Racing Turtles

The USPS is the fastest, cheapest, and most accurate mail service on the planet last I heard, and is the biggest employer of veterans in the entire country. 

On top of that, mail carriers:  -have wages that top out at over $30 an hour (and their wages go up in predictable steps based on how long they’ve been with the USPS) -have excellent benefits, including a shit-ton of vacation time, plus a pension, and they can retire after thirty years

But they also have one of the oldest, biggest, strongest unions in the country. That must piss off Republicans so much. 

Also, side note: they take zero taxpayer dollars. They’re entirely funded by postage. 

(”But I heard they were doing terribly!” They’re not. Congress saddled them with pre-funding their retirement 75 years out to intentionally put them in the red and make them look bad. I’m not joking or exaggerating. There’s tons of info, but here’s the USPS’s own info: https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/annual-reports/fy2010/ar2010_4_002.htm )

okay, compatriots

Enough time has passed. I’m going to tell you about the best thing I’ve ever done, which has resulted in:

Warning for nsfw pranksmanship under the cut. Also, if you’re afraid of the mothman… welcome to the club?

Keep reading

I. Did not keep my cool in this situation.

you were perfect.

USPS is largest employer of veterans. Figures Republicans are attacking the vets.

The US Postal Service’s forced financial crisis

In 2006 – Republicans in Congress passed a poison pill piece of legislation forcing the Post Office to pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years out into the future – basically funding benefits for future employees who aren’t even born yet. The Postal Service has to do this by giving the Treasury $5.5 billion every single year. That’s a requirement that no business, or any government agency has ever had to comply with. And it’s the reason why the Post Office is going bankrupt today and looking into closing down post offices, laying off workers, and cutting down delivery service.

So why is all this happening? Because the Postal Service employs hundreds of thousands of unionized workers – where as private mail carriers like UPS and Fed Ex do not. Republicans – in their non-stop war on labor – realized that they could hurt unions by bankrupting the Postal Service. That’s what they did in 2006, and their plan is working today.

https://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2012/08/us-postal-services-forced-financial-crisis

Just an FYI, this is how much more expensive shopping online will be if USPS goes away. For small and lightweight packages like t-shirts, USPS wins hands down. 

This is a screen shot of me buying a shipping label for an 8oz package from WA to NJ via USPS.

This is a screen shot of me buying a shipping label for an 8oz package to the same address via FedEx. 

Don’t forget, sellers need to charge a little extra to cover their packing materials and such.

So do you want to pay $4-$5 shipping, or do you want to pay $13 - $14 shipping?

Oh, and notice that USPS has an estimated arrival date of September 2nd vs FedEx September 6th. 

America’s small businesses rely on USPS. 

The cost difference between them is no joke- and we’ve had a lot of increases to USPS’s shipping in the last few years as well, so even with those increases it’s less than half the cost of what FedEx would charge you to send the same object the same distance. Now imagine if private shipping was the only option; how much would it cost then?

Right now it costs me about $3 (before envelopes, etc) to ship the average order in the US. If I use UPS or FedEx? That number literally triples. Some orders can be shipped for under a dollar with USPS. Not so with private shippers.

Let’s not forget that FedEx and UPS don’t deliver everywhere. In fact, they depend on USPS to deliver to “The Last Mile”. Basically, the private companies don’t want to deliver to rural or hard to reach areas. But the USPS has to. So guess who the private companies hire?

Also the USPS is one of the largest employers of people of color, particularly black people.

I have also had the anecdotal experience where I took a large envelope (8.5x11″) to ship and started by FedEx since it was closer to my home. They made me fill out extensive, tedious paperwork that included separately listing the value of the “media” and the value of the “content of the media,” then told me they would charge me almost $100 to ship it.

Took it to the Post Office instead and they shipped it for 8 bucks in 5 minutes.

“Private business is ~always~ more efficient & cheaper & less red tape than public utility” is a lie, a myth, a lie.