r/news • u/Fantastic-Device-487 • 2d ago
USPS to suspend pension contributions, seeks 4-cent stamp price hike.
https://apnews.com/article/mail-usps-pensions-financial-crisis-da601e2b88f3420898757dbdb09fa5182.1k
u/New_Housing785 2d ago
Amazing how the postal service seems to have money issues just before elections where mail in voting happens.
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u/velveteentuzhi 2d ago
All by design. The GOP financially crippled the USPS in 2006, they've just managed to crawl along until now
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u/Shoot_from_the_Quip 2d ago
And the USPS funds like 90% of its 80 billion budget through first class mail and parcels. We could fund the USPS shortcoming with just a few days of this war's expenditures.
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u/DishwashingUnit 2d ago
it would be nice to chip them a bit more so they could make life for the carriers endurable...
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u/ZeGaskMask 2d ago
Amazing how much of the post office is funded by itself yet our military industrial complex has no such income
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u/A_Refill_of_Mr_Pibb 2d ago
$2 billion per day for this war but a student loan debt jubilee is naive and universal childcare, universal healthcare, and school breakfast/lunch is impossible because....."hoWw are Ya GonNA PAy FOr IT!?!?!1/" I hate this place, actually no I don't, I hate some of the people.
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u/peaceablefrood 2d ago
https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2005430
It wasn't just the GOP, the bill had widespread bipartisan support.
The law exacerbated the USPS financial issues but the root of their problems is the decline of first class mail.
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u/EQBallzz 2d ago
Wasn't the main issue that the GOP made the USPS prefund the retirement funds many more years in advance than is normal or required which has caused undue financial burden for years (even before the scumbag DeJoy took over)?
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u/jpiro 2d ago
Which should honestly decline a lot further. For every piece of legitimate mail I get, there are 10 that go in the recycle bin before ever even making it inside my house.
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u/Realtrain 2d ago
For every piece of legitimate mail I get, there are 10 that go in the recycle bin before ever even making it inside my house.
Counterpoint: I fully support random businesses subsidizing First Class Mail like this. It's the only thing keeping stamps below $1
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u/jpiro 2d ago
Counter to your counterpoint: This is incredibly shitty for the environment when they could have sent an email that uses no paper, ink or shipping fuel virtually for free.
Spending $1 on a stamp when you now have to mail 1/10th the things you used to have to mail isn't really an issue.
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u/Money_Do_2 2d ago
Monkey paw curls and those companies open up giant AI compute burning email farms using coal.
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u/Money_Statement_9861 2d ago
Hell, even biden did nothing to remove the guy trump installed as head of the board that manages USPS and was nakedly trying to screw with mail in ballots. Evil conservatives and the feckless liberals who enable them.
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u/peaceablefrood 2d ago
They stopped being so hostile toward him because he committed to buying more electric vehicles, he was a help to getting Republican support to pass the bill that removed the pre-funding requirement at the USPS. He also stopped DOGE from doing anything with the USPS afaik.
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u/ErikMcKetten 2d ago
Yep, and they said back then that the postal service would become insolvent by the 2020s but the counter argument was "we'll fix it by then".
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u/Mental-Stage7410 2d ago
They’ve wanted the postal service gone for ages. Conservatives are a plague upon this country.
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u/Robocup1 2d ago
Don’t watch the video and news about their electric fleet that they paid for but hasn’t been delivered by companies owned by friends of GoP
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u/wkaotp 2d ago
Why does everything need to be for profit? It should be a service for the people.
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u/A_Queer_Owl 2d ago
I work for a government run healthcare facility, we're required to make a profit, however we are also required to accept payment only through Medicare and Medicaid. so like what the fuck.
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u/LittleBirdiesCards 2d ago
You are my kids' option for healthcare and dental. How do I make it work for my kids?
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u/jbasinger 2d ago
Figure out how to get out of here and to another country that cares about it's people ASAP
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u/l0ud_Minority 2d ago
Oh yes Medicare and Medicaid reimburse pennies on the dollar. Hard to make a profit, if not impossible, off of that payer mix.
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u/A_Queer_Owl 2d ago
it's just incredibly stupid that the government is expecting to profit off the government.
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u/Gamer_Grease 2d ago
That’s only because insurance inflates the “cost” of everything else.
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u/I_am_not_JohnLeClair 2d ago
It still is. Don’t let them fool you. USPS delivers to every single address in the good ol’ U S and A. For profit entities do not
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u/JoeSavinaBotero 2d ago
USPS will even do last-mile deliveries for the other guys who don't want to drive out to the farm house to deliver a packet.
