NEW ERA

The March 10 editorial "Fat paycheck for U. S. postmaster" exclaims "In 2008 alone, [Postmaster General John E.] Potter received a $264,000 annual salary and a compensation-and-retirement package (much of it deferred to later years) worth more than $800,000 according to the Washington Times....The head of FedEx, for example, was paid $11 million in total compensation in 2008...The current postmaster's pay package is a done deal, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be reduced in the future to a more realistic figure - realistic, at least, as far as the public is concerned...The government can't - nor should it - compete with the private sector, salary-wise."

WATCHDOG: Potter oversees one of the largest corporations in the world with 785,929 employees in 2007, according to Wikepedia. Not only is he being paid less than a tenth of the CEO at FedEx, but on the level of a upper-middle level vice president at a major bank or Fortune 300 corporation / company.

It is irrelevant that Fed Ex made $2 billion and the Postal Service lost $2.8 billion last year. Any CEO has to play the hand he is dealt. (As does President Obama.)

Apparently the Postal Service compensation board thinks he is doing a good job. And by comparison, the Postal Service isn't trying to compete salarly-wise. The editorial must have been written on a day when the New Era was desperate for something to write.