The United States Postal Service is a quasi-government monopoly in business to make a profit. It has no competition to deliver first class mail, yet it lost nearly $3 billion in 2008. It now seeks to cut back service one day a week & raise price of stamps - again.
Welcome to the definition of 'nationalized'.
Yet, the Postmaster got $800,000 in pay & perks in 2008. The Deputy Postmaster got $600,026 in total compensation in 2008; Chief of Human Resources received $482,820; and two other postal executives got over a quarter-million dollars each, according to Postal Service records.
But have no fear citizens; congress says it will investigate, and the Post Master says he will freeze executive compensation.
"In his congressional testimony, Mr. Potter said the Postal Service's financial outlook remains so dire that officials may have to eliminate a day of mail because of declining mail volume. He also said there are plans to reduce staffing at postal headquarters by 15 percent and cut travel budgets, in addition to the salary freeze. Last week, the Postal Service announced it would raise the price of first-class mail stamps to 44 cents, up 2 cents, effective in May.
Mr. Potter also said the losses occurred even as officials cut costs by more than $2 billion, reduced work hours by 50 million compared with the previous year and reached record levels for on-time delivery. He said the problems were caused, in part, by a weakening economy, billions of dollars in required payments to prefund retiree health care benefits and more people using electronic mail to communicate."
In contrast, FedEx & UPS are thriving and can track a shipment anywhere in the world with a mouse click.
Go figure.
TY S&L
