281–290 of 325 posts
It's crazy that the party in power is literally tearing apart democracy to stay in power. Destroying the foundations of this country, the right to vote, for self serving political purposes. Incredible that within 60-80 years the Republican party went from shoring up democracy here and abroad to naked fascism and intent on tearing up our institutions.
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I didn't downvote you, but I suspect that some people reacted negatively to your strategy of "don't vote, then the people with power will feel so embarrassed at the lack of credibility of the system that they will work to regain people's trust". Also, if the comment above is your "toned down" wording, I'm glad I didn't read the original version, or I probably would have downvoted you.
Who are you quoting there? Putting a few too many words in my mouth. To many of us, the system has lost all cedibility, and voting is signalling just the opposite of that. Nothing about embarrassing anyone. No way to regain people trust at this point. We're too far gone.
Are you hoping that your non-participation in voting is "signalling" the lack of credibility in the system, and that public awareness of this will contribute to some eventual improved outcome for society, or are you just trying to avoid misleading(?) people into believing the supposed false notion that voting can lead to positive changes in government policy?
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How about this: if Republicans were pushing voter ID laws plus a comprehensive plan to get IDs to every American who wishes to vote, I suspect no one would have any problem with such a proposal. As it stands now, there are large groups of Americans for whom getting a photo ID is a non-trivial task. People without birth records, people who can’t take time off work to go to the DMV, people who don’t know that they go t…
> Finally you simply throw ballots from the disfavored precincts directly in the trash. cant this be done, arguably even easier with mail-in voting?
The USPS has degraded into a spam delivery service at a great cost to the environment. Prices for mail need to go up drastically to discourage use for advertising.
https://www.shipstation.com/blog/usps-first-class-mail-vs-pr...
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Voting is not a good way to get what you want. Your vote will have essentially no impact on the outcome of the election. My choice to go with this provider or that one has 100% of an impact on me. There is no creative destruction going on with the USPS.
> Voting is not a good way to get what you want. Your vote will have essentially no impact on the outcome of the election. Voting is the most minimal way to participate democratically. Much more meaningful are advocating for your needs to elected representatives, speaking out publicly, and organizing/attending demonstrations. But if you want to give up democracy to live under a dictatorship, certainly don't pretend t…
Please don't do the Reddit thing. The argument wasn't "we need dictatorship", it was "it's easier to switch commercial providers than governments if you're unhappy".
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I think it's the opposite, by design. This administration installed a loyalist (with extreme conflicts of interest) to de-legitimize the postal service prior to the election, which will largely be held by mail.
Every administration does this, to advance their own agenda. Are you surprised?
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Trying to ELI5 this to myself - USPS has to fund their pensions and is forced to keep money aside for it. They are unable to make price increases to account for all this extra money that they have to keep aside since they are a public service. Their competitors UPS, FedEx are not being held to the same standard, and so USPS is losing out? And this makes a convenient excuse to show USPS as a failed org?
Not only that, but UPS and FedEx probably don’t offer pensions at all. USPS will never be able to compete, even if they raised their prices.
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Not only that, but UPS and FedEx probably don’t offer pensions at all. USPS will never be able to compete, even if they raised their prices.
I am sure they both offer define contribution pensions like almost all companies do.
With a defined contribution plan, the employer is off the hook immediately after giving the employee the cash.
With defined benefit, the employer is on the hook for all adverse investment performance as well as broader economic turmoil decades into the future.
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Can you name a first world county that doesn't have voter id laws?
How about this: if Republicans were pushing voter ID laws plus a comprehensive plan to get IDs to every American who wishes to vote, I suspect no one would have any problem with such a proposal. As it stands now, there are large groups of Americans for whom getting a photo ID is a non-trivial task. People without birth records, people who can’t take time off work to go to the DMV, people who don’t know that they go t…
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I agree the exact terms of funding requirements (10 years) for USPS were politically motivated to weaken it, but the philosophy of funding accrued benefits is sound, and it was long overdue. The same should be required of all entities issuing defined benefit pensions and retiree healthcare. Also, I find it ridiculous that retirement medical benefits can just be cut anytime, as they are part of the compensation agreem…
The philosophy being sound is worthless if the execution is flawed. As to investing look at page 35-36. It’s not literally just T-bills, but treasury holdings with very low interest rates compared to the kinds of investments private companies are allowed to make. https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/10k-reports/fy2...