Charles dear, you are a goofball.

The reason why the USPS loses money is because the Republican Congress passed a bill several years back requiring them to fully fund all pension benefits for the next seventy-five years - something no private sector business could do. Yet another example of how the "party of business" has absolutely no idea how business works.

It has *nothing* to do with your hated rural areas.

The Seattle Times also reports that somebody on the street physically assaulted the driver after the accident. I didn't read anything about whether this person has been identified or arrested.

@1: Charles is quite a bundle of hypocrisy and general ideological blindness, but his hatred of rural thinking and being is perhaps the biggest of them all.

For a man who so desperately needs everyone to acknowledge his urbanity and fake cosmopolitan nature, he sure does think like a provincial, rustic hick at times. Which of course explains the hatred he has for such things. We always hate ourselves the most.

I wouldn't say it has *nothing* to do with rural areas. Prime has greatly reduced costs and improved the lives of thousands of people living in Alaska.

Yeah, the USPS delivering to rural areas for the same price as delivery to urban areas--while also being expected to be profitable--IS part of of the problem. This isn't a single-variable-to-explain-it-all issue.

Is someone's bold lock stuck? Like a caps lock, but signifying something other than shouting?

@Catalina

There are multiple reasons why the post office loses money, and most of them have been caused by Congress.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/…

The Alaska Bypass is just one example of rural delivery costing the post office money instead of making the post office money.
Universal service requires the post office to deliver a letter anywhere in the United States for the price of a postage stamp, regardless of how much it cost for USPS to deliver that letter.

There is more than one reason why the USPS is losing money.
Charles is right, delivering mail in the rural United States costs the post office money.
It has nothing to do with Charles' feelings, it's the truth.

You are also correct that fully funding pensions for 75 years costs the post office a great deal of money as well, but it's not the only reason that the post office is losing money.

I wouldn't worry about Amazon. Now that the liberal community has spent its political capital on marriage equality and not taking care of the foundational issues that have affected it for decades; my predictions of a couple years ago are now coming to fruition. Package delivery will be the last thing on folks minds so much as making sure those living wills and powers of attorneys, are once again, in order - barring a “miraculous” gift of a cure.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tru…

@10: that was covered previously on slog.

The USPS put food on my table and clothes on my back as a kid, so I'm passionate in my hatred for the GOP's crusade to drive a stake through the heart of the USPS in order for UPS, FedEx, and other carriers can take up the role at astronomically higher rates. I appreciate that others here are also well-informed enough to educate Mudede, and save me ranting at him about his lack of investigative interest in the issue when another Marxist conspiracy theory will suffice.

@6: Why would rural delivery be more expensive now than it has been in decades past (aside from these oppressive rules Congress has forced on the USPS)? Whoever said the USPS is supposed to be profitable? Libraries are not profitable, neither are installation or maintenance of rural roads. They're part of the public good that we all pitch in for.

Public services aren't going to "make money". The USPS is provided for in the frickin' Constitution as a critical way to ensure information gets to everyone -- which was the only way to get information everywhere at the time the damnable document was written.

But it remains a public service, and has the cheapest stamps in the developed world, afaik. Firefighting and police services don't "make money". Roads don't "make money". Why should the USPS be a for-profit enterprise? You all know that will just cut some people off. I don't understand why Charles of all people would think the USPS should be a for-profit outfit. And yes, Congress is trying to make the USPS wither away by loading it up with unbearable costs.

Turning everything into a "for-profit" enterprise will do two things: 1) remove public control (and increase the power of the rich), and 2) reduce services & quality (unless there are massive profits to be made).

ffs

So, Charles, you're basically Trump: you use your hatred of a group (rural dwellers, which include plenty of people who voted against Trump, by the way, not just as many) to reject the entire mission of the postal service. You really want a profit-based postal service who only deliver to the most profitable areas?

Oh, and Chuck, please read @1 again. Or spend 30 seconds on Google. Not rocket science here.

Oops...in @14 I meant "just not as many"...

Republicans are not only horrible people, they're really not very bright either - at least judging by our many conservative commenters these days.

@12,
The USPS is a bit different from libraries though. Libraries are directly publicly funded, the usps is not (that is, public libraries receive tax dollars, the usps does not, though it does get subsidies and tax breaks and some other benefits).

The postal service IS mandated by government, but it's not directly funded by government... it's still sort of like a business and therefore IS expected to be profitable.

Well, I suppose it's at least some consolation that it seems everyone who has read this post realizes Charles is carrying water for the Republicans.

Republicans have been drooling for decades now over the prospect of privatizing mail delivery; there is nothing a Republican would love more than to level per-mile charges for delivery to black people living in the American South.

But then, Charles Mudede will never give a moment's thought to black people living the American South. They are not his people, and there is nothing they can ever do to earn a place in his imagination.

Oh Jesus Christ---let the smart, thinking majority of us overcome stupid, corrupt RepubliKKKans and their dupes, already! May RepubliKKKan pig blood flow heavily in 2018 and with decades of severely painful consequences for the Party of .000000000000001%! Viva le Resistance!
@1 & @18 Catalina Vel-DuRay: Thank you. No further questions.

@8 According to the article you cited, the deficit due to the Alaska Bypass accounts for $10's of million annually ($2.5 billion over 30 years), whereas USPS has to put aside $5 BILLION per year for future healthcare for retirees. The cost of providing service to rural areas is likely a tiny fraction of the USPS deficit incurred thanks to the GOP.

@22

The Alaska bypass is just one example.
Universal service is just one example.
Fully funding pension 75 years in advance is another example.

Delivering first-class mail used to generate the majority of USPS' profits.
The post office delivers far-less first class mail than it did 25 years ago, and that his cut into their profits a lot.

Just so everyone knows, I don't agree with Charles. ( if he was being serious, which I doubt.)
Just because Universal service costs money doesn't mean we should get rid of it.

I just wanted to point out to Catalina that delivering mail to rural areas does contribute to the post office's debt.
I don't think we should stop delivering mail to rural areas.
I don't think Charles thinks that either, I think he was joking.

Honestly, I don't understand how anyone could see my original comment as anti post office.
In fact, I would like to see the government step up and actually fund USPS in the same way it funds the military.
The post office provides essential services for US citizens, and should not be used to play political games.

@Charles

You were joking about ending postal delivery to rural areas, right?

You realize that Universal service isn't the only reason why the post office is in debt, right?

One more question.
Why do you think the readers of the Stranger give you such a hard time?

I don't think you'd have the same problem if you lived here in Detroit.
You'd definitely get a lot of pushback from the right-wingers, just like you do now, but you catch a lot less crap from people who consider themselves to be leftists, liberals or Allies.

It seems that a black man isn't allowed to have opinions in Seattle, and heaven forbid a black man make a joke.

When you're tired of kissing white racist liberal ass, there's a place for you here in Detroit.

@23 I didn't think your comment was anti-USPS. I responded because I thought the comparison of deficits numbers was revealing especially since the Alaska Bypass is probably a much greater burden to USPS budget than other rural delivery services.

"But I believe it has a lot do with the cost of maintaining offices and jobs in rural areas. USPS should either close those offices or charge much more to deliver stuff to places that overwhelmingly voted for Trump."

Perhaps when their "Keep yur damn hands OFF! my Social Security and Medicare!" are finally disappeared, like The Post Office by their precious Banksters (and well-bought-and-paid-for complicit corporate Lawmakers), they may see the error of their ways.

Oops.