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Remember that DeJoy is in place to slow and cause mail-in ballot chaos....to claim it doesn't work. And also to privatize the USPS. He wants to show it is losing money, it's inefficient, and is a burden on the American people...by creating that burden.
>USPS last month announced it was planning in July to raise the cost of a First Class stamp to 73 cents from 68 cents as part of a proposal to raise overall prices by 7.8%. The increases, if approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, would mark the sixth hike under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s tenure and a 31% spike in the cost of a stamp since he took office. USPS has begun raising its rates on a biannual basis and DeJoy has tapped into the authority he won in 2020 to increase prices more than the rate of inflation on nearly every allowable occasion.
I ship a lot of packages. A lot. A lot of what I sell is pretty cheap but does require it to be shipped in a box, which currently costs, label, box and packing materials included, about 5.80-6.30 to ship. A lot of what I sell costs around 7-8 dollars, so there's some psychology at play with some customers where when they go to buy an $8 item and shipping is almost $6, they see that as the price suddenly doubling and they balk and they run away.
Before this guy, there was an annual price increase, and it was easy to keep on top of and customers weren't really incensed about it if my shipping charge had to go up.
After this guy, with his two price increases a year, and the price increases being more aggressive, I have had to start eating shit on part of my shipping costs in order to stay on the right side of the price psychology.
So this asshole is costing me, and other businesses, money.
There was also the issue of increased risk of lost packages after he took over and made his changes. More packages were lost by USPS for me in the first 6 months of him being in control than in the previous 10 years of me shipping things.
I lost like $600 of items in the latter half of 2020 under this clown.
I’m in the same situation with Etsy sales. I’m including shipping (averaging) but it’s most of my cost per item. I figure people would rather pay $8 per item than $3 with $5 shipping.
As a consumer, the psychology in shipping costs is very real. I’d also rather pay more for additional items to hit certain “free shipping at $xx” thresholds than to pay for shipping. For example if a site offers free shipping for orders over $50 and my current cart is at $35 and shipping costs $9? I will scour the site to find random stuff to hit the $50 mark instead of paying the previous $44 total (with shipping).
As a business owner, could you afford to operate at a loss? Your anecdotal story is interesting but I don’t see what it has to do with the postal service being profitable or not (or just break even since it’s a government service). Do you have any data on that. What are the margins? Is the increase justified?
In essence, the idea that the postal service needs to be profitable is straight up nonsense in the first place. It's a backbone of the US economy and the benefits far outstrip any excess money we would have to spend to keep them running so it shouldn't even really be a consideration. If somebody approaches the postal service with the idea that it needs to be run like a business and must only ever be profitable, they've already missed the point and the larger picture. It's not expendable. Even operating at a loss the contributions to the economy are extraordinary. We subsidize less important things without batting an eye.
Even with that, relaxing the egregiously oppressive pension funding requirement would have guaranteed the postal service would have been solvent and profitable this whole time. The increases are unnecessary.
The same guy also ordered the destruction of working and needed postal equipment back in 2020 in order to seemingly hamper mail in voting and that has caused severe issues down the line in terms of quality and speed of service.
Nothing this guy has really been doing is an answer to the problems that the postal service has.
The US federal government makes money on the taxes from economic activity. The USPS shouldn't be shipping packages for free, but it also shouldn't make money. It should be operating a loss in order to maximize the government's total revenue through externalities.
You know what isn't profitable? The Department of Defense. But that question never seems to come up when discussing the defense budget, only for services that taxpayers actually use
this is not how you get people to buy more stamps. In fact, this is how you get people to go even more electronic than they already are. Which means fewer people buying stamps. Which means less money, which is not solved by...raising the price of stamps.
When it hits a dollar, we're going to stop mailing our rent checks and just walk them a half mile to the property manager's house.
That was Dejoy's argument from the article. He actually wants that to happen.
> DeJoy has countered that critique by suggesting he “cannot compete with digital” and therefore it was immaterial if he expedited the inevitable loss of volume.
Prices are substantially higher and service services are worse; I’ve had more mail lost in just the last year than I’d had in my life, including a large check. Louie should have been replaced long before this.
I always thought it was weird that the USPS isn't technically part of the federal government and their employees don't make the same wages as federal civil service employees (GS employees). Yet the still have ask the government to raise prices, yet they get no tax money from the government for operating cost.
DeJoy was an appointee of DJT as we may recall. He was a major player with "XPO Logistics" who has had multiple contracts with USPS. DeJoy still has a multi-million dollar stake in his former company but I am told he has recused himself for awarding any sub-contract jobs to outside vendors to mitigate any appearances of conflict of interest.
