[casinobonbiner]

U.S. Postal Service = Broke
Social Security = Broke
Medicare = Broke
Medicaid = Broke
Fannie Mae = Broke
Freddie Mac = Broke
Obamacare = ???


http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/09/news...vice/index.htm

Postal Service warns of default as losses mount

By Ben Rooney, staff reporterFebruary 9, 2011: 3:47 PM ET


NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The U.S. Postal Service warned Wednesday that it may default on some of its financial obligations later this year after reporting yet another quarterly loss.

The USPS, a self-supporting government agency that receives no tax dollars, said it suffered a loss of $329 million in the first quarter of federal fiscal year 2011. That compared with a loss of $297 million a year earlier.

746Email Print The agency has been suffering from an ongoing decline in mail volume, which has undercut revenues, while retiree health care costs have been straining its reserves.

Excluding costs related to retiree benefits and adjustments to workers' compensation liability, the Postal Service said it had net income was $226 million in the first quarter, which ended Dec. 31.

Despite ongoing cost-cutting efforts, the USPS said it expects to have a cash shortfall this year and to hit its federally mandated borrowing limit by September, when the government's fiscal year ends.

[juyrett]

If the USPS shuts down, expect letter costs via Fed Ex and UPS to start at $1 to $2 and for companies and agencies to share that cost with consumers. That is, you want the letter, you cough up 50 cents COD or it goes back to the shipping center.

[lungumnentibe]

It seems that society has become so much more impatient nowadays - wanting instant gratification with the least amount of work involved and the internet sure has contributed to this in a big way. But if only people realised just how 'private' e-mails were as compared to 'snail mail', they might consider sending more mail by ground delivery. And if forbid a large X-class solar flare were to ever knock out a few communications satellites as well as causing other related havoc, e-mails might not even get out of people's computers for quite some time until the infrastructure to send them is repaired or reworked in such a way to allow for limited use.

Just something to think about since we have only just recently exited from a prolonged solar minimum and technology has advanced unimpeded quite a bit without interruption... thus far.