Sen. Harry Reid: The Postal Service Must Be Saved Because 'Seniors Love Junk Mail'
from the because-nothing-says-'human-contact'-like-something-addressed-to-'oc dept
You know a service is on its last legs when the best argument a person can make for its continued existence is both a) very likely untrue and b) incredibly depressing. The United States Postal Service, best known these days for its massive accounting losses and quarterly stamp price increases, is being forced to deal with the reality of a world that sends most of its mail via the internet. With deep cuts and office closures looming, Sen. Harry Reid took to the Senate floor to say a few words in its defense, as The Consumerist reports:Speaking yesterday to his fellow Senators, Reid really sucked the air out of the room with this part of his "Save the USPS" speech:Here's Reid in "action:"
"Elderly Americans rely on the United States Postal Service... I'll come home to my home here in Washington and there will be some mail there. A lot of it is what some people refer to as junk mail. But for the people that are sending that mail, it's very important. And, talking about seniors - Seniors LOVE to get junk mail. It's sometimes their only way of communicating or feeling they're part of the real world."
It's rare to see someone make a statement that undercuts the "essentialness" of the USPS so thoroughly, especially one made in its defense. If the best argument a person can come up with is that the Postal Service needs to remain intact in order to provide a point of contact between desperately lonely seniors and the companies that prey on them, then it's time to admit that maybe, just maybe, the "service" is actually more of a burden.
In fact, with "austerity" being the watchword (well, not here specifically, but all over Europe), maybe it's time to (and this is an unfortunate turn of phrase, but trust me, it gets worse...) kill two birds with one stone and cut off the flow of junk mail to seniors. Now that they won't have a third rejection letter from Publishers Clearing House to look forward to, perhaps they'll go more gracefully into that good night, thus reducing the strain on the already-overmatched Social Security fund.
Speaking of overmatched retirement funds, most the USPS's massive losses stem from having to prefund retiree health benefits, an issue that could be negated with another "two birds one stone" solution. The USPS could cut loose its potential retirees, shifting them from "mounting losses" category into the more profitable "willing recipient of mass mailing" demographic. We call that "win-win" where I come from (a rural Midwestern area known for its redundancy).
Or maybe it's time to privatize. The USPS seems to believe it can compete if the government takes the, uh, governor off rates and services. If so, the USPS will need to hit the ground running, something massive entities are rarely good at. As the Consumerist has shown, both FedEx and UPS are willing to step in to fill the void. The two companies already have a proven track record for getting packages from Point A to Point B (even if the final destination was supposed to be Point C) as well as making great strides in treating your packages with a government-like callous disregard. This may also hasten the adoption of paperless billing, which should prove to be a boon to the economy as the affected companies will be able to collect "convenience charges" for electronic transactions, something simply not possible in the era of
Of course, paperless billing requires an internet connection and the ability to navigate to secure sites without picking up a variety of obnoxious toolbars and pernicious malware, so maybe Harry Reid is right. Despite the fact that Grandma likely has over 96,000 hours of AOL packed into a file box in the hall closet, the internet can be a weird and dangerous place for those used to more analog experiences. And AOL itself is no help. Signing up for the service seems simple enough for those with landlines, but once you decide you no longer need its portal to the sanitized internet, getting them to cancel your service is about as simple as removing your own kidney. (Actually, it's more difficult than that. It's like trying to persuade the surgeon to remove the faulty kidney and instead being told that what you really want is a third kidney.)
If Senator Reid is right, and the USPS is the only thing standing between seniors and a not-all-that-untimely (but very lonely) death, thanks to its continuous flow of "human contact" via junk mail, perhaps the solution is to move some postal workers over to Meals-on-Wheels and let the private sector decide whether or not it wants the aching loneliness of America's growing elderly population on its hands. My guess is that no matter who's handling the delivery side of the business, junk mailers will still find a way to get their ads into the hands of general population.
