One Economists take on Healthcare
08-10-2009, 05:26 PM
#61
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jan 2007
Position: 150 left seat if I'm lucky
Posts: 172
A lot of us will die before we see a dime from this program, there have been a few age increases already. Means testing is next, along with higher taxes and lower benefits, the writing is on the wall in yard high letters. It makes little difference to me, but don't whizz on my back and tell me it is raining.
I'm less concerned with not living long enough to see the benefit so much as I am concerned about using up my nest egg before I die and can no longer work - hence the safety net part of the whole deal. Working during your 60s is already pretty common, and will only get more so as we continue to live longer.
The only part I agree with you on is that it would be better to know now what the eventual program will look like exactly so we could plan accordingly. Putting off benefit cuts or age advances is also unfair to future generations.
08-10-2009, 07:47 PM
#62
With The Resistance
Joined APC: Jan 2006
Position: Burning the Agitprop of the Apparat
Posts: 6,191
We can talk about another program if you like. Few are aware of the legal struggle that UPS and FedEx had to fight against this monopoly for decades just to do business, and yet despite a tax free monopoly they just can't ever make ends meet. So tell me, is this what you would call good management?
Can you imagine what a real business could do tax free and with a seven billion dollar bump in a year?
Postal Service blames mail decline for loss
By Ben Rooney, CNNMoney.com staff writer
August 5, 2009: 2:09 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The U.S. Postal Service reported a $2.4 billion loss in its most recent quarter Wednesday, blaming plunging mail volume and rising retiree health care costs.
The USPS, which is not a government agency but is exempt from taxes and antitrust law, lost $1.1 billion a year earlier.
The service said it expects to suffer a $7 billion loss for its full fiscal year ending in September.
Operating revenue fell 8.8% to $16.34 billion.
Contributing to that revenue decline was what the service called an "unprecedented" drop in mail volume. In the nine months of the fiscal year, volume has fallen by 20 billion pieces, the USPS said in a regulatory filing.
The Postal Service expects mail volume to decline another 10 billion to 15 billion pieces in fiscal 2010.
"The decline in mail volume is primarily due to the widespread economic recession, although the long-term trend of hard copy correspondence and transactions being diverted to electronic media continues," according to the filing.
At the same time, the USPS said costs related to retiree health benefits were "significantly higher" in the quarter and that a surge in fuel prices last year impacted results. It said that its losses will prevent it from making a mandatory $5.4 billion payment to its retiree health benefit fund by Sept. 30.
The USPS has asked Congress to restructure its payments for retiree health benefits and to allow it to suspend the six-day-a-week delivery requirement as ways to generate sufficient cash flow to make the benefit payment.
To cut costs, the Postal Service has capped executive pay and is reducing its 700,000-strong workforce through attrition and early retirement, while avoiding layoffs. It has also halted construction of new facilities and is renegotiating contracts with major suppliers.
While it expects these efforts to have a positive impact on cash flow this year, the Postal Service said it does not expect them to offset projected declines in revenue.
Can you imagine what a real business could do tax free and with a seven billion dollar bump in a year?
Postal Service blames mail decline for loss
By Ben Rooney, CNNMoney.com staff writer
August 5, 2009: 2:09 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The U.S. Postal Service reported a $2.4 billion loss in its most recent quarter Wednesday, blaming plunging mail volume and rising retiree health care costs.
The USPS, which is not a government agency but is exempt from taxes and antitrust law, lost $1.1 billion a year earlier.
The service said it expects to suffer a $7 billion loss for its full fiscal year ending in September.
Operating revenue fell 8.8% to $16.34 billion.
Contributing to that revenue decline was what the service called an "unprecedented" drop in mail volume. In the nine months of the fiscal year, volume has fallen by 20 billion pieces, the USPS said in a regulatory filing.
The Postal Service expects mail volume to decline another 10 billion to 15 billion pieces in fiscal 2010.
"The decline in mail volume is primarily due to the widespread economic recession, although the long-term trend of hard copy correspondence and transactions being diverted to electronic media continues," according to the filing.
At the same time, the USPS said costs related to retiree health benefits were "significantly higher" in the quarter and that a surge in fuel prices last year impacted results. It said that its losses will prevent it from making a mandatory $5.4 billion payment to its retiree health benefit fund by Sept. 30.
The USPS has asked Congress to restructure its payments for retiree health benefits and to allow it to suspend the six-day-a-week delivery requirement as ways to generate sufficient cash flow to make the benefit payment.
To cut costs, the Postal Service has capped executive pay and is reducing its 700,000-strong workforce through attrition and early retirement, while avoiding layoffs. It has also halted construction of new facilities and is renegotiating contracts with major suppliers.
While it expects these efforts to have a positive impact on cash flow this year, the Postal Service said it does not expect them to offset projected declines in revenue.
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