Law of Moderation

This is the graph that helps explain: "The Law Of Moderation" This is probably a concept that is not new or cutting edge but I can't find the actual law so I've renamed it. I am not trying to take credit for this original idea if it exists.

Anyways here is the explaination:

I ran out of time while taking a little break from the day to grind. More to come later... and it good so make sure to book mark this and check back!

Other Solutions

As other potential solutions present them selves they will be added to the ever growing list here. Until a better solution is presented The Solution will remain on top.

Cost Cutting Solutions:

1. Closing on Saturdays.
2. Cutting benefits.
3. Cutting hours.
4. Cutt over all staff by firing employees.
5. Expaning or Merging delivery routes together.
6. Putting adds on the sides of trucks.
7. Dissolving the Union

Revenue Solutions:

1. Ads placed on the sides of trucks.
2. Celebrity Stamps carrying higher prices.
3. Taxing emails.

USPS Staggering Statistics

1. Total mail volume decreased 20 percent from 2006 to 2010.

2. With 571,566 full-time workers, the USPS is the country’s second-largest civilian employer after Wal-Mart.

3. It operates 31,871 post offices, more than the combined domestic retail outlets of Wal-Mart, Starbucks and McDonald’s.

80 percent of the USPS budget goes to salaries and benefits.

4. It’s been losing money since 2006, including nearly $20 billion since 2007.

5. The agency is now almost $15 billion in debt. Unless the government steps in, it will default on $5.5 billion of retiree health-care costs in September. By October it will reach its legal debt limit, and by the end of the year, the USPS will be out of cash — insolvent and unable to operate.

All stats taken from: statspotting.com/2011/06/us-postal-service-some-interesting-statistics/

Author: Doug Scott

Doug Scott is one of the Authors for this site.

More Bio might come later... Just depends on how much steam this site will get.

A Three Part Solution.

This is going to be: "The Solution"... untill some one can come up with a better one.

I am proposing a three part solution to fix the USPS. This is not rocket science but it needs to be done at a comfortable pace to avoid causing shock to the United States economy. Which would and could cause the ulitmate demise to our country. The lose of 500,000 jobs overnight would cause such a huge ripple effect though our economy that we could never recover from it.
The three pieces are as follows:

1. Define the Division between household and business mail. This is an important and critical step that lays the ground work for the following steps. Households will continue to send mail at the current postage of 49 cents. This will be the "service" part of the post office. Any household business must define themselves as such to avoid any legal ramifications and not place a burden on the current system.
2. Leave the postage rates at the same level for households while at the same time increasing the postage rates on business related mail. Any mail sent by a business for the sole purpose of advertising should be charged a higher fee for that serice.
3. Enlist the services of Google, or similar, to laser target mail to customers who have searched for products or services on there home computers. This is going to be the critical step that justifies the increase in postage rates for businesses. 

Step 3 is important. By raising the rates of postage it will significantly reduce the volume of "junk mail" every household receives daily. After the quantity of mail reduces the significance of advertisements will increase bringing focus back onto the advertisements and will have more impact on the consumer.  

Why save the USPS?

Why not just let the USPS die off? Its been a slow death and needs to be taken out back and put to rest... WRONG!

The mail is critical for these reasons:

• In the grand scheme of things it is still cheaper for some one to write a letter and send it to a recipient. This is assuming that the overall cost of a computer and a printer will never balance out the cost of a simple pen and piece of paper. Remember only about 75% of the population owns a computer and there for still needs to have mail delivered. It would cost too much to "plug in" the remaining 25% of the population and the mail still is an economically cheap solution for the movement of information. 
• It is the simplest form of communication available. Passing a note is the simplest technological feet mankind can do. 
• It is critical for too many services including: Anything to do with Law ie court summons, jury duty which is our constitutional right. Banking: mortgage payments, interest payment checks, and all else in between. 
• It has become such an integral part of our economy that if the mail suddenly stopped it would cause our economy to spiral into economic chaos and collapse the America! 
• These are just a few of the critical reasons foe the existence of the mail. 

If anyone would like to comment and add to this list I will add to this post. 

USPS Root Problem

The issue with the USPS is not the following:

• An idea that the only way to save it is to cut costs. This thinking is out dated and will continue to exacerbate the problem. Ill go into this in more detail later. 
• An unmotivated workforce. This is certainly not the case but the cost cutting of benefits both current and long term is causing the USPS Employees to question their motivation
• The current system is working fine. This is not the case and needs a dramatic over hall to fix the problem.

The Root Problem is the following: 

• No business in there right mind would ever charge only 49 cents to pick up, sort, move, drive around town, find a mail box, walk to the mail box, and place a piece of paper in a metal container.
• A business like the USPS should be charging much much more to delver the mail. UPS will not purchase the USPS because it knows that this business is running will extremely low margins.  Personally I would pay up to 99 cents to have a piece of paper in an envelope delivered across the country. 
• The USPS can not run on a model of volume any longer. As the increase in electronic media rises it will continue to threaten the survival of the USPS. There can be a symbiotic relationship though. 

The solution is really simple: Raise the Postage!  

But it is also a complicated issue that needs to be taken in bite sized chunks. Raising the postage rates over night would have detrimental consequences to our economy. 

Click here to read about why you could not raise the rates over night.