THE POSTAL SERVICE

Recently, the Postal Service (USPS) announced that it has a 2 Billion dollar deficit and implied very strongly that it may need further public (ie Taxpayer) assistance. No, not even a large increase in Postal rates will do.

One of the USPS solutions is to quit home delivery on Saturdays; but, that may not be sufficient to correct the problem.

At the same time the USPS engaged in litigation (which it finally won) against the Hamburger chain Burger King (BK). The suit was brought because BK showed an ad in which people dressed as USPS workers told how much they liked BK burgers and implied that they would possibly delay deliveries so that they could enjoy a BK. BK agreed to change their ads but there was no indication that BK would compensate the USPS. By the way; how was the USPS harmed by the ads?

I wonder how much the USPS spent in pursuing this action. Maybe the money spent here could have been better spent in reducing USPS costs and its deficit. Also, how many other actions could be suspended or eliminated to ease their problems (such as the silly ads on tv and sponsoring the Olympics etc)?

Of course, it could probably be shown that the majority of the USPS cost overruns are due to excessive costs in salaries, retirement programs and unneeded property assets.