As for Publishers Clearing House, it will have to make a few adjustments. For starters, it may have to stop pushing magazine subscriptions, as most magazines at this point are pamphlet-thin and nearly 75% ads. (Except for Reader's Digest Large Print Edition!) As the denizens of the internet march slowly towards their golden years, they're not going to have much patience for an information source with less interactivity than a PDF. And they're certainly not going to be checking the mailbox for contact with the outside world.
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Filed Under: harry reid, usps
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Is this what qualifies him to be a Senator? I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have politicians that can feel the real world. Pretty sure it is an oxymoron though.
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Darn teenagers
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My grandfather still manages to connect with the world by forwarding racist or urban legend emails to the extended family. Surely some young whippersnapper intern in Harry Reid's office can explain the interwebs to him.
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Re:
My Dad's 71, a skilled mechanical engineer, and computers are something he will never understand.
A democratic society, if we are to have one, requires at least a low bandwidth connection, even at high cost. Since the postal service operates at a profit, less these ridiculous pension funding schemes, this assault on the postal service is nothing less than an attack on democracy itself.
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Privatization
Privatization is not a solution: If a private company can run the US Postal Service at a profit then so can the US Government so long as the necessarily policies are put in place. Private companies are free to do a better job, if that's what you want, but don't delude yourself into thinking privatization is some sort of panacea that will magically cure any government organization's problems.
I don't want to live in a world where everything is private property.
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Re: Privatization
Provide a P.O. Box address that is a legal mailing address such as "US Fed P.O. Address 90483409230423423" which will be shipped to my house. This provides an additional degree of anonymity to the recipient and could be an easy way for the PO to raise funds. I'd pay 100$/year for this service. Heck I'd pay another 100$/year to not allow mass mailings to be delivered there (other than magazines, or IEEE/ACM/etc journals I happen to want). Heck.. I'm sure some people would pay 25$/year to get notifications sent to their email when mail arrives, Perhaps a photo of the shipping from and to address.
I mean... the idea just gives itself legs. The USPS already has the computational capabilities to forward mail, So this seems like an easy way to both monetize, but more importantly to improve the USPS.
Also I don't think Reid was that far off about the mail... It is sad how some of our seniors don't get out into the community(partially b/c the same people who want to cut the USPS want to cut community funding... but that is another rant...) So they go to the mall or other places like that and just talk to store employees for hours at a time, trying to stay connected to the rest of the world. This argument does sound silly, but I've personally had elderly people do that, so it IS real. Perhaps he should have phrased it better and said that they like to see what is going on in the world and to browse through ads now that they have time... or something... but still..
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Re: Re: Privatization
No one's saying the experience isn't real. We're just saying it's not worth BILLIONS of tax dollars to provide.
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Re: Re: Privatization
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Re: Privatization
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Re: Privatization
A good example of this is prisons.
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Re: Privatization
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Re: Re: Privatization
But the USPS also benefits from economies of scale due to their government established mailbox delivery monopolies. It's more cost effective to deliver mail and packages to your mailbox when you are also delivering mail to all of the neighboring mailboxes as well than it is to take a special trip just to deliver mail only to your mailbox.
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Re: Re: Re: Privatization
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Re: Privatization
I don't seriously think privatization is the solution. (Hence the framing language I used, along with links to UPS/FedEx doing bad things.) I think some streamlining is in order, but turning the whole works over to private companies is not only impossible at this point, but inadvisable.
FedEx and UPS seem to be more than willing to just toss your packages on the curb, balcony, back yard, deck, sidewalk, etc. and speed on without a care in the world. Ask me 10 or 15 years ago and I would have felt differently. Both companies have done some incredible stuff in terms of logistics and efficiency, but it seems like customer service has been left by the wayside over the past several years.
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Re: Privatization
The reason for much of the misery in the world today is the return to serfdom of much of the working class.
