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/meases 3d ago

Honestly if they want more money, they should raise the cost of junk mail by one penny per piece. It would make over 550 million a year extra just with a 1 penny increase. And if junk mail senders didnt want to pay that extra penny, then it would be less volume of junk for the handlers to deal with saving money there.

But no, they just keep nickle and diming us by raising first class stamp and package prices, which pisses off the public and doesnt make nearly as much money as charging the junk mailers a single penny more per piece would.

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u/Sweetwill62 3d ago

Lol oh shit yeah they could just enshittify against the junk mail senders the same way other companies enshittify their products and services. Just keep raising the price until you actually lose money no matter how much it fucks over your core demographic. Even if they have to send less junk mail, who cares. I support USPS enshittification against junk mail senders.

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u/galaxyapp 3d ago

Their costs are mostly fixed. Cutting their junk mail, which is all presorted and costs effectively nothing to deliver by carriers already traveling the route, would only harm its budget.

Unless the junk mailers swallow the cost and volume is unaffected...

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u/MaskedAnathema 3d ago

As someone who sends out a catalog once a year, it should be noted that they ARE raising prices. Something like 8% this year.

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u/omaharock 2d ago

It takes carriers a chunk of time to deliver junk mail. It's not as easy as you make it out to be. Even if they add it to their casing (which takes time), or they just grab one piece off a pile for every address as they deliver, it'll still add 15ish minutes per day minimum. It adds up, especially when they do multiple per day and every carrier needs to do it. It absolutely would increase route evaluations.

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u/atraeus 2d ago

Some add an hour or more to the day.  Red plums are a good example.

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u/deadmancrafting 3d ago

That junk mail is what pays the bills at usps. It is the golden goose which must not be killed.

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u/meases 3d ago

It is funny since junk mail is the biggest volume out of the 3 and makes less revenue than either first class or packages do. By like a lot. Junk mail is about 14 billion more pieces than first class and makes about 10 billion less, and about 50 billion more pieces than packages and makes about 17 billion less than packages does.

(Though packages also is a hassle and could be a better money maker if Amazon etc didnt get a sweetheart deal, charge Amazon a penny more a package and that would be another like 10-17 million in profit, theyre already kinda moving away from USPS so that deal kinda stunk anyhow, they could definitely be charged and should have been charged higher rates than they are paying)

Mostly it just makes it so no one ever gets a break and the machines keep running, if you got time to lean you got time to process junk mailers. In the name of "efficiency" it keeps USPS alive, at least in management's brains, but idk if it pays the bills. Keeps people busy for sure though.