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Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

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Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#71

Post by tehjoker »

gray_-_wolf wrote: post #4

Are there some actual studies stating that privatized mail office would be cheaper/more efficient/better service? Or is this just attempt at money grab?

Given equal technology, private services can only be cheaper if they exploit their workers harder, after all they have to make a profit so the difference has to come from somewhere. They could potentially offer better service by addressing certain niches that a broader service would be less suited to address, which partially explains UPS, FedEx, DHL etc.

Privatizing government services is a money grab nearly 100% of the time.

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#72

Post by casefields »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #48
throwaway5752 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not a point about government effectiveness or efficiency. They kneecapped the USPS when they forced prefunding of pension liabilities ( https://www.cnbc.com/2011/10/24/the-truth-about-the-post-off... ). They had more legislative leverage prior to 2018, so they could have done all this much earlier. It is not possible to honestly discuss this in a meaningful way without acknowledging it's 3 months out from a presi…

Retirement benefits should be funded as they are accrued. That is not the problem. The problem is the USPS doesn’t have the power to price their products appropriately in order to pay for their expenses (including payroll which includes retirement benefits). If anything, all entities promising retirement benefits should be forced to do it the way USPS does. In fact, non government entities were forced to via the Pens…

If they want to set prices themselves then let them, but remove their monopoly on letters. Repeal the private express statutes. That seems quite fair.

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#73

Post by treis »

epistasis wrote: post #40
cenal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can it not be less expensive? The private companies don’t have to offer/fund the insane pension benefits that public sector employees get. The public sector pension scandal is insane.

Suppose you were right, and a private service could outcompete USPS. Why haven't they already? There's many delivery services that go to residential homes now, and tons of spam mailers that would love to save a few dollars in those areas where a private service could do it more cheaply. I'd be shocked that if UPS or FedEx thought they could be more profitable than USPS they wouldn't start competing.

>Suppose you were right, and a private service could outcompete USPS. Why haven't they already?

They're prohibited by law from competing in regular mail delivery.

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#74

Post by casefields »

seibelj wrote: post #70
throwaway5752 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not a point about government effectiveness or efficiency. They kneecapped the USPS when they forced prefunding of pension liabilities ( https://www.cnbc.com/2011/10/24/the-truth-about-the-post-off... ). They had more legislative leverage prior to 2018, so they could have done all this much earlier. It is not possible to honestly discuss this in a meaningful way without acknowledging it's 3 months out from a presi…

I can’t believe arguing that ACTUALLY FUNDING pension liabilities is a horrible thing - this is how every government pension should be funded! You should be screaming about how nearly every state and federal government pension is ridiculously underfunded!

It's literally the only fiscally responsible government pension. It's weird how political it's become, yet it should be the example to follow.

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#75

Post by bboston7 »

epistasis wrote: post #40
cenal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can it not be less expensive? The private companies don’t have to offer/fund the insane pension benefits that public sector employees get. The public sector pension scandal is insane.

Suppose you were right, and a private service could outcompete USPS. Why haven't they already? There's many delivery services that go to residential homes now, and tons of spam mailers that would love to save a few dollars in those areas where a private service could do it more cheaply. I'd be shocked that if UPS or FedEx thought they could be more profitable than USPS they wouldn't start competing.

It's illegal to compete with USPS on normal letter delivery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Express_Statutes

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#76

Post by [deleted] »

epistasis wrote: post #40
cenal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can it not be less expensive? The private companies don’t have to offer/fund the insane pension benefits that public sector employees get. The public sector pension scandal is insane.

Suppose you were right, and a private service could outcompete USPS. Why haven't they already? There's many delivery services that go to residential homes now, and tons of spam mailers that would love to save a few dollars in those areas where a private service could do it more cheaply. I'd be shocked that if UPS or FedEx thought they could be more profitable than USPS they wouldn't start competing.

[deleted]

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#77

Post by [deleted] »

KorematsuFred wrote: post #49
nemothekid wrote: post #10

Incredibly frustrating to get mail by USPS over the past couple months and even more frustrating to know this is an intentional kneecapping of the USPS by the administration in order "prove" government services are inefficient to privatize the USPS

USPS has a government granted monopoly on letter delivery end it and these problems will also go away.

[deleted]

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#78

Post by zanny »

KorematsuFred wrote: post #49
nemothekid wrote: post #10

Incredibly frustrating to get mail by USPS over the past couple months and even more frustrating to know this is an intentional kneecapping of the USPS by the administration in order "prove" government services are inefficient to privatize the USPS

USPS has a government granted monopoly on letter delivery end it and these problems will also go away.

Is there a legitimate law on the books that Fedex et al cannot legally deliver letters, or is it just that subsidized postage stamps are so cheap no private company can profit off paper mail delivery?

Because letters are paper but so are magazines, newspapers, etc that I know are delivered by non-USPS mail carriers.

It isn't a very persuasive argument to destroy cheap post for the masses to... let investors make money. As it is if usps was incapable of fulfilling its duty private entities could enter the market at way higher prices and if useful would see business.

Re: Mail delays hit Philadelphia residents, short staffed USPS struggles to keep up

#79

Post by eropple »

jrobn wrote: post #66
dragonwriter wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s not about privatizing the service, Yes it is. > it’s about disrupting their ability to process mail in ballots for the election. True, but those are complementary not mutually exclsuive motivations.

That’s like saying genocide is ok because we need to decrease our population. They are mutual exclusive motivations.

He isn't saying it's okay.
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