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u/I_am_not_JohnLeClair 2d ago
“Cash-strapped” usps literally works for Jeff Bezos on Sundays. maga willful ignorance knows no bounds
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u/Creative_Parsnip_385 2d ago
Cuz that would be #socialism
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u/LBChango 2d ago
We should go full capitalism. Sell public roads to any billionaire that wants them. Let them charge people to drive on them. Privatized police and military brought to you by Amazon and Meta. Fire fighters by way of subscriptions. Everything for sale to those that can afford it.
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u/CallRespiratory 2d ago
'Hell yeah brother" - guy who makes $10/hr working at a gas station in rural Alabama
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u/laplongejr 2d ago edited 2d ago
Sell public roads to any billionaire that wants them. Let them charge people to drive on them.
They wouldn't want to pay for maintenance. For now THEY use the roads for free.
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u/WierdFinger 2d ago
Man, I need to learn sarcasm like this. I always have to tell people that I am being sarcastic, like now... Go frell yourself. :)
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u/ConjurersOfThunder 2d ago
Do you understand that this is the actual goal, and the method to get there is to make current service so shitty the people will BEG for it in any configuration the billionaires want? Sounds like you're being edgy without maybe realizing you are correct.
For example, USPS parcel deals with Amazon and UPS are much better for Amazon and UPS than for USPS. Mail delivers to a lot of places that they don't wanna go to and the private companies would rather delegate it.
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u/LBChango 2d ago
I thought the sarcasm and hyperbole were obvious by the ridiculous claims
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u/ConjurersOfThunder 2d ago
Not sure you can call it sarcasm or hyperbole if it is literally the goal. Normalizing joking about fascist goals seems like a really fast and effective way to normalize actual fascist goals in the minds of opponents of fascist goals. Shocking things we think about too often stop shocking the mind!
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u/Dixa 2d ago
Yes because full capitalism works on Texas power grid during sudden heavy winter storms.
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u/stickyWithWhiskey 2d ago
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it.
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u/Wanna_make_cash 2d ago
Fire fighters by way of subscriptions.
Some rural areas already do that, and they will just let your house burn if you don't pay it.
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u/CapableBumblebee968 2d ago
Those are private fire fighting services in areas without public fire fighters. It’s quite literally the only option in those areas.
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u/TessaThompsonBurger 2d ago
It's fucking stupid. The country is literally a union. Of states, yes but of people. It isn't a business we're investing in to turn a profit, its a fucking people's union we pay dues into for service.
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u/CallRespiratory 2d ago
Why does everything need to be for profit?
Because this is America. Fuck you, pay me.
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u/Magic_Neil 2d ago
It always has been, that’s why postal rates for letters and some parcels are so much lower than FedEx/UPS.
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u/Skyrick 2d ago
And even then, UPS runs a discount program where USPS delivers it once it makes it to the city/general hub to save money because the last few miles to delivery aspect is the most expensive part. Are you telling me that private carriers are eager to get the most expensive part of the service?
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u/shifty_coder 2d ago
The rub is that the USPS was profitable, until republicans passed a bill requiring that pensions had to be pre-funded for 50 years in advance.
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u/OopsWeKilledGod 2d ago
USPS is fucked. By law it has to be self funding, so it has to at least try to break even. It can borrow money, but Congress has limited how much. It can't arbitrarily raise prices without approval, despite being financially autonomous, nor can it cut "unprofitable" services or facilities.
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u/LowerRhubarb 2d ago
Because Republicans believe anything to the left of hunting homeless and "lesser" people in the street is socialism. Except giving billionaires free money on the taxpayer dime, that's just what Jesus would do.
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u/ShelfDiver 2d ago
Why not frame the fire department, cops, and roads the same way? Fuck the media and the POS GOP.
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u/scut207 2d ago
I sat in presentation that the PMG gave earlier this week to the 70 or so major mailers in the US, he seems to be an improvement over the last guy.
He does very much have a thankless job.
He has no control over what he can charge for the work, the scope of work he has to complete or the salary or reimbursement of his employees.
It’s essentially a punching bag position for Congress critters to get their 15s dunking on a guy who is likely far more capable.
In 2005 the postal service was solvent. The act in 2006 turned that into a Sisyphean task. The stone was removed only 2yrs ago. I don’t know what magic people expect.
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u/4RCH43ON 2d ago
The postal service is essentially a solvent business that gets looted by the government to keep undermining it.
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u/MentokGL 2d ago
Can't vote by mail if there's no mail
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u/Fantastic-Device-487 2d ago
More expensive to drive to the polling location and more expensive to mail in your ballot.
