Personal attacks are a wonderful way to distract folks from undefensible claims - but I can see you already know that.
Your point, if I understand it correctly, is that no one else can
1. Be a repository for federal documents and applications
and
2. Provide a way to file taxes
Seriously? What other thing (the internet) could do these things (the internet)? What other places exist in almost every city (grocery stores, city halls, Wal-Mart, libraries)? Who picks up and drops off shit at every doorstep in the country (UPS, Fed-Ex) and has the ability to process tax documents (the IRS)?
Interestingly, here are the tax filing instructions on usa.gov:
File Your Taxes
Over 100 million people filed their taxes electronically last year. Electronic filing (e-file) makes filing your taxes easier, reduces the risk of error, and you’ll receive your refund faster. The IRS can help you find an authorized e-file provider in your area.
You can also file your federal tax return by mail. You can print forms from the IRS website or find them at your local library. Before mailing them in, make sure to double check your math for errors. Visit the IRS for a list of the most common forms and instruction booklets for each form. The IRS has information about which form to use: the 1040-EZ, 1040A, or 1040.
I think you might be the only one who wants the USPS to play this role that you think it critical - including the IRS. Even the government pushes people away from mailing crap.
Now - notice that I never said I wanted the USPS to go out of business. My point has always been that if the USPS were a well run, non government organization, it would have downsized itself. It would have reacted to the internet. It would have cut staff. It would still be thriving instead of years too slow on something every reasonable person saw coming from a mile away. This tangent was only ever started as a discussion of government run enterprise and you guys saying that the USPS was an awesome success example!
So, I took the USPS 10k to my daddy's accountant to have a look and he suggested that I have you guys take a look:
http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financ ... fy2012.pdf
Here's the thing. Those prepayments are a big deal - to the tune of 11 billion dollars. But even if they did not have to pay a cent towards ridiculously high future payouts (we can discuss the merits of that decision if you want), they still lost over 2.45 billion dollars. If you don't believe me, check out page 22 and read the "Results from Operations" bit. I highly recommend reading that entire section. The good news is that adjusted losses were over 2.6 billion last year. At least that is what the people I paid told me to tell you.
If you are too lazy to read financial documents and cannot afford your parent's accountants, here is one reasonable summary:
Without the impact of these charges, the net loss would have been $2,450 million in 2012, $2,685 million in 2011, and
$584 million in 2010.
Due to the combined effects of decreasing revenue and legislatively-mandated costs, we have suffered losses in every
quarter since Quarter I, 2008, except Quarter IV, 2011 and Quarter IV, 2009. These two quarters would have also shown
losses if P.L. 112-33 and P.L. 111-68 had not reduced those year’s retiree health benefits prefunding contributions from
$5.5 billion to zero in 2011 and from $5.4 billion to $1.4 billion in 2009.
It needs to shrink. Their management knows it. They have been trying to cut it for years. The government keeps stopping them. They keep losing lots of money. I am not sure why you guys keep trying to argue against any of this.
Also - I love the USPS and appreciate what it has done for this country even if I hope you excuse my stopping short of giving it credit for building it. I want to see it succeed. In order to succeed, I think it needs massive changes that our government is stopping. That is the point. It is hard enough to create a strong and functioning organization without our ridiculous government dictating what days you have to ship or telling you that you have to keep open offices that serve towns with populations of 8. Call me a cynic, but I think we are setting ourselves up for a repeat with health care. Hope I'm wrong. But I'm not. My daddy's accountant told me so.