USPS Shutdown

[MoonShadow]

USPS is how I got my yubikey. If it goes down I'm not sure how I'm going to get all my tech gadgets direct from China anymore.

UPS?

What is magical about a government subsidized parcel post? You either pay for it directly or via taxation.

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[Minsc]

I disagree that this problem is ONE man's fault.  Too many of us were living beyond our means and now its bit us in the ass.

Too many people were voting for these bad candidates instead of a third party candidate who can fix the country.

[hmongotaku]

Some people here have no choice but to use money orders and sometimes mail cash. And a lot of people here use USPS to mail products cheaply.

there is 3rd party local mail in cities, you know them. The one that give u spam in your box. There's fedex & UPS. The problem is theres like 7 million pensioners living off the retirement and using health care like free loaders. I'd say kick the free riders! and implement a cut-off date for years worked. Say reduce all pension by 30%... implement a date per years served. Say 10 years in teh mail service = 5 years pension etc... IT's the USPS fault 20 years ago hiring 50-60 year olds.

[compro01]

instead of bankruptcy.. they should kick the retirees with the "no free rides"... and also mandate a "workload" per pay check incentive. Maybe kick the union out and lower wages like those of public servants. 

Ok, your retirement savings are hereby confiscated.  No free ride for you.

[Interneting]

There are a handful of things I consider important enough for the government to take care of. Police, Fire protection, military, roadwork, etc. In that list I truly feel the postal service is worth our tax dollars. Forget everything you dislike about Bush and Obama for a second here. Forget about everything they have done up until right now. Now, consider that Obama has been parading around the country recently trying to gain support for a new $465 billion dollar "jobs" plan. Why isn't he pushing congress to pass emergency funds to get the USPS back on their feet? I read that the USPS is in jeopardy of not making a $5.5 billion pension plan payment next month. Obama could propose a plan to give them $12 billion (a mere drop in the bucket compared to $465 billion no?) to keep them comfortably afloat for now and within 2 months press even harder to make the legislative changes needed to fix their broken union contracts.

I'm not saying the post office shouldn't down-size to keep up with the times, but why does everything have to be so damn sudden and severe when it comes to core services from the government? It's like Congress and the White House have no interest in fixing problems they can easily solve and instead try to create new problems or worsen big ones. It's my understanding that the "jobs" plan would be similar to the 2009 stimulus and if recent memory recalls correctly that worked real well didn't it? Oh wait we're trying to win votes for the next election not actually fix problems in a manageable way one at a time. I swear high school kids taking civics classes could run this country better than Washington does currently. At least they could see the mess in front of them clearly because their heads wouldn't already be up their asses.

As for a USPS shutdown's effect on bitcoin? Well it will hurt many bitcoin based start-ups in various ways. Those that choose to use USPS shipping of products no longer would have that option. The mail a typical business receives is slowly being offset by email, but not entirely. Like all other businesses they won't have a convenient and cheap way to receive or send simple paper mail via envelope. Eventually UPS and/or Fedex will take up the challenge of dealing with the USPS' business. Personally, I still prefer tradehill to gox and since the Dwolla incident I choose to get checks sent to me instead of signing up with Paxum when I do convert to USD. Tradehill will mail me a check for free and I only have to wait ~5 business days. It's not like the dollar's value is jumping from 12 to 4 to 6 to ?? every other day so a check for $xxx is still worth $xxx to me when I get it.

[critmass]

Anyone who wants to blame Bush for the current economic situation is either ignorant or a political hack.  The problems that we face now are systemic, long-term, and wide-spread.  It took the better part of fifty years to get here and irresponsible legislation and business practices, mixed with limited foresight and short-term profit-maximization by firms, special interest groups, AND unions as well as over leveraging of banks businesses, AND individuals.  In short, if you want to find someone to point the finger at, the closest person is probably the guy that looks back at you in the mirror.

[joulesbeef]

Please tell me you don't vote. If you can't even look up what it is you're complaining about you shouldn't open your mouth............. put time limits on welfare....guess what would happen?  

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act

Requiring recipients to begin working after two years of receiving benefits;
Placing a lifetime limit of five years on benefits paid by federal funds;

Mister kettle, perhaps you should quit screaming that the pot is black. and might want to do a little research yourself before opening your mouth.. er fingers.


as for what happened, you can look that up as well


I swear I love it when people get all high and mighty and accuse others of being ignorant and not looking shit up, while they spew ignorance.

[critmass]

Please tell me you don't vote. If you can't even look up what it is you're complaining about you shouldn't open your mouth............. put time limits on welfare....guess what would happen?  

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act

Requiring recipients to begin working after two years of receiving benefits;
Placing a lifetime limit of five years on benefits paid by federal funds;

Mister kettle, perhaps you should quit screaming that the pot is black. and might want to do a little research yourself before opening your mouth.. er fingers.


as for what happened, you can look that up as well


I swear I love it when people get all high and mighty and accuse others of being ignorant and not looking shit up, while they spew ignorance.

I think Mistafreeze was referring to extension of the length of time that unemployment insurance benefits can be collected, which has nearly quadrupled since Obama took office; going from 26 weeks to 99 weeks.