How Can The US Post Office Go Under?

What seems crazy about all of this is that only a year ago they were saying that the Postal Service had a surplus of funds. Where did that go?

I feel that in this day and age of on line shopping, there will always be room for the post office.

Yes it is possible since they get their money from people using the service. Since people are not mailing as many items, the post office is loosing revenue. Another major downfall of the postal system is their retirement plan. I don't recall the numbers but they pay more in pensions to retired workers than they do in salary to their current workers.

Personally some of this really makes no sense to me either, unless there is a way for every place to become Electronic without charging a Fee when paying bills. I know many people out there have no choice but to pay by mail when it comes to their bills and for the Post Office to be making these claims makes it seem a little odd. You would think they would be mandated a little by the government wouldn't you?

Hi Moonlitmagikchild, it has to do with volume of mails. if one postman used to deliver 1000 mails per day, and each mail cost 50 cents on average, that will mean delivery of $500 worth of products in a day. When you factor in the cost of electricity for the post offices, the cost of gas, the mortgage on the vehicles, the salary of the employees, the actual profit is not that high. Now with the advent of emails and technology, the number of mails per day goes down, and yet the postman has to follow the same delivery route. Those long queue you see in post office does not generate much profit, since these are the lay persons, and not big businesses.

The Post Office in the Uk is struggling too. There are just too many private companies now and everyone does things by email instead of letter. A lot of us don't even send Birthday, Easter, or Christmas cards anymore because the postage is so high or we don't want to have to keep recycling everything. Apart from that, delivery times have changed and there aren't so many.

I doubt it will go out of business, but i can see it cutting back days that mail is delivered. Reading through others comments...yeah the internet and cell phones have made written communications slim. However I think thats only part of it. Your mail is hauled around in trucks, that need gas....have you seen the price of gas...on top of paying the people hauling the mail??? Not to mention....if the government has no money..how do you expect it to pay its many organizations??? My field of work is paid for by the government and many of us havent gotten raises in the past couple of years, and programs are being cut out because of the lack of money...why would the Post Office be any different???

Friend nowaday internet and Mobiles are famous to communicate with the far people. So people have forgotten the writing a letter. Those two things that i have mentioned above are the fastest communicating services compare to Post office letters. But Government and the Businessman have chance to make up the post offices by sending their work orders or if they start hiring candidates then they should rule that application should come from the post not from the online. Any kind of letters that they send they can use post office but Post office should improve in their service to make their come back in this situation. But it is very difficult to do that because government is not taking care of that.

In this time of internet revolution and technological breakthrough, I am wondering why you could loose your sleep over the united states post office. In Nigeria, we have forgotten about the Nigerian Postal and Telecommunication Agency ( NIPOST ) They were inefficient and timewasting. Morealso there were high cases of mail pilfering and mail thelft. No one in Nigeria really trust their official because every week someone always complain of not getting his or mail. Some complain of their mail being tampered with and something taken away from it especially money. When the internet and mobile phone revolution came up thanks to former president Olusegun Obasanjo government. He brought relief to many Nigeria who have become weary of the problem of NIPOST. We are now enjoying our mobile phone very well.We are now accessing our emails very well. We are now browsing for information on the internet ( world wide web) I do know that the postal agency is still relevant because of the hard copy type of document that can be sent which is somehow impossible with the internet. In that case, why do n't you people use the private courier agency and that will make the government funded body to sit up. Have a great day cheers!

What people don't understand is that Governments are the largest buisnesses in the world, but they are buisnesses, or I should say they operate just like one ... that's why we pay taxes, they have to get their money from somewhere, since they aren't allowed to make goods, they can only provide services. As such, they have to have the money to continue doing "business", mail delivery, park services, etc, etc. Considering how much debt our government is in, it's amazing that they have continued to provide what they do. So, as unbelievable as it sounds, if a service isn't making enough money to support itself ... well, there are private businesses that provide the same service, so it's not like people couldn't send letters or packages--we'd just have to pay more to the private company. In essance, yes it could happen, but I still think it's unlikely. I see them cutting the park services or stuff like that before they cut postal services.