The United States Postal Service is considering a plan that would put at least another 484 miles and eight hours of road time on my mail. The USPS will study how much money it could save by closing the Rapid City mail processing facility and sending all that West River mail to Casper, Wyoming.
According to RCJ's Emilie Rusch, the Rapid City processing facility employs 60 people and carries out one of the government's fundamental constitutional obligations for tens of thousands of South Dakotans in the 577-- ZIP code region, "a swath of western South Dakota that extends from Spearfish to Quinn to Buffalo to Pine Ridge."
Governor Daugaard tells Rusch he thinks such a closure is a bad idea. Economics don't, either. Hauling that mail to Casper and back makes overnight delivery via USPS impossible. That means Black Hills postal customers would either see the speed of their business slow or spend more on other delivery services, cutting further into USPS market and revenues. Either way, local customers and businesses lose.
Imagine you're an artist in Custer. You make necklaces and bracelets and sell them on Etsy. You ship your products cheaply by USPS. You can currently please your Sioux Falls customers by getting your stuff to them overnight for little extra cost. When the USPS bounces your goods out to Casper and back, they cut into your business model. That Rapid City mail processing facility is good for your bottom line.
Of course, there is a strong argument that the purported fiscal troubles in the United States Postal Service could be fixed by some simple accounting tweaks... as well as getting Wall Street not to crash the economy again. But the conservative government-hating detractors of the USPS aren't as interested in actual efficiency as they are in waging war against unions, the poor, and a government program that works pretty darn well.
And that's why it may take an extra day or two for Grandma to get her postcards from Mount Rushmore.
Winner is about 225 miles from Rapid City. Sometimes mail gets there overnight, sometimes mail from there takes two days. Sometimes mail to there takes two days.
Slap a weekend into the mix and it might be 4 days.
The post office plays strange games with data and shifting mail around to make a center look like it has enough volume, or perhaps not enough as well.
Wait a minute, I thought it was President Obama that just endorsed the changes to the Post Office system. Has he suddenly become a "conservative government hating detractor of the USPS" ?
Joseph G Thompson
Probably, Joe. Or, of course, he could be throwing meat to the wolves as he tries to outrun them in his troika.
"government’s fundamental constitutional obligations"
Cory, you will have to show me where that is in the Constitution.
"as well as getting Wall Street not to crash the economy again"
You will have to explain how it is in the best interests of Wall Street to crash the economy.
"But the conservative government-hating detractors of the USPS aren’t as interested in actual efficiency as they are in waging war against unions, the poor, and a government program that works pretty darn well."
Really Cory? Where is Bill Fleming at, with his paranoid conspiracy theme, when you really neeed him?
Mr Sibson,
You won't need Bill Fleming to find a paranoid conspiracy freak. I proudly claim that title too, and my political and moral beliefs are further to the right than yours. However, mine are not strictly defined by religion.
Cori is wrong about the USPS being a Constitutional obligation. The USPS was however established by the Founders of our Constitution. So, if we wish to remain true to the beliefs of our Founders, then the USPS is a government obligation.
I am certainly not an authority on economics, but I am a student of history and if you study and compare actions taken by the trading houses of Wall street and the major banks in the 1920's and 30's with what they(the banks and stock traders)did in the 1990's and 2000's you will find amazing similiarities. Stock traders make money by buying and selling shares, does not matter if the company makes money or not. Buy low sell high, drive the stock down, buy low. Drive the stock high and then sell. Additional profits are made by sale volumns. The more stock shares the trader buys and sells the more money they make. Like I said I am not an expert on economics so if I am wrong I would most certainly appreciate economics expert explaining to me where I am wrong.
Joseph G Thompson
The Post Office is good for business. Congress in its infinite wisdom will try to squeeze the USPS. We are talking a few billion dollars here. Slow down mail and make it unreliable and the gov't will lose a huge amount in taxes that will dwarf any "savings" as consumers cut back and businesses suffer.
Excuse me? U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, "The Congress shall have the power... to establish post offices and post roads"? Anyone?
Congress has the power, BUT no where does it say that we have to have a USPS.
Constitution permits the establishment of the post office, does not mandate the establishment of.
Joseph G Thompson
Sorry about that Mike, posted from my phone and it did not show your post.
Joseph G Thompson
By Micheal's and Joseph's logic, there's no mandate for a military either.
The Constitutional authority "To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;" and the authorities "To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;" or "To provide and maintain a Navy;" appear in the same section.
If having the power "to establish" doesn't mandate establishment then the power "to raise" or "to provide" also fails to mandate the raising or providing.
I like this logic. I'm willing to live with no postal service if I get a defense only military that can't be tasked to do all the foreign adventuring that has been going on the past decade.
LK, you will get no arguements from me. Check out the history of the armned forces. You will see that until the end of WWII the peace time army and navy were very very small(for all pratical purposes they didn't exist), expanding only when the U.S. went to war. There was no such thing as a peacetime draft until months before the start of the U.S. entry into WWII. The United States has been at peace since the signing of the documents that ended WWII. We are only at war when the Congress declares war and there have been no declarations of war since 1941.
Permission to do something does not mean that you must do something.
Joseph G Thompson
O.K., maybe we should just say that getting our mail in a timely fashion is good for the local economy and culture, and that the United States Postal Service does that job better and for a better price than the private sector. Why back down from that realy good system?
Very interesting construct, Joseph. Very interesting indeed.
It seems to put the USPS in a no win situation where no more money is to be approved and the only way for them to keep operating is to dramatically reduce services and break the contract with union.
This will effect the economy...maybe as much as the next government shutdown coming in less than one week.
Mike,
"break the contract with the union", you just hit the nail on the head. That is the problem government at all levels are facing, contract with unions. Now I am going to write something that almost every reader of this blog will disagree with.
Government workers at any level should not be permitted to unionize.
There was a time, not so long ago, that government workers were paid much less than private sector workers. They accepted that they earned less than the private sector because a job with the government was a life long job with no fear of lay offs or reductions in pay and benefits. When they retired they were assured of a pension and continued benefits, better than those received in the private sector.
In the 1970's when unions were permitted to organize actual labor unions at government levels, government workers wanted more pay and better benefits than provided in the private sector along with the craddle to grave security provided by government employment. Govenment workers now eat the cake and have it too. Personell costs for retired and working employees now eat up much the operating budget of most government agencies, including the Defense Department.
You can't have the cake and eat it too, the USPS is the first government agency to have to face that fact, the Department of Defense will be the next and active/retired duty military folks are going to bite the bullet next to preserve civilian jobs and benefits with the DOD.
The USPS is just the edge of the glacier that is about to sweep over government employees and retirees at all levels.
I'll say it again, government workers should not be allowed to organize unions, they serve the people.
Joseph G Thompson
Joe, aren't you one of those retired people receiving benefits?
Unions are not inherently bad. They improved working conditions and wages long before there was an OSHA or minimum wage at a time when companies did not take care of their workers.
The stupidity and blame lies with the public official that made promises that they should have known that they would not be able to keep down the road. Insurance companies have actuaries that calculate risk. Why did not the government employ common sense as well?
Mike,
Yup, I drew reduced pay for reduced services and am finally on the fully retired list. Not a cent of my retirement was earned on union payrolls. Spent many years fighting with labor unions here in the U.S. and in the U.K. The attitudes displayed by the unions convinced me that government employees should never be allowed to unionize. If you think they should, one day when you have no plctures to take stop by the house and I'll tell you some whore stories[whore is not misspelled].
Not saying all unions bad. Bill Flemmings work in California is especially commendable. Only saying no unions for government emplpyees.
Joseph G Thompson