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Re: Privatization
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FUD
The right wing killed the USPS with the "Postal Accountability" act, to make room for privatization. How? Simple absurdity: the USPS must now PRE-pay the health care benefits of every employee it has. And of every employee who will retire any time in the next 75 years. You're reading it correctly if you think this means that the USPS is now required by law to PREpay the US Government for employees that aren't even born yet. All of the money to cover the benefits for all its employees for more than the next 7 decades has to be in Uncle Sam's wallet by 2016.
No company or agency anywhere in the world has such an absurd burden placed upon them.
This is costing the USPS about $6 Billion per year - but wait, it's better - the government had already (back through 1970) overcharged the USPS to the tune of $80 Billion. Simply giving the agency back its own money would cause the 'collapse' to vanish overnight.
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Re: FUD
This is a chance for the powers that be to raid that sweet, juicy pension.
Disgusting.
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Re: FUD
> employee it has. And of every employee who will retire any time
> in the next 75 years.
If they're going to offer these ridiculous pension and health care benefits in the first place, it only makes sense that they fund the system ahead of time to ensure the money is there when it comes time to pay out.
Otherwise, you end up with California, which promised all the state employee union workers (teachers, prison guards, etc.) fantastic pensions, but didn't fund them from the outset, assuming yearly revenues would be enough to cover it. Now that the bill is coming due, the state has no money to pay even a fraction of those costs and Jerry Brown is running around the state begging the voters to allow him to raise our taxes (yet again) to pay for it. Of course he isn't saying "I need to raise your taxes to pay for teachers' pensions". He's trying to trick people into it by saying, "I need to raise your taxes so we can fund education," hoping they won't realize that by 'education' he means pensions, not schools, books, and facilities for the kids.
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Re: Re: FUD
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Re: FUD
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The Postal Service must be saved because it beats the alternative
Yes, UPS and FedEx say they could fill the void because they would do it like they do service now -- cut deliveries to remote, unprofitable areas and not deliver anything that hurts the bottom line. I wager the USPS would do that too, if they were allowed to.
If the government actually let the Post Office run like an actual government organization or an actual business, we wouldn't have so many complaints. Instead, it's a business beholden to government oversight and half the government wants to see it fail. No wonder they have problems.
However, even with all that, it's been twenty-five years and they still haven't lost a package or letter coming to or from me. And that includes a pair of shoes I sent to Peru where they don't even have zip codes. Can't say the same for FedEx or UPS.
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Re: The Postal Service must be saved because it beats the alternative
The USPS is broken in many places. You may be lucky to live in in a place where it is not. But for many, using the USPS is a crap-shoot.
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Re: Re: The Postal Service must be saved because it beats the alternative
Not every postal employee is a Neuman.
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Re: Re: Re: The Postal Service must be saved because it beats the alternative
Anyway, I agree that the postal service should not be privatized. It should be allowed to compete with private services, for sure, but the only way for remote locations to be served is through a government postal services, because private companies wouldn't find it profitable enough to be worth their time. And it would be a travesty if remote locations got cut off from mail deliveries.
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Re: The Postal Service must be saved because it beats the alternative
USPS has always delivered my Mail.
UPS has not and because they lost an important package and fought me to pay out what they owed me I have not used them for shipping in years and never will again.Only receiving when buying online and I am guaranteed my money thru the Retailer.
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Re: Re: The Postal Service must be saved because it beats the alternative
Oh, wait...
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Harry needs some junk mail himself.
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So everyone gets an assured free internet connection
And good luck with secure sites, malware infections notwithstanding. Most businesses don't do secure very well in the real world, most suck at it terribly on the internet. And then they'll tell you that you need a certain browser or a different OS something else equally ridiculous.
Reid's crap argument only reflects on Reid, not the USPS, which of course has problems. So Cushing's argument is what, exactly? Or is this a humourous Poe counter-argument?
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Re: So everyone gets an assured free internet connection
This might work, theoretically - however it becomes broken the moment one is kicked off the internet because of accusations. Perhaps this is the end game?
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Re: So everyone gets an assured free internet connection
I agree that the question of how to organize and pay for postal service is a good bit more complex than some people perceive.