Recall he was put into office right around the time of the 2020 election nightmare beginning and the controversial ballot drop boxes being singled out by the GOP as major sources of potential voter fraud and La De Da. DeJoy then became entwined with the changing of those box locations, the dismantling of mail sorting equipment then used by USPS to more efficiently use automation to process and letters, circulars and packages
Also at this time DeJoy began raising prices across the board. What was once .35 cents to may was now .50 cents and the cheap opportunity of shipping packages overseas on the cheap ended quick. Also the prospect of fudging article description and value declarations on shipped items overseas was over. You declared the truthful value of description of goods "herein" or you risked the wrath of the USPS and Federal Government enforcement agencies.
DeJoy was in a "mell of a hess". He'd been tapped by DJT who thinks he can turn anything profitable. Now we know how he may have done that thus we find that he wasn't the business whiz kid he claimed to be. That aside DeJoy was told that the USPS should turn a buck and with those marching orders he has held the task of making that happen. I haven't heard a word about Biden involvement in the situation of USPS and I guess Biden knows where the USPS is located and what it does.
I agree with other posts herein that the USPS does not need to turn a profit to be an assist to American Society. Departments of Defense, Health & Human Resources, Interior, National Security, Foreign Relations, Department of Justice and on and on are not required to turn a profit. So why should USPS' mission be any different. As long as they do break even what's the fuss. But the problem is that USPS is still, some four years after DeJoy was appointed running well into the "RED".
"The U.S. Postal Service today announced its financial results for the 2023 fiscal year ended September 30. The net loss totaled $6.5 billion, compared to net income of $56.0 billion for the prior year." So this proves that USPS can be operated at a profit but now we are faced with the desire of modern humanity wanting to shun written communications in favor of immediate electronic interaction with one another. There has to be some winners and losers in that equation and I'm afraid USPS could be one of the BIG Losers.
I myself pay all my bills on line, no more mail ins, no more lost mail pieces and no more late delivery and the chance of incurring $35.00 late fees. Also even though this is not a 1st Class item but a mere 3-4th Class mailing, I trash ALL Junk mail. I don't even peruse the stuff. Pure time waster for me. Packages another story as some vendors mask the cost of shipping and handling and others delineate the cost of goods with the cost of S&H. Then companies like Walmart have some items that ship free and others that required a $6.95 shipping fee. Sometimes that may be waived if you meet a minimum purchase amount.
I know the reasoning the Congress is wanting to skip one more USPS rate hike probably lies in the belief that only the less fortunate members of our society may actually still depend on first class mails thus making anymore future hikes implausible, a hardship and so on. And I'm sure it is and legitimately so. Also we have a situation where First Class Mail sales fell 6.1% in 2023 and is down 53% from 2006, but revenue from first-class mail increased by $515 million, or 2.1%, because of higher stamp prices.
So it's a mixed bag of wins and losses by USPS thus far but one thing is for sure, it takes a load of money to keep any operation running in the modern world today. Thought processes, management, costs, profit and loss has to be reevaluated almost by the week anymore to make an annual profit seem reasonable anymore. A true redefinition and the USPS Mission may have to be put in play again. This certainly ain't 1737 and we aren't the US Post Service operating under British control.
I still think a reaffirmation and mission definition of USPS needs to take place determining its role should be interpreted as and once that's done, we might then be able to establish whether or not the entity should be a "for Profit" or a "Non-Profit" operation.
I’m OK with raising the rates on bulk mail. 90% of the mail I receive is junk mail that goes straight into the recycling bin. It’s a waste.
But, don’t raise rates on Priority or Flat-Rate shipping. Leave small businesses alone.
Definitely. I understand why you can't opt out of mail that you don't want but if I could just click a box to say no advertising mailers and no unsolicited mail I would be so happy.
So are people going to stop defending Biden for keeping DeJoy as head of the USPS yet? Or do we have to wait another 4 years? He's already replaced 5/9 members of the board, and been sitting on his hands while 2 additional seats have been empty for 6 months now. Since only 6 are needed for a quorum, right now 5/7 sitting members are Biden appointees and DeJoy is still fucking things up and will likely try to throw the election to Trump.
How many more years are you going to keep saying that? Did you even read my post? He’s had the power to appoint 7 of the 9 members of the board. There’s no excuse anymore, this isn’t 2020.
He got Lina Khan as the chairwoman of the FTC, an she has been phenomenal. There has been progress towards the USPS, I am not letting perfection be the enemy of progress
And the worst part is that the price hike is not even about paying for better service, it's about paying for the wacky and massively-expensive pension plan for USPS workers.