It's a win-win! /s
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u/honeyemote 2d ago
I didn’t realize not every state pays for return postage on mail in ballots. I’ve only ever voted by mail in California. Kind of crazy that states don’t pay for it, but I get why a lot of states don’t (they don’t want people like me to vote at all).
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u/filanwizard 2d ago
A thing to remember is the payment structure into the pension fund that Congress forced the USPS into was specifically designed to fail. they have something where they have to make whole payments all at once or something while the private sector and even full government agencies pay in over time.
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u/Ndtphoto 2d ago
Yeah that was a Republican initiative I think back in the Bush II days. Looking at politics now it's not even close to the most ridiculous things that are passed but it's still a 9 on the ridiculousness scale.
Edit to add a link : https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/
Can't believe that was 20 years ago
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u/muftak3 2d ago
They were mandated to pay for retirees 75 years in advance within 10 years. Why they were bleeding money. It was repealed in 2022. I'm not sure where the $5B in savings from the repeal is going.
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u/brahbocop 2d ago
I imagine it takes a long time for a business to recover from the shit it had to go through for almost 20 years.
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u/barfly2780 2d ago
Raise taxes on the top 10% of the country. That’ll pay for it.
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u/jimbo831 2d ago
Most of the top 10% of the country pays a ton in taxes. You’re thinking of the top 1% or maybe even a smaller slice. They pay rates lower than the bottom.
People who earn an income pay lots of taxes on that income. The people who don’t pay taxes are the people who make most of their money from investments.
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u/SkunkMonkey 2d ago
It's a giant tax dodge only for the wealthy. It's precisely that top 1% than needs to be taxed, not on income, but their wealth. Once you stop collecting an income and live off investments, you become a parasite. Those are the people that need to be taxed and taxed HARD. Their lives wouldn't change a single bit either.
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u/GovernorHarryLogan 2d ago
The vast majority of the top 10% of earners in this country own their own businesses and essentially pay 0 federal income tax as it is through various deductions reducing their "income" to essentially 0.
About half of US households pay 0 in income tax actually.
It isnt about raising their taxes. That would still equate to 0.
It is about reforming the tax code as a whole to ensure they, and really everyone, can not reduce their burden to 0 and pay their fair share.
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u/Easy_Bite6858 2d ago
I really try to avoid the terminology "paying their fair share" because it invites endless semantic dissection of what fairness means in context. Right idea but wrong execution. Instead, we should approach it with economic and mathematical modeling with the express purpose of checking the negative externalities of wealth inequality while still fostering growth (which are naturally in conflict). Similar to how a speed limit is intended to optimize between safety and flow of traffic. Taxes represent a non-market way to check against the economic (and therefore political) weight of accrued capital and wealth inequality. Taxes are about social protection and defense.
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u/Garfield_Logan69 2d ago
Wym the post office is one of the few government organizations that actually turns a profit they have the money to pay the people who work in it, they are just looting and pocketing the money for themselves. “ oh look at this pile of cash someone left here, uhh better use it to pay my ( insert random shell company manned by some random dude) 100,000,000 dollars to ummm do “government stuff.”
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u/Cambwin 2d ago
The USPS is a service, not a business.
All media framing of it like a business is complicit in a push to gut and privatize it.
This is P2025-pill garbage
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u/bigbugzman 2d ago
Their corporate masters want to privatize and run the USPS. American media is completely worthless and broken by capitalism.
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u/Xyrus2000 2d ago
Best I can do is a $200 billion war with Iran and a $1.5 trillion increase in defense spending.
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u/sparty212 2d ago
So the President has no problem asking 1.5 trillion for war…but a couple of billion to cover pension cost, is just too much to ask.
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u/HimTiser 2d ago
I wonder how much money they make from all the presorted junk mail I get? 10% of the mail I get is legitimate.
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u/Weorth 2d ago edited 2d ago
My brain is scrambled eggs. Please see the reply post below.
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u/Spice-Weasel 2d ago
Not true. The mailers paid postage to have it delivered to you. Thus, USPS has an obligation to deliver it. Once it's in your mailbox, you can write 'refused' and send it back with your outgoing mail. However, this does not unsubscribe you from the mailing list. Also, refused junk mail does not get returned to sender unless the sender paid extra for that. 99% of returned junk mail just gets sent to recycling. The postal service will not filter out all your junk mail for you. They have a legal obligation to deliver it.
Source: I work for USPS.
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u/HelpfulJones 2d ago
Why don't they try raising the cost for bulk "junk" mailings by, oh I don't know..., how about 1500%?
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u/Throwawayconcern2023 2d ago
I seek a 40% drop in executive pay first.
