Berkeley Councilman: Tax E-mail! Tax Each Gigabyte! → Re: Here's a better way to fix the Post Office...

Based on the fact that they can't fund their promises while facing a diminishing business. No one believes that if they don't fully fund now, in 10 years when their business has all but evaporated that they would be able to do a pay-go.

I wouldn't care if taxpayers weren't the ones that will have to bailout the union when they go belly up just as they did the UAW.

The USPS can't be trusted just like GM couldn't be trusted, except taxpayers weren't supposed to be on the hook for billions with GM...billions GM still owes while paying out fat bonuses to the very workers that were the beneficiaries of the bailout. I'm not interested in a repeat with the USPS.

All but evaporated?!? So I presume UPS and FedEx are also going out of business?

There is no one to bail out, they have already pre-funded the benefits of the people they currently have working there. 'Fund their promises'?? I am not sure you understand how the post office works, it is not suppose be a mega-business generating billions in profits every year to go to someone's pocket (although many think it should be). If it were, the cost of a 1st class stamp would be double what it is. They are mandated to be revenue neutral and the price of postage reflects that. The current crisis is suppose to be fixed by Congress raising the rates to bring them back to neutral. So why isn't that happening? The rates are being raised minimally, not enough to correct the problem. That is pretty ironic since once the post office has been destroyed and mail fully privatized, 'first class' postage will be well over a dollar.

Just out of curiosity... when they go 'belly up', what happens to all the money in the pre-funded retirement fund of the people that never got hired (or never reached retirement)? That is going to be in the $10's of billions. Maybe we should just give it to FedEx to compensate them for all the trouble they will have to go through picking up the pieces of our failed government system? I am sure that's what Wall St. would say.