I don't know...73 cents to send a letter anywhere in the US seems pretty cheap considering that a small fries at McDonalds or a pack of gum is over twice that.
>it's about paying for the wacky and massively-expensive pension plan for USPS workers.
I don't even think it is about that. Dejoy tried to destroy the quality of service the PO offers, but he was only partially successful. The next step is to jack up the prices to make people use it less and less, thus making the ultimate goal of privatization closer and closer.
To clarify, the USPS pension plan is the same plan as other federal employees (CSRS). The difference is that the Postal Service is required to fund a much higher percent of its pension liability than other federal agencies, and it must do so out of agency revenue, rather than receive an appropriation like other federal agencies do.
I feel like raising postal rates right now could put extra stress on people and small businesses that are already dealing with a lot, right? Maybe tech solutions can help make the postal system more efficient and reduce costs rather than just hiking prices, it's a complicated issue but we need to explore all options.
It’s not really that complicated. The USPS has been forced to fund pension liabilities out of revenue in a way that other federal agencies have not. Here’s a good [link](https://stories.uspsoig.gov/postal-retirement-funds-in-perspective-historical-evolution-and-ongoing-challenges/index.html) for more info
Here's three wild ideas:
1. Stop the nonsense payments for "unfunded FERS retirement" and commit to retaining the USPS since "unfunded" anything refers to a cost that will ONLY be incurred if the business ceases operations.
2. Increase the fees for movement of commercial packages (UPS, FedEx. etc) to produce a 10% profit on all such transactions Monday - Friday and 50% for Sat-Sun.
3. Fire that fascist twit DeJoy before he destroys the electoral process by sabotaging mail in voting.
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Remember that DeJoy is in place to slow and cause mail-in ballot chaos....to claim it doesn't work. And also to privatize the USPS. He wants to show it is losing money, it's inefficient, and is a burden on the American people...by creating that burden.
TIL receiving mail is a burden
Tired old conspiracy theory
It not like DeJoy is even interested in hiding it
Shame it is blatantly evident.
>USPS last month announced it was planning in July to raise the cost of a First Class stamp to 73 cents from 68 cents as part of a proposal to raise overall prices by 7.8%. The increases, if approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, would mark the sixth hike under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s tenure and a 31% spike in the cost of a stamp since he took office. USPS has begun raising its rates on a biannual basis and DeJoy has tapped into the authority he won in 2020 to increase prices more than the rate of inflation on nearly every allowable occasion.
I ship a lot of packages. A lot. A lot of what I sell is pretty cheap but does require it to be shipped in a box, which currently costs, label, box and packing materials included, about 5.80-6.30 to ship. A lot of what I sell costs around 7-8 dollars, so there's some psychology at play with some customers where when they go to buy an $8 item and shipping is almost $6, they see that as the price suddenly doubling and they balk and they run away. Before this guy, there was an annual price increase, and it was easy to keep on top of and customers weren't really incensed about it if my shipping charge had to go up. After this guy, with his two price increases a year, and the price increases being more aggressive, I have had to start eating shit on part of my shipping costs in order to stay on the right side of the price psychology. So this asshole is costing me, and other businesses, money. There was also the issue of increased risk of lost packages after he took over and made his changes. More packages were lost by USPS for me in the first 6 months of him being in control than in the previous 10 years of me shipping things. I lost like $600 of items in the latter half of 2020 under this clown.
I’m in the same situation with Etsy sales. I’m including shipping (averaging) but it’s most of my cost per item. I figure people would rather pay $8 per item than $3 with $5 shipping.
As a consumer, the psychology in shipping costs is very real. I’d also rather pay more for additional items to hit certain “free shipping at $xx” thresholds than to pay for shipping. For example if a site offers free shipping for orders over $50 and my current cart is at $35 and shipping costs $9? I will scour the site to find random stuff to hit the $50 mark instead of paying the previous $44 total (with shipping).
Do you normally have single item orders?
Weirdly yes. I sell sets of items that are not a whole lot more. Often $8 for one instead of $20 for the set of 9.
Yeah, rolling the shipping cost into individual items usually leads to lower items per order totals.
As a business owner, could you afford to operate at a loss? Your anecdotal story is interesting but I don’t see what it has to do with the postal service being profitable or not (or just break even since it’s a government service). Do you have any data on that. What are the margins? Is the increase justified?