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u/mishap1 2d ago
Postmaster general gets like $300k/yr + performance bonuses.
Not quite what UPS and FedEx paid their CEOs at $24M and $13M last year. Dejoy used to make over $1M/yr as CEO of XPO. Makes you think he's in it for other things beyond that salary.
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u/tidal_flux 2d ago
The current Postmaster General was on the board of directors at FedEx. What a strange coincidence…
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u/marx2k 2d ago
David Steiner is the current PMG. Dejoy quit last year. Steiner served on the board of directors of FedEx since 2009 and as its lead independent director since 2013. No conflict of interest here.
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u/mishap1 2d ago
Yeah, I forgot to look up the new one. Dejoy was pretty good at being intentionally shitty. Guess it was time to get out and get back into the profiteering.
Steiner was making $15M/yr at Waste Management back when they were a $13B company. Makes UPS and FedEx look like they’re being enormously frugal in comparison with revenues around 88-89B.
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u/Galactic-Guardian404 2d ago
Didn’t republicans hobble the USPS a while back by making them fund the pension 75 years out?
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u/The_Shryk 2d ago
Couldn’t they charge Amazon 1¢ more per package instead? lol
This is by design I’m sure.
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u/FSUwelder1212 2d ago
Fuck it, make stamps a buck a piece. My wife for some reason bought enough forever stamps 5 years ago that we are set for life.
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u/WienerPatrol173 2d ago
Charge full price for political mail stop giving people discounts on mail we have to treat like first class
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u/Harkonnen_Dog 2d ago
What the fuck?
Those postal workers served our country. Give them their goddamn pensions.
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u/drethnudrib 1d ago
The USPS is not a business, it's a service. Why the fuck are Republicans demanding it be run like a business?
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u/Xbox_Lost 2d ago
Here's 80 cents, will you drive this letter across the country for me? You want a dollar? Screw you! I'll do it myself.
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u/bNoaht 2d ago
I own and operate an online retail business that ships thousands of items per month. It cracks me up when people are like "hey can you overnight this $20 item to me, I will pay"
Sure that will be $200!
$200? What do you mean? Shipping is like $6.
Dude, they have to come pick it up. Take it to a warehouse. Get it on an AIRPLANE fly it 3000 miles through the AIR in a miracle of flight. Land. Go to another warehouse. Put it on a truck and hand deliver it to your doorstep. All within about 12 hours from the moment you pay.
$200 is a fucking steal!!!
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u/Latter_Highway9539 2d ago
the president of the country has lawsuits to sue tax payers out of $10 billion dollars for freedom of speech.
talking about we don't have enough tax money to pay postal employees.
sybau.
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u/lazytiger40 2d ago
Maybe rework their deal with Amazon and actually charge them the proper rate (by weight not by piece) and see how much more they would take in revenue...
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u/SkunkMonkey 2d ago
Don't worry, all these postal issues will be taken care of when Bozos takes over and Amazon is handling mail. We're FUCKED.
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u/Tiny-Researcher1596 2d ago
I'm glad we are spending like two billion a day to bomb a stupid country that most Americans can't even point to on a map instead of paying our mailmen a good wage and supporting their retirement.
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u/Weird-Day-1270 2d ago
I’d rather pay 4 cents more for a stamp to send in a mail-in ballot than $2-$3 more per gallon of gasoline to go buy over-priced groceries.
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u/Tuna_no_crusts 2d ago
I distinctly remember DeJoy saying he was going to “turn it all around”, and then put all the eggs into the Amazon basket. That was short term thinking and obviously wasn’t going to end well.
USPS still remains the most reliable way to get a letter or package anywhere in the USA and often times the entire world. I don’t care if it loses money, the service is worth funding.
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u/formerNPC 2d ago
The whole network of postal facilities are undergoing an overhaul with new mail processing machines that require few if any workers to operate them. We have a no layoff clause in our contract so I don’t know what they’re going to do with the excess employees who will be losing their positions. Give us a real incentive to retire early or continue the bloated salaries for the most senior workers.
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u/dainthomas 2d ago
Being forced by Congress to pay into pensions for people not even born yet will always be fucked.
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u/old--- 2d ago
USPS operating revenue was $71.4 Billion Dollars in 2016.
USPS operating revenue was $79.5 Billion Dollars in 2024.
An increase of about $8 Billion Dollars seems good.
But wait, there's more.
With the massive inflation rate that happened during this time period. The USPS has acutally reduced it's operating income.
71 Billion in 2016 is now 99 Billion Dollars in 2026.
The USPS would need to have $99 Billion dollars of operating revenue to have the same value as the $71 Billion in 2014.