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Re: So everyone gets an assured free internet connection
I would say it's the second thing: a humourous counter-argument. However, in reading the comments, I'm almost convinced it's the first thing (a "crap argument") despite the fact that I live inside my own head and was aiming for the first thing.
In my defense, I'll say this: when I (or writers like me [of which there probably aren't many]{and for good reason, it seems}) lead off with an argument that basically states that the USPS should get out of the junk mail delivery business in order to hasten seniors' deaths (thus easing the Social Security burden), it's probably safe to assume that the writer is fighting absurdity with absurdity (as it were) OR is completely batshit crazy and should be kept away from communication devices. (As should Reid, I might add, or at least be strongly urged not to stray from his prepared remarks.)[At this point, I'd like to remind everyone that my profile contains links to other posts of mine, many of which would appear to have been written by a sane person. YMMV.]
In any event, this (gestures to indicate sprawl of angry comments) is where we are now. Nothing to do now but dodge torches and pitchforks.
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Re: Re: So everyone gets an assured free internet connection
Well, that's embarrassing.
Let's fix that sentence:
However, in reading the comments, I'm almost convinced it's the first thing (a "crap argument") despite the fact that I live inside my own head and was aiming for the second thing.
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Too late. If an individual doesn't own it - either the government already does - or will claim to.
And of course, if you don't pay whatever taxes - they'll take it anyway.
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Re: Analog mail
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Re: Analog mail
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The postal mail system:
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I've finally decided the way to deal with it, is to take it straight from the mail box to the trash can. My main use of junk mail is now to keep the garbage man busy.
Harry needs a serious increase in junk mail. Maybe then he can find out what the rest of the world REALLY feels about junk mail.
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Junk Mail Campaign
It turns a minor-threshold irritation into an amusing thing to do while waiting for supper to be done or watching tv.
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Re: Junk Mail Campaign
I've noticed that those prepaid envelopes are becoming more and more rare. I'm sure this form of "non-violent protest" has something to do with that...
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I really some times have to question...
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Re: I really some times have to question...
Junk mail is both an annoyance, and useless. In some ways it is worse than spam, because I can't just hit delete repeatedly.
In fact, because it contains personally identifying information, my roommate shreds it all, hence it has a cost in money (buying the shredder), and time (even more than me who just puts it in the recycling).
Yes, I really do hate things that are annoying and useless that much, and I don't feel bad about it.
Oh, and a little perspective for you. Just because someone writes a blog post about something useless and annoying that they hate, does not mean it is one of the main complaints they have about life and the world in which we live.
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Re: I really some times have to question...
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Re: I really some times have to question...
My life is so easy it's the ONLY thing I have to complain about. Well, that and the constant downhill motion of living without friction. It's so easy I get bedsores while standing up.
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The only reason I knew it was there was that I happened to be going out as she pulled up.
I don't live in a high-crime area, and the computer wasn't hugely expensive, but still, I'm not sure I would have wanted it to have been left sitting on the steps until I came home. Not to mention that it would have gotten soaked if it happened to rain.
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> hugely expensive, but still, I'm not sure I would have wanted
> it to have been left sitting on the steps until I came home. Not
> to mention that it would have gotten soaked if it happened to rain.
Not just FedEx and other private delivery services. The USPS does the same thing in my town. I've actually had a few packages ruined because they were left out in the open on the front porch by the mailman while I was at work and it rained.
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Don't Dump the USPS
What is the reason for USPS having to pre-pay for retirement benefits for those not even borne yet - I mean is there another reason other than to hand over the American people to yet another group of corporate interests for profit?
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Re: Don't Dump the USPS
Fat chance of that happening. This story should be classified under "anti-competitive restraint of trade" or maybe "legislative capture".
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USPS
Cheers !
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Re: USPS
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Re: Re: USPS
Essential service whose "business" model is being subjected to a radical change in the "business" environment.
