US Postal Service in Jeopardy, Raising Stamp Prices by 2 cents, but Postmaster General Gets 40% Pay Raise

I heard this on CNN yesterday and couldn’t believe my ears.  These stories keep coming out of every crevice of the American economy.  Charles Darwin taught us about survival of the fittest nearly 200 years ago and American businesses still haven’t caught on to this evolutionary premise.

Aye yi yi!

From the Washington Times

POSTMASTER GOT $800,000 IN PAY, PERKS

Postmaster General John E. Potter recently warned that economic times are so dire that the U.S. Postal Service may end mail delivery one day a week and freeze executive salaries. But his personal fortunes are nonetheless rising thanks to 40 percent in pay raises since 2006, a $135,000 bonus last year and several perks usually reserved for corporate CEOs.

The changes, approved by the Postal Board of Governors and contained in a little-noticed regulatory filing in December, brought Mr. Potter’s total compensation and retirement benefits to more than $800,000 in 2008. That is more than double the salary for President Obama.

The new compensation package, much of it deferred to later years, goes beyond a newly beefed-up salary, now $263,575, that Congress arranged for him as part of a 2006 law to make top postal salaries more competitive with those in the private sector. At least four other postal officials got more than a quarter-million dollars in total compensation in 2008, according to Postal Service records reviewed by The Washington Times.

Lawmakers, already trying to limit compensation of Wall Street executives, have taken notice of Mr. Potter’s good fortune when the Postal Service is posting nearly $3 billion a year in losses and now wants to raise the price of a stamp by 2 cents.

Am I the only one that will scream if I see another 2 cent increase in postal rates?

I feel like I can barely get through a book of stamps before they’re obsolete.

There’s even talk about going to 5 day a week mail service.

I mean, I get it.  Like so many things, snail mail has become just that- snail mail.  Gone are the days of writing love letters to your boo, writing checks to pay all of your bills, or even the need to mail greeting cards.

From USA Today (long article but worth reading the entire thing, I’ve placed some excerpts below.  I also like that it’s written from Grandview Heights, OH which is not from me.  lol)

POSTAL SERVICE SEEKS TO WEATHER ECONOMIC STORM

Most Americans realize the Postal Service they’ve known for generations has to change. A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll indicates that most support cutting back mail services — closing post offices, trimming deliveries from six days a week to five — rather than raising stamp prices or using taxpayers’ money for a bailout…

…The Postal Service has withstood challenges from the telegraph and telephone. It has adapted to stagecoaches, railroads, airplanes and other innovations that quickened the pace of American life.

Now, it’s facing a range of modern problems that could cause it to run out of cash this year or early next…

…With 650,000 workers, the Postal Service is the USA’s third-largest employer, after Wal-Mart and the Defense Department. It has the nation’s biggest vehicle fleet — and high gas prices cost it $500 million last year.

Union contracts make layoffs rare. Raises are automatic. Labor costs have been reduced through early retirement packages and cutting back hours. The Postal Service has trimmed its workforce by 120,000 since 2002. It wants to cut 100 million work hours this year. The average unionized postal worker made $66,929 in wages and benefits in 2008, the Postal Service says…

…The Postal Service thrived during the recent bubble economy. It reached its financial peak in 2003, when it earned a $3.8 billion profit. The mail business was boosted by soaring credit and a booming consumer economy. Banks mailed billions of credit offers to Americans. Retail catalogs were fat and profitable.

In 2006, at the peak of the credit bubble, Congress passed its first major overhaul of the Postal Service since 1971. The Postal Service got more freedom to control its prices, especially on packages and overnight deliveries that compete with services offered by private companies.

But the law also ordered the Postal Service to pay $55 billion over 10 years to create a reserve fund to cover retirees’ long-term health care benefits.

“We did not oppose this,” Potter says. “We were well-positioned at the time. We thought we could afford it.”