Office where will the bailouts stop? Next thing you know we'll be bailing out financial firms, auto companies, reckless insurance companies, based in the United States, that write billions of dollars of contracts, through London subsidiaries using their AAA ratings, that they could never to pay out on. We have to draw the line, in the sand, somewhere and we might as well start with that Post Office. What developed country still has a postal system anyway?

[Image via Shutterstock]

The following replies are approved. To see additional replies that are pending approval, click Show Pending. Warning: These may contain graphic material.

Bitches 09/07/11 06:14PM

what I am suppose to do with all my Forever stamps?

MiltonBradley 09/07/11 06:21PM

Who knew "forever" would end so soon?

Nilla Waffler 09/07/11 06:21PM

One hour dramedy idea: you get hired as the one remaining postal service employee whose job it is to deliver every last piece of forever stamp mail. Along the way you learn a little something about life, love, and what makes us who we are.

Defender90CA 09/07/11 07:37PM

Mehhhh. I've been suspicious ever since The NeverEnding Story.

spaceystacey 09/07/11 07:13PM

I'm disturbed by the stock photo model. How can someone so hairy in the face be so hairless on the arms? There's some there, so it's not waxing. I want to pluck his uni-brow (no that's not a euphemism.)

On topic, I would miss the postal service. I enjoy checking the mail for whatever free samples I might get or catalogs. I have a few magazine subscriptions that I would miss getting in the mail. Online subscriptions aren't the same, and aren't offered very often. I don't want to have to pay UPS or FedEx whatever high prices they ask to send a letter when the USPS is willing to do it for $.44 and it'll get there in less than a week.

mightyHee! wants her two dollars! 09/07/11 07:20PM

I love how much thought you put into the model's body hair. It made me giggle and heart you at the same time.

ExBomb 09/07/11 07:34PM

I think you want to have sex with him.

spaceystacey 09/07/11 07:49PM

Well, I'm normally a sucker for the dark hair light eyes combo, but the uni-brow is throwing me off.

spaceystacey 09/07/11 07:53PM

Ha, thanks! The alternative was doing statistics homework and oddly enough that's not as enthralling as this guy's body hair.

Hearted back!

Beerguyrob 09/07/11 06:08PM

Great - now we have to fear angry stamp collectors too.

Philaterrorists? Their secret will be paying the proper amount of postage.

dramatical.type.llama 09/07/11 06:16PM

Philaterrorists? I find this more amusing than I probably should. I will be borrowing this word from you so that may annoy my fellow Philadelphians with it — especially the sports fans.

gulag 09/07/11 06:17PM

They'd crash an upside-down plane into the Postal Headquarters.

Pickled 09/07/11 06:17PM

But they'll do it all in one cent and one-half cent stamps.

phlox 09/07/11 06:31PM

Wow. I was a nerdy stamp-collecting kid and I salute your reference.

I may be the only one.

ETA: The more you know...

Monstersgizmo 09/07/11 07:44PM

The USPS mandate is to provide universal service at uniform rates. It is pretty hard to make money that way, when competitors can cherry pick the places they serve and the prices they charge. Not everything should have to make a profit to survive.

Posthaus 09/07/11 08:37PM

And then, Congress ties their hands and slashes their Achilles tendon.

DesignerRants 09/07/11 08:41PM

Well, if it doesn't make a profit, then that's The Market saying it's bad for Society, right? Take FEMA, for example. I'm sure that Federal Agency is just fucking ROLLING IN IT! I mean, they rent out trailers for flood victims, right? I heard Slumlording is the Money Makin'est rental business.

Huh? They don't charge for people who have just been through a natural disaster where they lost their home, hope, and dreams to live in their trailers? They just give money to a bunch of states ever year when their Governors call and ask for Disaster Relief? That's the time to really BEND 'EM OVER! While they're down! What kinda commie pinko tit-babies are we suckling in this horrible nanny state? Give the money to Goldman Sachs! At least THEY know how to turn a profit!

Only Slightly Bent 09/07/11 09:26PM

That is exactly what I want to scream at every politician who suggests we should privatize the USPS or dismantle it and have the private sector take over. Supporting either of those options shows that you fundamentally don't understand what the Post Office exists to do.

Hoondog 09/07/11 11:32PM

But that's precisely why it was semi-divorced from the federal government. So we souldn't have to pay for it, and it could become a self funding institution. The problem is, the federal goverrnment still has a large say in how much they can charge. Everything from the % it can raise it's prices, to how close they can come to making a profit (which is not allowed).