And look at what you will pay USP or FedEx for a delivery on Saturday, that sacred day to the "post office" crowd.

UPS and FedEx also don't guarantee delivery to every small town in the US, including Nebraska or Kansas (the great "nowhere") or the mountaneous towns in every state or the bottom of the Grand Canyon or fly 55 gallon drums of gasoline and other fuels into isolated Alaskan villages.

There are about 25,000 post offices and only 6,000 do enough business to pay their bills. It was never designed to be a "profit-making" business and never has. If you want mail without having to drive to the closest large city, you better support the post office and tell Congress to cut their own staffs to balance the post office budget.

It may not be an issue in Little Rock or Fayetteville, but in Mount Vernon, or Guy, or Republican, or Damascus or any of the small towns that make the "real America" that the Rethuglicans wheel out when they want to downplay responsible ideas, the Post Office and the school are the town's identity. If they want to cut out a local post office, then let the Congresspersons go to the towns and tell them rather than expect the post office to take the blame for Congress not being able to do it job which is to have tax rates that support the nation's needs.

And those Hawks in the last "debate" who want to go to war with Iran, put the taxes to support your war in the bill to go to war. No more Bush lites!

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Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the Post Office's woes have to do with the how they fund health care benefits for their employees and retirees?
I mean, sure they aren't selling stamps and delivering as many packages as they used to but I think that's only PART of the problem.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45018432/The_Truth_…

http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10…

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“[Post office closings] may not be an issue in Little Rock . . .”

But they are, cbb. The now-closed station on Pleasant Ridge Rd. was very convenient for thousands of northwestern LR residents and businesses, too. Why it closed and the station on Huron survived is a mystery.

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No mystery, Durango. The one on Huron was so incredibly backed up (3 windows with one always closed, though usually occupied) and service incredibly slow, that it had to make money. Sometimes even the parking lot was backed up.

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SocialistArkie, the post office was required by a REthuglican bill (sound familar?) during the Bush II years to pre-pay their retirement costs and medical costs for 75 years. No government agency, nor Congress, requires money be set aside for 3/4 of a century's anticipated debts. No corporation is forced to do this and, in fact, a lot of companies have stolen (i.e., borrowed) from their pension plans and they are terribly underfunded. The Republican world REQUIRES a PRIVITIZED postal service with no deliveries on Saturday (you can bet on that), increased rates, and take away deliveries on other days as needed to make a profit while payiong minimum wage with no benefits.

Just like those "private contractors" in Iraq and Afganistan where they took a $38,000 US-trained soldier and made him into a $100,000+ contractor which further hurt the Defense budget under the guise of "saving money". It did what it was supposed to do-made a lot of money for Cheney's Halliburton.

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Yes, couldn't be better points out a real frog choker requirement put upon our postal system and that should be dealt with as soon as possible.

But, the main problem is that the Internet was and is a world changing event. Our postal system is on par with buggy whip factories in 1900. A better mousetrap has been built, it's called email. And I love it!

Common sense will be needed to revamp the US postal system. Nothing on earth is more inefficient than sending out millions of people to drive past every mailbox in America 6 days per week. I'm sorry that 99% of the crap that shows up in my mailbox was ever sorted and hauled to my doorstep.

99% of us don't need Saturday mail delivery. I could easily live with the mail running 3 times per week or even once per week. I just don't get much mail that matters to a hill of beans. Consolidating rural post offices makes as much sense as consolidating rural schools...do it! I do hate that Fort Baptist is losing our postal center to Fayetteville. We've had a post office since 1828. But really, since I haven't written a real letter since the 90s, do I really care if my mail is stamped in Fort Smith?

People who need things in a hurry overnight them. If FedX & UPS can do it and make money the USPS can make money at it too, but not as long as they have to pay people to drive past every mailbox in America-Alaska-Hawaii.

Do away with the unfair pre-pay deal, consolidate rural post offices, cut delivery to 3 days per week and rent out a corner of each post office to Starbucks and our postal problems will be solved. It's a new day, we can't run the mail service like it's still 1639 or 1775. Don't kill it....remodel it to fit the times.

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DBI is exactly right, but those reasonable ideas are never going to happen as long as the post office is a political football kicked around by hypocritical politicians.

Another problem that people fail to mention is that the USPS is a subsidizer of advertising and catalog merchants, who don't want any cutback in the delivery of their ads--yet the post office loses money on every one. Since the vast majority of the post office's business is commercial, subsidizing these ads amounts to corporate welfare. What I'm saying is that along with DBI's suggestions, the USPS needs to raise its rates to the point where it makes a profit. Think about this--for less than 50 cents, someone will come to your home or business, pick up a letter, carry it to Montana and deliver it to the Unabomber's shack. I don't know about you, but I think we'd be getting our money's worth at twice the price. Yet when the USPS asks for a 2-cent rate increase, people go nuts. Of course, those "people" are the corporations who use the post office to send all those Land's End and Cabela's catalogs to every human being alive.