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Re: USPS
I could be perfectly happy with 3-day-a-week mail delivery. Do Tue/Thu/Sat in residential areas, Mon/Wed/Fri in business districts.
Made the mistake of saying that to my mom and she was aghast. (She had brought the subject up in the context of cancelling Saturday delivery.)
Keep in mind that until 1950 residential mail delivery was twice a day. Anyone over 70 remembers that clearly, so going to only a few times a week is a shock and disgrace.
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Jobs
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Re: Jobs
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Jobs
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Sigh.
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Re: Sigh.
Is this where I misread the point? I only ask because a lot of the discussion in the comment thread seems to indicate that the ridiculous pre-funded retirement/health plans was never mentioned in the original post. (Not only mentioned, but linked as well.)
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Get off my Intertubes!
Back when I was your age, a person had to have experience to get a platform like TechDirt which could reach dozens of readers. You should get out in the sunlight once in a while and perhaps meet some neighbors who have lived three times longer than you, raised better kids than you, own real estate, and understand how hard life is after you finally move out of your parent's basement.
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Re: Get off my Intertubes!
1. Assuming you're right about me (more in a minute), what's Reid's excuse? Obviously he's older, owns property, has raised kids, etc. You're fine with his portrayal of seniors as fans of junk mail? Especially a portrayal delivered from a much bigger "platform" than this?
2. Back when you were 37?
3. What kind of experience? (And please tell me it's not just "aging" being misrepresented as "experience." As in, a 40-year-old is automatically smarter than a 20-year-old, all else being equal.
4. I work two jobs. Plenty of sunlight, or at least, getting out of the house.
5. I've met my neighbors, thanks. But none of them are pushing the outer limits of the actuarial tables (at a healthy 111 or so) or frequently consulting the "Longest Living" section of the Guinness Book of World Records.
6. I'm raising three kids. (Again, thanks for "asking.") I'm not sure if they're better than other kids other older people have raised or better than me [also raised by older people], but they're mine and I'm raising them. They'll probably turn out better or worse than whoever it is they're sort of being compared to.
7. I own a house. (Well, to be completely honest, the bank still owns quite a bit of it, but I'm in the process of owning a house. And the land underneath it as well as the land in close proximity of it.)
8. You go ahead and tell me how hard life is. I mentioned the two jobs. I've had maybe 30 days off total in the last 2 years. I work seven days a week, week after week. You know that phrase, "I can't wait until this week is over."? For me, the week being "over" most likely means Memorial Day, when one of my two jobs will be closed.
Three kids. A mortgage. A wife going to school and working a job of her own. Thousands of dollars of debt. Knowing that I can't slow down, much less stop, any time soon without slipping past the point of "making ends nearly meet" and into insolvency. Expensive medical issues in the recent past which took my wife out of the workforce for more than two years, timed "perfectly" to coincide with the purchase of a house and another vehicle. And the medical issues aren't over, just stabilized for the time being. Any time you want to jump in and tell me how "hard" life is, feel free.
Go ahead and tell me how I have it easy. Tell me how "my generation" (which is probably half my age and not even mine) doesn't have to earn anything.
If you want to take an obviously facetious statement as an attack on "your generation," knock yourself out. But don't try to paint me as some sort of basement-dwelling slacker with a smart mouth and not a care in the world.
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Up the USPS!
I'll add one more thought: like health care & public transit, a postal service should be run for the public benefit, NOT run like a business.
While efficiencies are important, a public service shouldn't have to show a profit to survive. Trying to make something that's inherently not cost-effective break even means skyrocketing fees & less service. (see: public transit's decline in the US in these most recent decades when we really need it) (or the post office- delivering a single sack of mail to Bumfuck, Alaska is truly inefficient)
That's what taxes on the super-rich & large corporations are for- to fund public services.
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Re: Up the USPS!
That's the issue right there. Pre-funding and an arbitrary "debt ceiling" hanging overhead. To be completely fair to Sen. Reid, he does go on to speak briefly about the importance of rural post offices. (Something I mentioned not at all...)
