Post Office Rant TOO FUNNY!

shoot4fun

Gunny Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Oct 27, 2003
4,461
806
Riverside, Alabama, USA, etc
So, I sold some bullets to a guy ( five boxes of 100 to be exact). Funds arrive, I pack them up, slap a Priority label on my packaging (6x6x6 box weighing 12 lbs) and head to the local PO. Lady says this is heavy; almost like dead weight. I say "You're close" just for fun. She weighs the box and says that will be $23.00 plus insurance. Then she says " you know you can drop this box into that medium flat rate box over there and ship for $12.85 plus insurance." I think "this ain't right." So is ask her why it will cost less to ship the box I already have heavily taped up and secured into a box twice it's size and likely won't survive the trip. Can you say "deer in the headlights?"
SO then, just for fun, I ask how much it would cost to break down what was in one small box, put it in TWO small Flat Rate boxes and ship Priority. "That would be $11.60 and each box insured for $50".
WTF??????
Now I just went from one small boxes at $23 to one larger box with my box in it for $12.85 to two small boxes with enough insurance to cover everything for $11.60. I was starting to think I should have just bought stamps and mailed each bullet separately. Wonder what I would have saved then (wink)?
 
The flat rate boxes are a great deal. You can ship anything that fits up to 70lbs for the same price per size. Why question that? And the Post Office loses money every year because some dumb ass in congress forces them to pre-fund their pensions years ahead of time for big bucks. In fact it's the one gov't office that would pay for itself and make a profit if they left them alone.
 

This makes no sense. Companies SHOULD fund their pension funds instead of "guarantee" them. I want to have some piece of mind that after I work for a company 40 years they really will be able to pay my retirement benefits. And, if you are not able to do that and make a profit, as you point out in the POs case, then they are NOT profitable. Your logic makes me think you work there.
 

Sorry to report that most government entities such as cities, states and Federal agencies can not back their pensions with cash. Most corporations can't either. My grandkids think they will be 72 or 74 before they see any social security and that is if they get any at all.
One of the reasons companies go bankrupt is so they can get out from under their obligations including pensions. Those pensioners that worked for Detroit = they won't be getting near what they were promised. Most companies don't even offer a pension plan any more.
If every company that had unfunded pension obligations gave up the business = there would be very few left.
 
NE, I agree that either way it is a crap shoot for us "old farts". I worked 30 years for BellSouth & AT&T. When I retired to seek my fame and fortune in the "gun biz" I took a lump sum pension payout. BellSouth was one of those companies that funded their plans (thank God). The state of Alabama may be "backward in a lot of ways but it has always funded its pension plan. It is used, in turn, to invest in things that make the state a better place to live while still being there for present and future retirees.
Detroit never put a dime toward the future of its workers. Instead they wasted it and politicians stole it and they are getting what they deserve.