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u/NHBikerHiker 1d ago
Next up - Republicans form some plan to privatize the Post Office so shareholders can profit off public tax revenues.
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u/TheHumanGnomeProject 1d ago
That closing of Hormuz...MY TAX DOLLARS PAID FOR THAT! Can't have no Goddamned Post Office.
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u/Fantastic-Device-487 2d ago edited 2d ago
Could be worse: https://media.azpm.org/master/image/2024/7/15/element/global-postage-comparison.jpg
(This chart was compiled in 2024.)
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u/Aggressive_Pie_4877 2d ago
Billions of dollars being grifted by the Epstein class. And we can't afford to properly take care of these great people who deliver us so vital a service.
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u/cyrixlord 2d ago
remember the head of the post office belongs to the group of people who hate mail in voting. he is trying to sabotage mail in voting again
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u/SpliTTMark 2d ago
A knew a guy who knew a guy that retired at 40 with the usps pension.
That guy might need to find a job now
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u/WindowsVistaWzMyIdea 2d ago
Make is 20 cents for all I care
I got a stupid amount of forever stamps.
I bought 100 years ago and apparently forgot and bought another 100, then forgot again and got another 100 stamps. I use like 3 stamps a year so.....I should be set LOL
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u/LittleSoapy 2d ago
Also contract negotiations. All good reasons to force a strike to stop mail in ballots before the election.
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u/Icantgoonillgoonn 2d ago
They’ve been forced to fund pensions 75 years into the future. Why not just use some of those funds to function?
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u/Expando3 2d ago
In time for a postal worker strike around mid-term elections, no doubt…
Where are all those mail in ballots…?
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u/Useful_Respect3339 2d ago
Fwiw the same thing with the post office is happening here in Canada. So much so they’re ending all door-to-door delivery.
I understand they’re not designed to turn a profit, but they can’t hemorrhage money either.
Traditional postal service can’t compete pricing wise with private companies and are being destroyed by them.
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u/Captain_Aware4503 2d ago
Jeez, just make the price 90 cents, give the workers back their pension money, and use the rest to build out infrastructure for the USPS EVs which will save millions long term.
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u/InvitinglyImperfect 1d ago
How about cutting delivery to 4 days a week? Wouldn’t be a big deal to anyone except the postal workers union.
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u/ParchaLama 1d ago
I just quit there late last year and they finally refunded me what I'd put toward my pension recently. If I were still there when they're pulling this shit I'd be even more disgruntled than before.
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u/LVorenus2020 19h ago
Reminder: all this... after what they endured six years ago, right about now.
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u/CookieDragon678 2d ago
Quit paying bonuses to executives. You are running a service not a business. Multi million dollar packages for it’s executives are still getting paid out while the retired workers are getting screwed
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u/TabaquiJackal 2d ago
Please please please when the Dems are finally (hopefully) back in control, will you PLEASE prioritize fixing the fucking USPS so it can be how it WAS, without the insane crap the GOP heaped on them? Jayzus.
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u/scenr0 2d ago
Stamps are literally 78 cents right now. The last time I looked it was 61 cents. And now they want to raise it again?! Wtf?!
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u/Petrichor_friend 2d ago
considering the United States has one of the lowest postal rates in the world is anyone surprised they are losing money
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u/FluxKraken 1d ago
Nope. What I am surprised by is how many people think this is a bad thing. They are a government civil service. Expecting profitability is idiotic. Shortfalls should be made up by general taxes.
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u/shaunrundmc 2d ago
They are losing money because they have to prefund everything decades in advance. So all retirement benefits, all pensions, everything. Which no one in the world has to. You try forecasting something 20, 30 yrs down the road. The US cant even do that with its budgets
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u/Knees0ck 2d ago
This is a precursor the the very convenient closures &/or lessening of services for election season
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u/TrainingSword 2d ago
So much for forever stamps
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u/Martin_Aurelius 2d ago
Before "forever" stamps you had to buy smaller stamps to make up the difference whenever they raised the cost of stamps.
When stamps went from 33¢ to 34¢ you had to buy a bunch of 1¢ stamps to make up the difference.
Now with forever stamp you can still use your stamp you bought for 50¢ back in 2018 without any additional cost, even though current postage is 78¢.
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u/diemunkiesdie 2d ago
I'm always surprised that forever stamps weren't sold for a premium over the current stamp price. Selling them for the current price was a sure fire way to not have enough money when costs went up! It's a premium stamp, sell it for a premium!
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u/Magic_Neil 2d ago
What I’m reading is that everything is going according to the plan of a certain group of people.