U.S. Postal Service buying homes when it is broke?

[Trinity]

Postal Service draws criticism for $1.2 million home buy

At a time when the U.S. Postal Service says it is experiencing a financial crisis, it purchased a $1.2 million home from an employee so he could relocate, a CNN investigation has found.

Frey said the average cost of the 1,022 homes purchased through the USPS relocation program in 2007 and 2008 was $257,874. Fifteen of those remain on the market, he said.

Of the 1,022, 14 cost between $1 million and $2.8 million. All of those have been sold, Frey said, but typically at a loss once closing costs, attorneys fees and commissions are paid.

In 2007, after the U.S. housing boom peaked, the USPS lost an average of $50,542 on each deal, he said. In 2008, with the market in full retreat, the average loss climbed to $58,397.

"At a time when the Postal Service is considering cutting back on delivery, raising stamp prices, perhaps even going to the federal government for a taxpayer bailout, this sends the wrong signal. It is likely to make customers very angry," Sepp said.

By Abbie Boudreau, Scott Zamost and Jessi Joseph
Special Investigations Unit, CNN
CNN.com

 

[Industrialsize]

I'm sure it is ALL Obama's fault.

 

[Industrialsize]

I forgot to add the obligatory smiley :wink:

 

[B_Nick8]

I'm sure it's for an employee incentive plan. How else are they going to keep all those disgruntled workers from going all Uzi on their ass?

 

[D_Ireonsyd_Colonrinse]

Putting aside this house purchase, I would like to remind everyone that the U.S. Postal Service is a governmental institution that has worked beautifully.

It's not the Postal Service's fault that we now live differently than we did 50 years ago, 200 years ago. We e-mail now. We make a quick cell phone call to tell Mom we love her. We text and recieve tweets. There are a hundred ways that giving and receiving information has forced stamp prices to rise and delivery cutbacks. Mail service may go the way of the dial phone.


But all conservatives love to say that governmental services are inherently inferior to a free-market based solution.

Guess what? The Postal Service is a great example of socialism that works. The Postal Service employs 785,000 people, with 260,000 vehicles. The U.S. Postal Service was created in 1775 in Philadelpia under Ben Franklin -- and continues to be a model of governmental efficiency .



Somehow, Trinity finding a story of the Postal Service "buying a house" seems, in the end, just another example of Trinity's superficiality and desperateness to locate controversy in a governmental program that has worked beautifully for over 200 years.

 

[Principessa]

I'm sure it is ALL Obama's fault.

Malarkey! It's Rush Limbaugh and his pig bottom, toy boi Newt Gingrich. :biggrin1: It's a Republican plot to keep good real estate in the hands of the white conservatives, I tell ya. :irked:

I'm sure it's for an employee incentive plan. How else are they going to keep all those disgruntled workers from going all Uzi on their ass?

'Going all Uzi' tee hee hee :lmao:

 

[Trinity]

Putting aside this house purchase, I would like to remind everyone that the U.S. Postal Service is a governmental institution that has worked beautifully.

It's not the Postal Service's fault that we now live differently than we did 50 years ago, 200 years ago. We e-mail now. We make a quick cell phone call to tell Mom we love her. We text and recieve tweets. There are a hundred ways that giving and receiving information has forced stamp prices to rise and delivery cutbacks. Mail service may go the way of the dial phone.


But all conservatives love to say that governmental services are inherently inferior to a free-market based solution.

Guess what? The Postal Service is a great example of socialism that works. The Postal Service employs 785,000 people, with 260,000 vehicles. The U.S. Postal Service was created in 1775 in Philadelpia under Ben Franklin -- and continues to be a model of governmental efficiency .



Somehow, Trinity finding a story of the Postal Service "buying a house" seems, in the end, just another example of Trinity's superficiality and desperateness to locate controversy in a governmental program that has worked beautifully for over 200 years.

1) This was a special investigation by CNN.
2) The Postal Service has experienced problems for years. This from an article from 2001:

But the Postal Service is not exactly pennywise. Waste, fraud and poor oversight of internal operations and private contractors have cost the agency more than $1.6 billion since 1997, according to the Postal Service Office of Inspector General.

That sloppy financial record could cause problems at a time when the Postal Service is asking Congress for $3 billion to help it guard against bioterrorism.

U.S. Postal Service struggles to overcome history of waste, fraud, mismanagement.Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, by Tony Pugh, Dec. 20, 2001
USPS Political Influence Scandal and Ethics Problems
USPS Retail Operations Grossly Mismanaged

The U.S. Postal Service is 2.8 Billion in the red and asking for government bailout.

Don't Bail Out The Mail - Forbes.com

 

[SilverTrain]

This is on, oh, say page 489 in the BIG INDEX OF SHIT WE NEED TO WORRY ABOUT RIGHT NOW.

 

[Guy-jin]

Very old news.

This is on, oh, say page 489 in the BIG INDEX OF SHIT WE NEED TO WORRY ABOUT RIGHT NOW.

And this is why nothing is ever done about it.