digitalagriculture
3752
255
4
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/usps-pension-payments-fers-cash-crisis/
Apr 10, 2026 3:23 PM
digitalagriculture
3752
255
4
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/usps-pension-payments-fers-cash-crisis/
Buffoonery
There is a huge disconnect in how Americans think about how a govt works and how a for-profit business works. They are not the same, folks. Completely different goals and purposes.
molotovity
This just in: the department of defense is set to lose 1.5 TRILLION dollars next year!
Stefnos87
and the US military lost 2billion a day in Iran -.-
Jimthebutler
9 billion in losses? Trump can lose a billion a day in iran and yall are worried that the postal service is wasting money? Fuck off CBS. just fund the damn mail service.
DianNaoChong
They want a public service to be profitable? Sounds like socialism
debob
"Haha, the marxist postal service has finally been eliminated! ...Hey why are UPS and Fedex suddenly charging $250 to deliver anything to my rural town?"
Mountons
The marine Corp loses huge amounts, but they do so to make money for private interests, that was the whole game in Iraq... Twice. Smash, grab and sell. So in the eyes of those in power the military is a service to them, therefore the "losses" are justified, the same we should think about any social service for the public.
Jimthebutler
Government services are in estments the country makes to provide a benifet to the people, they arent meant to make profit.
WoTLert
Lol. "Benefit to the people". The US doesn't do that kind of thing. You're all slaves to the 1%/
dontrike
And all due to republicans ratfucking the the post office. The year before they did it the post office made $900 million. The military wishes it made money.
hellospacemonkey
The USA with Trump and JD Vance lost 2.7 Billion in 2 weeks worth of downed aircraft. That's not even the cost of putting on the operations or the bombs/weapons. Trump/Vance have requested an additional 350 BILLION just for the war in Iran.
BryanTenn
It's a postal SERVICE. I hate this propaganda.
BryanTenn
We need to make sure everything the MAGA Trump Cult destroys gets rebuilt using their money. Special 30% tax on the rich until done.
Stumpkiller
How much money does ICE lose?
FluidExchangeProgram
I’ve never understood why paying for garbage service is a thing. It seems like it should also be a public service.
miserycones
Some places have county-run trash services. I lived in a place at one point where there was a very reasonable flat fee each month and you could leave anything including furniture by the curb (I think there was a 500 pound limit or something) and they'd pick it up for no extra charge. It was great and no privatized trash collection service comes anywhere close to being as cheap and easy
FartsSmellBad
Because somewhere somebody wants to get rich on essential services
Skevoid
The roads and schools keep losing money!
Baconlovesyoutoo
It's a made up loss. Some genius's (Why yes, it was Congress) decided to fund USPS retirements out to 2065, which means the employees receiving those benefits have not even been hired by the postal service yet. Congress was creating a cash cow they could raid to stave off debt, just like Social Security.
HolyFreakingToast
one week epstein war pays for postal service for the year. it has been going on over a month - we could fund 100 postal services before this is over. fuk you gop.
Munchman347
USPS makes a huge profit every year, but greedy Rep-Cons shifted the profits into the 'General Fund' (Rep-Con Piggy Bank), and put the Post Office on a miserly budget, all so they could later claim the Post Office was badly run and obsolete...
jamesx
Considering US Military just lost $45 bilion in just the last few weeks.
Tezerah1
This was all by design. Louis DeJoy destroyed the USPS, look it up.
WaxedApple
The Marine Corp has zero value. America is not at risk of being attacked by anyone, and all the Marines are good for is murdering foreigners. Every penny spent on the US military is theft from the American people.
psmith00
yeah, but it provides a service to the people cheaper than others like UPS or FEDEX so it has to die and people can then get their goods and meds via a good old American for profit system. remember , there can be no transaction that can happen in America that does not generate some profit for some oligarch in America.
foreverinchains
The Postal Service is a service, not a business. It wasn't built to make profit.
That "crisis" is by design.
The wealthy business interests in your government are doing everything they can to privatize the USPS in order to extract profit from it.
IAmAnjelen
Making voting by mail impossible through denial of infrastructure and/or a process under Republican control is a nice side effect to that, I suppose.
Futschigama
Look, I agree that USPS doesnt necessarily need to make a profit, but other countries have managed to make their postal services into profitable businesses, so I think it's a legitimate question to ask why USPS can't be the same
NKato
It was profitable. Congress forced it to pre-fund 75 years of pensions. That is the single biggest drag on them right now.
theshinobi23
They've been trying to destroy the USPS for decades. This whole situation was set up in 2006, when they mandated the USPS to prepay into pensions. IIRC, it's required to have them ready something like 75 years in advance. They have to have pensions fully prepared and paid for, for retirees who aren't even born yet. It also receives 0 tax dollars, and is required to fund itself.
Choiced
More so that they can strategically deny or delay services when convenient; the profits are just gravy.
ZookyPooky
https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/6407/text
In 2006 the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) Law required USPS to pre-fund 75 years of pensions when it appears no other agency did.
So yea, you are absolutely right that it's under fire now and has been for 20 years at least.
Casually
By design is meaning that Republicans are intentionally killing it.
djevelen
they have been working on that exact thing since at least the first Bush admin in the 80s.
TheVillageGrouch9000
I worked as a temp summer mail carrier. Reagan wanted this as well, the one who lit the trickle down fuse.
fformulaa
They'd privatize air if they could!
KingKrabvoldIV
I hate this narrative so much. It’s a service and basic utility of our country that is essential. Rural people are fucked if we ditch it and go private.
supervillin
Urban people too, because private postal service means we will only get the mail that pays the most to get to us.
KingKrabvoldIV
I think the main difference is that places like UPS and FedEx won’t even travel to most places and would require a PO Box in a town for pickup. Everyone would be hit hard, but remote places wouldn’t even get mail traffic for basic letters.
ansiichan
well, should it be public service though ? judging from package delivery services across the world public ones are by far always the worst ones, always slowest, always least innovative, always purely by quality of their service relegated to delivering only goverment mail like voting ballots/pensions etc.
JustABookworm
Maybe for your country it's a different situation. But for private delivery companies like Amazon and Fed-Ex, the reason they manage to keep quality speedy service is because they load off the excess packages on USPS. During Christmas or other busy seasons, a lot of the things I ordered were USPS when they were normally Fed Ex or UPS. So the "higher quality service" that private companies boast in USA is backed up by USPS's workforce in addition to their own workforce
TheDefective
Actually, the postal service used to be the one branch of the government that always made money. The USPS was gutted to harm employment, voting, and ensure that homelessness and poverty remain a motivating factor for the lower classes!
MinimumContributor
I thought National Park Service used to be revenue generating too?
TheDefective
yes but not year after year after year. it frequently generated revenue.
jakedafish
I swear that it’s something like every dollar in the national parks made 3 back?
TheDefective
indeed, but the occasional large scale disaster could push them temporarily into the red some years.
jakedafish
Mmm. That would make sense.