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The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service [pdf]

inthepublicinterest.org

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Re: The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service [pdf]

#71

Post by hogFeast »

bmitc wrote: post #44
darawk wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ideological. They believe that the government should not be in the postal business. They probably believe that it's harmful to competition in various ways, and they are probably right in certain narrow contexts.

The same argument of being harmful to competition could be extended to schools and libraries and . It's just mind blowing why we should care about companies more than people. So what if it's harmful to competition? What merit does that have? (These aren't questions for you. They're rhetorical.)

Correct, and that is why schools in many places in the world don't do a great job of teaching students. No competition, no consequences (and compare that to the position students are in...they have to compete like hell, the people teaching them can usually kick back in a unionised job).

Btw, I don't support privatised education either, and the evidence on various programs where it has been tried (charter schools in the US, academies in the UK, etc.) are fairly mixed. Are they better than the status quo though? Yes. No question. Not even close (the implication often is that teachers are able to just do great work without being incentivized...this doesn't reflect reality).

Also, I live somewhere that had a monopolised last-mile provider. Since privatisation, there has been real improvement in service quality and...amazingly...actual innovation. Is the service good? No. It is still more expensive (somehow) than providers with 1/10th of the infrastructure/network. And the "innovation" is largely copying those other providers. But it is actually getting better (and yes, the main issue is a unionised workforce are holding the company to ransom whilst their market share falls through the floor).

Re: The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service [pdf]

#72

Post by disillusioned »

j88439h84 wrote: post #59
standardUser wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...any significant value is already sent via Amazon, FedEx, DHL or UPS" And then those things are handed off to the USPS for "last mile" delivery to the millions of rural addresses that UPS and FedEx don't delivery to directly with their own vehicles. USPS serves some very critical purposes, and ensuring mail 'works' for all citizens, even those with deep rural addresses, is one of them.

If USPS didn't exist, do you think FedEx start delivering to those places?

Possibly, but at astronomical rates. But almost certainly not, if they were well out of their routes or extremely far-flung, because there would be no ROI and private entities exist exclusively to generate profit. The postal service is a constitutional public service to benefit our citizens.

Re: The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service [pdf]

#73

Post by [deleted] »

ralph84 wrote: post #29
enraged_camel wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USPS offers a unique combination of affordability and reliability that simply cannot be matched by the private sector. Yes, it is subsidized. The reason is that being able to send and receive mail cheaply and reliably is the cornerstone of our society and our economic system.

I guess maybe you haven't enabled electronic statements for your accounts or something, but for me 99% of what I get from USPS is junk mail or online shopping deliveries. Not clear why either of those need to be subsidized.

[deleted]

Re: The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service [pdf]

#74

Post by bhupy »

Something I don't normally see discussed re privatization of US Postal Service is that it doesn't appear to be a novel idea.

Singapore's postal service, SingPost, is a publicly traded company[1].

The UK's postal service, Royal Mail, is a publicly traded limited company[2].

Germany's postal service, Deutsche Post AG, is a publicly traded company[3].

Japan's postal service, Japan Post, is a publicly traded company[4].

I'm also yet to hear a convincing argument as to why the USPS enjoys a monopoly in first class parcel mail. That is to say, sure let's keep USPS state owned / public, but why can't FedEx/UPS/Amazon/DHL compete with the USPS?

[1] https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/quote/S08.SI/

[2] https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/rmg?countrycode=...

[3] https://www.boerse-frankfurt.de/equity/deutsche-post-ag

[4] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/6178.T?p=6178.T&.tsrc=fin-sr...

Re: The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service [pdf]

#76

Post by DevKoala »

ceejayoz wrote: post #65
DevKoala wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the parent mentioned, the service is exploited by companies to do their cheap spam advertising. Is it okay for taxes to cover this?

So, get rid of the “you have to make a profit” requirement, fund it via taxes, and charge the spammers normal rates.

How do you know it is spam?

Re: The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service [pdf]

#77

Post by ralph84 »

Avicebron wrote: post #60
ralph84 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess maybe you haven't enabled electronic statements for your accounts or something, but for me 99% of what I get from USPS is junk mail or online shopping deliveries. Not clear why either of those need to be subsidized.

Except demanding that all people in the US to be reliant on the successful use and ownership of a sufficiently reliable computing device is a very real form of discrimination. Arguments of cheapening electronics can be made, but just the issues that many people are having with remote learning is pretty strong evidence to the contrary.

Subsidizing access to computing devices would be much more beneficial to society than subsidizing junk mail and online shopping.

Re: The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service [pdf]

#78

Post by jonathankoren »

ericmay wrote: post #30
alexbanks wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do I do mail in voting via Amazon, FedEx, DHL?

The question is why can’t we? Why can’t the USG print and mail out ballots using these services? I don’t think they are fundamentally less secure, and if they are than we can just have them add on the capability of doing secure delivery.

Because they don't deliver everywhere.

That's one of the biggest operational problems. They don't deliver consistently to rural areas. These companies farm it out. See FedEx Smart Post

https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/fedex-smartpost.html

Re: The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service [pdf]

#79

Post by load »

It seems like Koch wants to keep pushing consensus to privatize the postal service by weakening funding for it, which is, either intentionally or unintentionally, economically harming it. I'm on the fence over whether 'kill' is the right word for this though.

Re: The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service [pdf]

#80

Post by klyrs »

armitron wrote: post #2

Having lived in four different US states and in a number of European countries (currently resident in Germany), all I can say is good riddance. USPS is by far the worst mail service I have ever encountered. It's so bad that there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that one can do a lot better, assuming one is allowed to compete. And even though they proudly say they receive NO money from the federal government, they do…

It's way worse in Canada. Similar arrangement where politicians love to gut its budget for short-term gains, and it lives in a weird category somewhere between business and utility. But delivery times (and reliability) are atrocious here in Canada.

In the US, I mailed something to my mom across town, and she got it the same day that I put it in the mailbox. I rarely saw a letter delivery take more than 2-3 days. Here in Canada, it may take over a week to send mail in the same province. Takes over a month when my mom sends me a letter from the US.

IMHO, they shouldn't get subsidies. They should be a public utility. They provide a necessary channel of communication between citizens and their goverment: taxes, passports, ballots, voter registration, etc. happen through USPS. In my experience (admittedly, I've been in Canada for a decade, so this is probably out of date) they've been much more reliable than any other shipping service, and I don't think any other private carrier does letter mail.

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