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"Universal service — whether of mail or health care — isn't."

Actually, universal postal service IS remarkably inexpensive. I can physically send something anywhere else in the country for as little as $.44 and have it arrive in 5 days or less? I challenge you to find a bargain to beat that, or a private business - or any government agency - that does its job with better efficiency.

The current cost of mailing is, adjusted for inflation, no higher than it was in the 1920s, despite higher inflation-adjusted costs for fuel & etc. DeathbyInches is wrong - we don't need to cut deliveries or close offices to "save" the post office - all we need to do is drop the ridiculous pre-funding requirement for employee benefits and allow them to raise prices when fuel costs skyrocket as they have recently - for which their proposed increase was turned down by those fical savants in our Republican House. Because if we allowed the post office to actually function like a business, as these charlatans claim they want, they wouldn't have to ask permission to charge another penny when the cost of fuel doubles. Of course if they were allowed to operate in a fiscally sane manner, it would completely cut the legs out from under the Randian's privatization wet dream, so we can't have that.

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Why isn't there a law and requirement that ALL employers pay as they go on any pension/retirement promisses they make?

It is a full rip off scheme! Just ask all the soon to be surprised American Airlines retirees and soon to bes when AA goes into bankruptcy and the last to get paid will be the unfunded pensions the owners promissed by kicking the can down the road every year.

All the above posters seem to have skipped right over that much bigger side of the USPS debate.

I suppose we will let the tricked retired elderly just starve on the street as we pass by and say "Get a Job!"


The USPS is being made to do what all promissers should be made to do. Back up their agreed deals all the while their workers are doing what they promissed to do.

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That's what I thought CBB.
It seems as if many closures could be avoided in Congress just reversed their stupid ruling.

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For years the Post Master job was a political job. They were highly sought after and carefully awarded.

Now we have bidness Post Offices. I have one close by run by a foxy Messicun woman who keeps lots of "de dinero a México" packages on the counter and a few racks of the latest Juarez fashions hanging on racks. De dinero a México is a billion-dollar a yr bidness in NWA.

Electronics have replaced much U.S. mail. Mostly who uses the Postal service to send me stuff is Medicare Insurance companies during this enrollment period every year.
I get on average 4 offers per day from mid Oct to first of Dec.

Mainly I get pizza/burger fliers, car deals , credit card/finance deals and mattress/furniture sales. All sent to "Resident" at ___

So our low postal rates are mainly a bidness subsidy.

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Tilly Post Office
Whether or not a rural post office remains in a community today is still politics. The picture for this article is Fountain's Grocery located in Tilly, AR, and the Tilly post office is located within the store. The store building is well maintained e.g. metal roof, vinyl siding, concrete floor, sheet rock interior, and HVAC. The Tilly post office is currently and will be provided all of the space needed for the office to operate efficiently.
Because of low OE and revenue produced, the DC Postal Service determined early on the Tilly office would not be placed on the closure list. But the Witt Springs office, 6 miles west, was on the original list. The two post offices changed places when politics scored with the Little Rock District (LR) office. The Witt Springs post office came sliding right off of the TBC list, and the Tilly post office leaped right onto to that same list.
Since 1943, the Tilly post office occupies a small corner area within Fountain’s Grocery. In addition to this small corner, the post office has a lobby area, a space for mail boxes outside the small corner area, and storage space in a storage room.
By looking at both OE and revenue, the Tilly office by far should be the office kept for this rural area. The Tilly office is the revenue producing office with lower operating cost.

Since 1980, the Postal Service pays $50 monthly for rent and utilities for space used by the Tilly Post Office. Prior to 1980, the Postal Service paid less. This was done to ensure that the Tilly office would always be cost effective.
Tilly is centrally located in the tri-county area of Searcy, Pope, and Van Buren counties with customers from all three counties. Superior Forestry, a multi-million dollar corporation, is located in Tilly. This business would be greatly impacted by closing the Tilly office.
Public meeting: December 12, 2011, 5:30 p.m. old Union Hill School building (by water tower).

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They are trying to convince rural communities that DC Headquarters made the list and all the decisions. It is still politics on a local and state level. Why was Witt Springs taken off the list and Tilly put on the closure list?? If you look at revenue and expenses of the two different offices, it makes NO SENSE, but then again, most of this makes no sense. These rural communities are the ones where the PO is most needed. Some of these people don't even have bank accounts; they depend on money orders to pay bills. Many residents of these rural communites are the elderly, disabled and veterans. The dismantling of this great American treasure is a sad thing to witness. If you care, contact your legislators and let them know your concerns. Remind them that you vote and that there will be another election next November 2012.

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