THE NEWS

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told Congress on Thursday that he has signed an agreement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the General Services Administration (GSA) to work with the U.S. Postal Service.

In a letter sent to congressional lawmakers, DeJoy said DOGE and the GSA will assist the independent government agency in “identifying and achieving further efficiencies.”

“This is an effort aligned with our efforts, as while we have accomplished a great deal, there is much more to be done,” DeJoy wrote. “We are happy to have others to assist us in our worthwhile cause. The DOGE team was gracious enough to ask for the big problems they can help us with.”

DeJoy said DOGE and the GSA will focus on reviewing the “mismanagement of our self-funded retirement assets and the actuarial miscalculations of our retirement obligations.”

They will also look into what he described as the “mismanagement of our Workers’ Compensation Program,” which he said results in $400 million a year in excessive charges when compared to private industry practices.

They will review what DeJoy called the “unfunded mandates imposed on us by legislation,” that, for the most part, require the agency to “perform costly activities without providing any supporting funding.”

DeJoy compared this to the likes of UPS or FedEx providing services to the federal government without charging for them and said it costs the agency between $6 billion and $11 billion annually.

DOGE and the GSA will look into “burdensome regulatory requirements restricting normal business practice,” he said.

DeJoy added that such requirements have cost the postal service over $50 billion in damages by encumbering it with “administering defective pricing models and decades old bureaucratic processes.”

“It has long been known that the Postal Service has a broken business model that was not financially sustainable without critically necessary and fundamental core change,” DeJoy said. “Fixing a broken organization that had experienced close to $100 billion in losses and was projected to lose another $200 billion, without a bankruptcy proceeding, is a daunting task.”

10,000 Workers to Enter Voluntary Retirement

USPS has operated as an independent entity since 1970 but has often struggled to balance the books, a problem further compounded by soaring inflation.

In November, the agency reported a $9.5 billion net loss for fiscal 2024, up from $6.5 billion a year prior, despite an increase in postal rates and the price of stamps. The service currently employs 640,000 workers.

DeJoy noted in the letter to congressional lawmakers that the agency terminated 30,000 workers in 2021 as part of cost-cutting efforts. He said it plans to cut another 10,000 employees in the next 30 days through a voluntary early retirement program.

Trump said last month that he may put the service under the control of the Commerce Department in what would be an executive branch takeover of the agency.

“We want to have a post office that works well and doesn’t lose massive amounts of money,” Trump said at the time. “We’re thinking about doing that. And it’ll be a form of a merger, but it’ll remain the Postal Service, and I think it’ll operate a lot better.”

Regarding privatization of the service, Trump said in December, “It’s an idea a lot of people have had for a long time. We’re looking at it.”

The Epoch Times contacted the White House for further comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

The National Association of Letter Carriers President Brian L. Renfroe said in a statement in response to Thursday’s letter that they “welcome anyone’s help who can influence Congress and the Administration to finally enact” needed policy changes.

However, Renfroe condemned any move to privatize the service.

“Common sense solutions are what the Postal Service needs, not privatization efforts that will threaten 640,000 postal employees’ jobs, 7.9 million jobs tied to our work, and the universal service every American relies on daily,” he said.

DeJoy, a logistics business owner, was appointed to lead USPS during Trump’s first term in 2020. He announced plans to step down from his role as postmaster general last month.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The average American’s net worth across all states is nearly $595,000. However, wealth levels vary among states alongside cost of living and other factors. 

As Visual Capitalist’s Alejandra Dander notes, according to anonymized data from nearly 2 million Empower Personal Dashboard™ users, we highlight the top ten states with the highest average net worth per person.

A closer look at average net worth

Net worth is calculated by taking what a person owns (their assets) and subtracting what they owe (their debts). Here are the leading states by net worth as of September 2024.

Connecticut has the highest net worth of nearly $920,000, but also has higher prices than the U.S. average. Meanwhile, California and Washington are the only Western states to make the top ten, and Illinois is the only one from the Midwest.

In total, U.S. household wealth hit a record of $164 trillion in the second quarter of 2024. This is an improvement over the pre-pandemic peak of $152 trillion. The increase in the second quarter was driven primarily by more than $1.7 trillion in real estate gains and $662 billion in stock gains.

Net worth goals

Nearly three-quarters of people expect to increase their net worth in 2024. This is important given that nearly half of Americans define financial independence as reaching a certain net worth. What are some strategies people plan to take to improve their finances?

• Prioritizing investments (80%)

• Asking for a raise (35%)

• Getting a second job (25%)

When it comes to planning for the future, Americans say “dreamscrolling”—looking at dream purchases—helps them to be smarter with their money (56%) and better plan to achieve their financial goals (25%).

Building wealth

In order to build net worth, Americans can focus on both reducing debt and increasing savings and investment contributions. Tax-optimized retirement savings accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s can play a critical role in building net worth. 

Apart from the tax advantages, nearly all companies with 401(k) offer some kind of matching contribution based on how much an employee contributes. Yet only 35% of people are contributing enough to get their employer match, suggesting workers should take a closer look to avoid leaving money on the table.