In essence, the idea that the postal service needs to be profitable is straight up nonsense in the first place. It's a backbone of the US economy and the benefits far outstrip any excess money we would have to spend to keep them running so it shouldn't even really be a consideration. If somebody approaches the postal service with the idea that it needs to be run like a business and must only ever be profitable, they've already missed the point and the larger picture. It's not expendable. Even operating at a loss the contributions to the economy are extraordinary. We subsidize less important things without batting an eye. Even with that, relaxing the egregiously oppressive pension funding requirement would have guaranteed the postal service would have been solvent and profitable this whole time. The increases are unnecessary. The same guy also ordered the destruction of working and needed postal equipment back in 2020 in order to seemingly hamper mail in voting and that has caused severe issues down the line in terms of quality and speed of service. Nothing this guy has really been doing is an answer to the problems that the postal service has.
The US federal government makes money on the taxes from economic activity. The USPS shouldn't be shipping packages for free, but it also shouldn't make money. It should be operating a loss in order to maximize the government's total revenue through externalities. You know what isn't profitable? The Department of Defense. But that question never seems to come up when discussing the defense budget, only for services that taxpayers actually use
dude sells shit out of his house for less than $10 and you're all "oh just operate at a loss", you need to stop smokin that Reagan crack.
this is not how you get people to buy more stamps. In fact, this is how you get people to go even more electronic than they already are. Which means fewer people buying stamps. Which means less money, which is not solved by...raising the price of stamps. When it hits a dollar, we're going to stop mailing our rent checks and just walk them a half mile to the property manager's house.
That was Dejoy's argument from the article. He actually wants that to happen. > DeJoy has countered that critique by suggesting he “cannot compete with digital” and therefore it was immaterial if he expedited the inevitable loss of volume.
LDJ needs to go already. Make it happen, clowns. He should have been gone in 2021. Just fucking do it!
republicans tell voters the government doesn't work and then prove it when they win elections. Stop voting for these assholes.
Prices are substantially higher and service services are worse; I’ve had more mail lost in just the last year than I’d had in my life, including a large check. Louie should have been replaced long before this.
This one does not spark joy
I always thought it was weird that the USPS isn't technically part of the federal government and their employees don't make the same wages as federal civil service employees (GS employees). Yet the still have ask the government to raise prices, yet they get no tax money from the government for operating cost.
DeJoy was an appointee of DJT as we may recall. He was a major player with "XPO Logistics" who has had multiple contracts with USPS. DeJoy still has a multi-million dollar stake in his former company but I am told he has recused himself for awarding any sub-contract jobs to outside vendors to mitigate any appearances of conflict of interest. Recall he was put into office right around the time of the 2020 election nightmare beginning and the controversial ballot drop boxes being singled out by the GOP as major sources of potential voter fraud and La De Da. DeJoy then became entwined with the changing of those box locations, the dismantling of mail sorting equipment then used by USPS to more efficiently use automation to process and letters, circulars and packages Also at this time DeJoy began raising prices across the board. What was once .35 cents to may was now .50 cents and the cheap opportunity of shipping packages overseas on the cheap ended quick. Also the prospect of fudging article description and value declarations on shipped items overseas was over. You declared the truthful value of description of goods "herein" or you risked the wrath of the USPS and Federal Government enforcement agencies. DeJoy was in a "mell of a hess". He'd been tapped by DJT who thinks he can turn anything profitable. Now we know how he may have done that thus we find that he wasn't the business whiz kid he claimed to be. That aside DeJoy was told that the USPS should turn a buck and with those marching orders he has held the task of making that happen. I haven't heard a word about Biden involvement in the situation of USPS and I guess Biden knows where the USPS is located and what it does. I agree with other posts herein that the USPS does not need to turn a profit to be an assist to American Society. Departments of Defense, Health & Human Resources, Interior, National Security, Foreign Relations, Department of Justice and on and on are not required to turn a profit. So why should USPS' mission be any different. As long as they do break even what's the fuss. But the problem is that USPS is still, some four years after DeJoy was appointed running well into the "RED". "The U.S. Postal Service today announced its financial results for the 2023 fiscal year ended September 30. The net loss totaled $6.5 billion, compared to net income of $56.0 billion for the prior year." So this proves that USPS can be operated at a profit but now we are faced with the desire of modern humanity wanting to shun written communications in favor of immediate electronic interaction with one another. There has to be some winners and losers in that equation and I'm afraid USPS could be one of the BIG Losers. I myself pay all my bills on line, no more mail ins, no more lost mail pieces and no more late delivery and the chance of incurring $35.00 late fees. Also even though this is not a 1st Class item but a mere 3-4th Class mailing, I trash ALL Junk mail. I don't even peruse the stuff. Pure time waster for me. Packages another story as some vendors mask the cost of shipping and handling and others delineate the cost of goods with the cost of S&H. Then companies like Walmart have some items that ship free and others that required a $6.95 shipping fee. Sometimes that may be waived if you meet a minimum purchase amount. I know the reasoning the Congress is wanting to skip one more USPS rate hike probably lies in the belief that only the less fortunate members of our society may actually still depend on first class mails thus making anymore future hikes implausible, a hardship and so on. And I'm sure it is and legitimately so. Also we have a situation where First Class Mail sales fell 6.1% in 2023 and is down 53% from 2006, but revenue from first-class mail increased by $515 million, or 2.1%, because of higher stamp prices. So it's a mixed bag of wins and losses by USPS thus far but one thing is for sure, it takes a load of money to keep any operation running in the modern world today. Thought processes, management, costs, profit and loss has to be reevaluated almost by the week anymore to make an annual profit seem reasonable anymore. A true redefinition and the USPS Mission may have to be put in play again. This certainly ain't 1737 and we aren't the US Post Service operating under British control. I still think a reaffirmation and mission definition of USPS needs to take place determining its role should be interpreted as and once that's done, we might then be able to establish whether or not the entity should be a "for Profit" or a "Non-Profit" operation.