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Unbelievable
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Re:
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The Post Office Can Do Whatever is Too Important to be Left to Fed Ex.
A small vignette: one day, when the mail carrier arrived, the South American woman in the next apartment sent her six-year old daughter downstairs to the entryway to collect their mail. Little Miriam was extremely shy, not at all like an Anglo (*), and what impressed me was the sheer and unconscious graciousness, gentleness, and kindness of the female mail carrier in dealing with her. I somehow cannot imagine that in a Fed Ex driver. You get what you pay for. If we have to pay for the Post Office with an outright government subvention, then so be it.
(*) In large parts of the world, people who are wealthy enough to send their adult children to America for graduate study are also wealthy enough to keep Purdah or the equivalent. If one employs household servants, they form a kind of buffer between family life and the outside world. For example, when servant labor is cheap, a small apartment building is likely to have a concierge, a "viaja abuelita," who collects the mail for the whole building, receives grocery deliveries, calls taxicabs, etc. The result is that when people of this elevated social class come to America, the women and girls are likely to get a double dose of culture shock. Read Santha Rama Rau, Home to India (1945), to get a feel for what that kind of culture shock is like.
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Re: The Post Office Can Do Whatever is Too Important to be Left to Fed Ex.
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Is the most plentiful source of cellulose that I use to do engineering projects.
I make lots of prototype gears with those, although I still have to buy the Elmer's glue.
Papel mache wouldn't be the same without junk mail.
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So someone making decisions about the country and the laws thereof, is a junk mail junkie. It is his only way of communicating and feeling like part of the real world. No wonder the crap he proposes is so disconnected from reality.
Lesson 1 - Communication is meant to be 2 way, not getting a sale flyer showing to much skin and then grumbling at the sky about them damn harlots sexing up the Walmart flyer.
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Flat rate priority mail is one of the best deals around- put everything you want to send someone into a box you get free at the post office, print the postage on a label you get at the post office, write the address on the label, stick it on the box and drop it in the mail. The only time it's really work is if you have to send something overseas, then you do a customs form and there are weight restrictions.
UPS stinks, they have lost one too many of the parcels I have sent. If someone really ticked me off, I would send them to hell COD by UPS ground.
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Lord, what an absolutely idiotic statement!!!
After hearing that one could end up thinking that Senator Reid was elected one times too many, or that possibly a senility check-up is in order...
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Idiots, It helps the economy
Here is the thing our gadgets will cost more if it costs more to ship.
Low shipping costs help commerce. Commerce helps economy.
Its more than just junk mail.. gawd.
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Harry Reid
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Junk Mail & Seniors
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A few points to address a terrible article
--Junk mail pays the bills, so I don't mind receiving some, and often times the 'junk' includes money saving coupons to local businesses that I do use. In fact I have discovered many new local businesses via 'junk mail', and this is still a key method of advertising for places like local restaurants, contractors and retailers.
--I and millions of American still use the mail every day for myriad purposes
TL;DR -- End Saturday service, perhaps close a few extra/surplus offices, but make sure USPS is adequately funded. We can somehow afford to borrow billions and billions for secret spy centers in Utah, the biggest and most expensive military in world history (plus all the crazy good pension and retirement benefits that go with it), 'wars' on things like personal consumption, and we still have enough left over in our credit line to jail far more of our people than any other country in the world-- so many that we can guarantee the publicly traded companies taking these borrowed dollars 90+% occupancy rates for 20+ year contracts.
But oh yeah the Post Office is bankrupting the country. Yeah. Right.
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We need to preserve the postal services.
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United Postsl Servcie
Many employees still facing the issue while using the Liteblue Login That's why here's the Complete information of <a href=https://penzu.com/public/25e0d7bc">Liteblue.usps.gov</a>
This article is on the LiteBlue USPS Official Liteblue.USPS.gov organization which is used to function for the employees of the Postal services across the nation.
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