Postmaster to Country: Lick My Stamps!
By DANIEL MACHT
Updated 2:58 AM EST, Sat, Feb 21, 2009
You could always work at the post office, as the old saw goes. Who knows, you might even make out with a cool million.
Postmaster General John E. Potter’s total compensation package for 2008 reached more than $800,000, the Washington Times found. Not bad when you consider that President Barack Obama makes only half as much.
Of course, this might not be so shocking were it not for the fact that the country’s finances and economy are in such disarray.
Potter has also ventured into the klieg lights to warn about how the postal system may need to cut out Saturday mail deliveries to plug its losses, which reached $2.8 billion last year. Not to mention stamps are already set to rise by two cents on May 11 to 44-cents a stamp. Put another way, Potter’s compensation could pay for 1.81 million angry letters to his office once rates go up.
The postal system has forecasted an even deeper fiscal hole from declining mail volume this year unless the economy turns around -- fast.
To be sure, the WaTimes reports that the top executive at competitor FedEx made $10.9 million in 2008, down from $17 million the prior year. Congress did freeze salaries for postal executives -- this year. Finally, the postal system pays its bills without depending on taxpayer money, or at least that has historically been the case.
But since we’re demanding Wall Street and corporate America show more restraint, how about going postal on all fat cats?
First Published: Feb 17, 2009 10:37 PM EST
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