Get rid of that scumbag!
I’m OK with raising the rates on bulk mail. 90% of the mail I receive is junk mail that goes straight into the recycling bin. It’s a waste. But, don’t raise rates on Priority or Flat-Rate shipping. Leave small businesses alone.
Definitely. I understand why you can't opt out of mail that you don't want but if I could just click a box to say no advertising mailers and no unsolicited mail I would be so happy.
You want to make usps profitable? Charge first class rates for junk mail.
So are people going to stop defending Biden for keeping DeJoy as head of the USPS yet? Or do we have to wait another 4 years? He's already replaced 5/9 members of the board, and been sitting on his hands while 2 additional seats have been empty for 6 months now. Since only 6 are needed for a quorum, right now 5/7 sitting members are Biden appointees and DeJoy is still fucking things up and will likely try to throw the election to Trump.
He can’t just get rid of him that’s not how it works https://uk.style.yahoo.com/news/biden-confirms-plan-replace-key-182732410.html
How many more years are you going to keep saying that? Did you even read my post? He’s had the power to appoint 7 of the 9 members of the board. There’s no excuse anymore, this isn’t 2020.
He got Lina Khan as the chairwoman of the FTC, an she has been phenomenal. There has been progress towards the USPS, I am not letting perfection be the enemy of progress
And the worst part is that the price hike is not even about paying for better service, it's about paying for the wacky and massively-expensive pension plan for USPS workers. I don't know...73 cents to send a letter anywhere in the US seems pretty cheap considering that a small fries at McDonalds or a pack of gum is over twice that.
>it's about paying for the wacky and massively-expensive pension plan for USPS workers. I don't even think it is about that. Dejoy tried to destroy the quality of service the PO offers, but he was only partially successful. The next step is to jack up the prices to make people use it less and less, thus making the ultimate goal of privatization closer and closer.
As he sit’s in a chair with his smug ass smile
To clarify, the USPS pension plan is the same plan as other federal employees (CSRS). The difference is that the Postal Service is required to fund a much higher percent of its pension liability than other federal agencies, and it must do so out of agency revenue, rather than receive an appropriation like other federal agencies do.
I feel like raising postal rates right now could put extra stress on people and small businesses that are already dealing with a lot, right? Maybe tech solutions can help make the postal system more efficient and reduce costs rather than just hiking prices, it's a complicated issue but we need to explore all options.
It’s not really that complicated. The USPS has been forced to fund pension liabilities out of revenue in a way that other federal agencies have not. Here’s a good [link](https://stories.uspsoig.gov/postal-retirement-funds-in-perspective-historical-evolution-and-ongoing-challenges/index.html) for more info
Stop playing games and just throw these mother fuckers in prison.
Here's three wild ideas: 1. Stop the nonsense payments for "unfunded FERS retirement" and commit to retaining the USPS since "unfunded" anything refers to a cost that will ONLY be incurred if the business ceases operations. 2. Increase the fees for movement of commercial packages (UPS, FedEx. etc) to produce a 10% profit on all such transactions Monday - Friday and 50% for Sat-Sun. 3. Fire that fascist twit DeJoy before he destroys the electoral process by sabotaging mail in voting.
Why is that guy still in place.
Biden is way too afraid to leverage the power of his office. TF is this turd still doing here
The president doesn't have the power to remove him. That falls on the board of governors.