Probably the only thing keeping the postal service afloat right now is Amazon. And pretty sure I pay sales tax on purchases through amazon if purchased from amazon.
Probably the only thing keeping the postal service afloat right now is Amazon. And pretty sure I pay sales tax on purchases through amazon if purchased from amazon.
1. The post office runs a deficit of about $5 billion per year when you include their retirement funding requirements, so in a very strong sense they are undercharging for delivery or overpaying for retirement. Either way, the taxpayers in general are supporting delivery instead of the deliverer/deliveree. 2. There is no federal government sales tax, of which Trump is the chief executive. From his department's point of view, Amazon pays little tax. Your local state/city/county government gets the sales taxes collected by Amazon during your purchases.
The Postal Service has a mandate to pre-fund their retirement program, mandated by Congress. [usps.com] This is where the deficit comes from. This is something no other government or private entity is forced to do. Do you think FedEx is pre-funding their retirement programs?
Not only that, but when they prepaid several billion more than they needed to (thanks to complying to changing rules forcing different payment schedules) they not only don't get the money back, but they cannot even apply those as prepayments to the pension fund. That money may as well have not existed.
The post office is going to be smaller than it was...email.
Given that fact, it would be insane _not_ to require them to fund their employees retirement accounts. Tax payers are on the hook for those retirements, fund them now.
That said: Fuck them. _After_ they have funded their accounts, the post office retirees should all be forced into Social Security (along with congress). Put all those funds into the SS trust.
As to what Amazon pays: Less than average cost, more than incremental cost. Normal busin
Package volume (shippers like Amazon) is increasing year after year. That "email" hit arrived many years ago. Do you still think it is new technology just being adopted? You might want to update your talking points to reflect the fact that is 2018. USPS annual revenue has actually been fairly stable since the Great Recession, it is not in any sort of downward spiral - as much as you might wish it to be.
You have a weird vindictive hatred of people who earn pensions - make the USPS pay for pensions for worker
1. The post office runs a deficit of about $5 billion per year when you include their retirement funding requirements, so in a very strong sense they are undercharging for delivery or overpaying for retirement.
The question is, of course, if that 5 billion would be more or less without Amazon - delivery very much has an economy of scale. You cannot take the deficit and divide it by the number of parcels to come to the conclusion that each new parcel causes a loss of X dollars. The retirement costs would e.g. continue even if no-one ever sent anything again.
2. There is no federal government sales tax, of which Trump is the chief executive. From his department's point of view, Amazon pays little tax. Your local state/city/county government gets the sales taxes collected by Amazon during your purchases.
Quote Trump: "they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments" (emphasis mine).
Postal Service (Score:1)
Probably the only thing keeping the postal service afloat right now is Amazon. And pretty sure I pay sales tax on purchases through amazon if purchased from amazon.
Re:Postal Service (Score:2, Informative)
Probably the only thing keeping the postal service afloat right now is Amazon. And pretty sure I pay sales tax on purchases through amazon if purchased from amazon.
1. The post office runs a deficit of about $5 billion per year when you include their retirement funding requirements, so in a very strong sense they are undercharging for delivery or overpaying for retirement. Either way, the taxpayers in general are supporting delivery instead of the deliverer/deliveree.
2. There is no federal government sales tax, of which Trump is the chief executive. From his department's point of view, Amazon pays little tax. Your local state/city/county government gets the sales taxes collected by Amazon during your purchases.
Re:Postal Service (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Not only that, but when they prepaid several billion more than they needed to (thanks to complying to changing rules forcing different payment schedules) they not only don't get the money back, but they cannot even apply those as prepayments to the pension fund. That money may as well have not existed.
Re: (Score:2)
I already noted in my original that including the retirement funding requirement is what pushes the post office into a deficit.
Re: (Score:2)
The USPS retirement funding obligation is high because the congress forced them to fund it at a much higher rate than normal corporations.
Re: (Score:2)
The post office is going to be smaller than it was...email.
Given that fact, it would be insane _not_ to require them to fund their employees retirement accounts. Tax payers are on the hook for those retirements, fund them now.
That said: Fuck them. _After_ they have funded their accounts, the post office retirees should all be forced into Social Security (along with congress). Put all those funds into the SS trust.
As to what Amazon pays: Less than average cost, more than incremental cost. Normal busin
Re: (Score:2)
Package volume (shippers like Amazon) is increasing year after year. That "email" hit arrived many years ago. Do you still think it is new technology just being adopted? You might want to update your talking points to reflect the fact that is 2018. USPS annual revenue has actually been fairly stable since the Great Recession, it is not in any sort of downward spiral - as much as you might wish it to be.
You have a weird vindictive hatred of people who earn pensions - make the USPS pay for pensions for worker
Re: (Score:2)
I have a dislike for government tit suckers that exempt themselves from ponzi schemes run by the government.
First class mail 'pays the freight'. It's volume is on a steady downward trend. The 'email hit' continues, year after year.
Re: (Score:2)
The post office is going to be smaller than it was...email.
They're just shifting from letters to commercial bulk mail and packages. If anything, their revenue is growing.
Re: (Score:2)
1. The post office runs a deficit of about $5 billion per year when you include their retirement funding requirements, so in a very strong sense they are undercharging for delivery or overpaying for retirement.
The question is, of course, if that 5 billion would be more or less without Amazon - delivery very much has an economy of scale. You cannot take the deficit and divide it by the number of parcels to come to the conclusion that each new parcel causes a loss of X dollars. The retirement costs would e.g. continue even if no-one ever sent anything again.
2. There is no federal government sales tax, of which Trump is the chief executive. From his department's point of view, Amazon pays little tax. Your local state/city/county government gets the sales taxes collected by Amazon during your purchases.
Quote Trump: "they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments" (emphasis mine).