Here’s some sound business advice from Donald Trump whose companies have filed for bankruptcy six times and presided over numerous business failures,
“The post office, if they raised the price of a package by approximately four times, it would be a whole new ballgame,”
The post office should raise the price of the packages to the companies. Not to the people, to the companies. If they did that, it would be a whole different story.”
You don’t have to have an MBA to realize how IGNORANT this is.
Package delivery is the USPS’s cash cow. If it raised its prices fourfold, nobody would use it.
True, some online vendors such as Amazon Prime offer free shipping, but they’d be damned if they gonna eat the added costs.
Trump has vehemently refused any money from the Stimulus package to fund the USPS even with the possibility that the post office could be broke by June.
Trump is holding the potential of a $10 billion dollar loan from the Treasury Dept. over the head of the USPS in exchange for the increase in rates.
This is extortion!
Here’s a comparison between the USPS and another major carrier, UPS.
USPS vs. UPS prices
UPS is often more expensive than USPS due to fees and surcharges, especially when it comes to shipping smaller packages. Generally, USPS offers much better rates when shipping smaller packages less than two lbs., though UPS typically works better when shipping larger, heavier packages by offering superior value.
Prices for 5lb package
| UPS | UPS Ground | 6 Days | $9.25 |
| UPS | UPS 3-Day Select | 5 Days | $15.25 |
| USPS | USPS Priority Mail 2-Day | 2 Working Days | $26.70 |
| USPS | USPS Retail Ground | 3-7 Working Days | $23.90 |
So here’s Trump’s logic:
4 x $23.90 = $95.60
Wow. This would be a shrewd move if there ever was one. (hold up sarcasm sign here)
However, there are some underlying reasons for Trump;s refusals and demands. He and many Republicans want to privatize the USPS. Why? So they can own the company, buy its stock and make a killing.
Then there’s the issue of Amazon and Jeff Bezos.
The following is from an article in The Guardian entitled Why does Trump hate Jeff Bezos: is it about power or money?
For two and a half years Trump has launched Twitter attacks against Bezos, spuriously claiming Amazon benefits from billions of dollars in subsidies from the US Postal Service while dodging the taxman. Few doubt the president’s animus is truly motivated by Bezos’s ownership of the (Washington) Post – a bastion of what he calls the “fake news” media – along with, perhaps, envy of his wealth.”
Yes, the “envy of his wealth.” because Bezos earned his fortune the hard way: he worked for it instead of daddy giving it to him. In fact, in 2006 Trump unsuccessfully sued a journalist who wrote a book proclaiming the mogul was worth a mere $150 – $250 million.
The other issue: mail-in ballots.
“Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it,” Trump tweeted.
Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans.”
Again with the voter fraud bullshit. The majority of Secretarys of State have commented that voter fraud is extremely rare. The idea of fraud comes from the fact Trump cannot accept that he lost the popular vote by three million.
With regard to fraud from mail-in ballots, Oregon has had voting by mail for ten years and in that time period there have been 15 documented cases of voter fraud, FIFTEEN!
And then there’s the unbelievable debacle in Wisconsin with their primary election in the middle of a pandemic. The Republican controlled state legislature went to court to override Governor Tony Evers order to postpone the election. Evers is a Democrat. The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld a challenge forcing the election to be held as scheduled. To add insult to injury, SCOTUS denied a request to extend the period to accept mail-ins seven days past the deadline of the date of the election. SCOTUS split 5-4 along political lines.
Side bar: SCOTUS Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will more than likely be replaced by whomever the next president is. All the more important to throw Trump out on his ear.