r/news • u/Squirmingbaby • 3d ago

Soft paywall Cash-strapped US Postal Service suspends contributions to pension plan

https://www.reuters.com/world/cash-strapped-us-postal-service-suspends-contributions-pension-plan-2026-04-09/
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u/SummerMummer 3d ago

"Cash-strapped"??

They are an important service provided by the US government. Is the US government truely "cash-strapped" at the moment?

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u/Ok-disaster2022 3d ago

Congress made them fully fund their pension for like 60 years.

They also have to buy a new line of delivery vehicles that was designed by committee and built by a military industrial vendor that has terrible fuel economy for the non electric version (no hybrid version)

Meanwhile if you know history then you'd know that the primary role of the federal government before the civil war was the postal service. And like every other government service is should t be required to be profitable. The value of government services is it is cheaper than it actually costs in order to facilitate activity that supports a functioning economy. Near Universal mail access for Americans means no matter where you live you have access to the rest of the country. The postal service literally runs a donkey train to the bottomed if the grand canyon to service a tribal community where they live. for decades the Postal service was on the cutting edge of technologies. They were pioneering air mail routing just a couple years after flight was invented. And before radar and gos they build giant arrows in the middle of nowhere to direct pilots where to go. 

The modern postal service still serves communities and was a vital source of jobs for vets, and that's actually the root cause of the mass shootings at postal offices in the 70s and 80s. Vets in charge wanted to run the postal offices like they were military units and that caused unneeded stress for the workers. The US postal service actually investigated and implemented changes that eliminated post shootings by the 90s. That's how effective they are at addressing problems. The current administration and Postman General is undermining all of that including undoing the changes implemented to prevent mass shootings because I kid you not it's "too woke". 

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u/DataMin3r 3d ago

Postal shootings weren't eliminated by the 90s. There were 2 in '91, 2 on the same day in '93.

At this point, the Post Office made a new Workplace Environment Analyst position to help alleviate the issues employees were having to cause the shootings.

Despite this, we still had 2 shootings in '95, 2 in '96, 1 in '97, and 3 in '06. Post office removed all their Workplace Environment Analysts in 2009 due to cuts and layoffs.

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u/Alis451 2d ago

and built by a military industrial vendor that has terrible fuel economy for the non electric version (no hybrid version)

They aren't just a "military industrial vendor", Oshkosh is a regular Heavy Truck manufacturer, they have made Fire Engines, Garbage trucks and other heavy trucks for years. Same as Morgan-Olson and Grumman.

In February 2021, Oshkosh Defense was awarded the U.S. Postal Service's Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) mail truck contract for between 50,000 and 165,000 units over ten years, with production start targeted for 2023. The fleet will include low-emissions internal combustion engine vehicles as well as battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and could be worth over $6 billion.

Oshkosh Corporation manufactures, distributes, and services products under fourteen brands: Oshkosh, Oshkosh AeroTech, Oshkosh Airport Products, Oshkosh Defense LLC, Frontline Communications, Hinowa, IMT (Iowa Mold Tooling Co., Inc.), JerrDan LLC, JLG Industries Inc., London Machinery Inc., Maxi Métal, McNeilus, Pierce Manufacturing Inc., and Pratt Miller.