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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

#291

Post by lotsofpulp »

jellicle wrote: post #219
lotsofpulp wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know what this “prefunding” word means, but the USPS was only required to save for accrued benefits. Which every non governmental entity is required to do in the US due to ERISA and PPA 2006. https://www.cnbc.com/2011/10/24/the-truth-about-the-post-off... > Although accounting rules require the postal service to calculate future liabilities, including those for projected future employees, the law only require…

The point is that on the day that the USPS hires a 20-year-old employee they immediately need to set aside money for this worker's healthcare at age 90, which is an astronomical sum (as projections of future healthcare costs are inevitably astronomical). And no, no private entity in the US is required to prefund retiree health benefits.

Which goes to show how ridiculous it is to offer retiree healthcare benefits. If the cost is so high as to be described as astronomical, then why is the government offering it?

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

#292

Post by throwaway5752 »

BoiledCabbage wrote: post #126
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…

Note, it looks like that final link is 404'ing. The correct link appears to be: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/...

Thank you.

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

#293

Post by mike00632 »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #36
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

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…

There is also controversy over the pick of USPS leader. It seems this appointment was mostly political.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/us/politics/postmaster-ge...

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

#294

Post by [deleted] »

chrisseaton wrote: post #289
ethanbond wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In the US why is identity linked to driving - why does the DMV do it? What do people who can’t drive due for proof of identity?

[deleted]

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

#295

Post by fredophile »

kryogen1c wrote: post #237
ianleeclark wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would a vote 4 years ago invalidate the very real and observable means of voter suppression we see today?

Because he had less votes and won, so im not sure what this alleged widespread voter suppression is supposed to accomplish.

I'm pretty sure the alleged widespread voter suppression is supposed to accomplish a second term for Donald Trump as well as picking up some seats in both the Senate and House for his party.

Do you really believe that someone winning in the previous election is a guarantee that they would not try to suppress the vote in the current or future elections? If not, what point were you trying to make by bringing up the results of the 2016 election?

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

#296

Post by jonathankoren »

bluedino wrote: post #247
jonathankoren wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know why you think overtime is continuing to be authorized when there are multiple reports of it being eliminated, including the release of the internal memo explicitly eliminating extra and late delivery trips, and directing staff to leave undelivered mail on the floor. https://federalnewsnetwork.com/management/2020/07/usps-warns...

Father in law is a carrier and still working overtime

Fair enough

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

#297

Post by ghthor »

dragonwriter wrote: post #105
jrobn wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No, I'm saying that both causing the postal service to fail to politically justify full privatization and interfering with mail-in voting for perceived benefit in the immediate upcoming election are actual motivations of the policies being implemented by the executive branch that impede USPS function. I don't think either of those motivations is okay , in fact, I think the action being taken on either basis alone wou…

I dont know, I support this action. I'd rather defund the USPS then the police force. Rebuilding the USPS using solid business fundamentals would be good for everyone.

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

#298

Post by _-david-_ »

ethanbond wrote: post #177
_-david-_ wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Just to be clear I am in favor of providing free IDs and allowing the use of said ID, a driver's license, passport, etc for voting.

You say that no one would have an issue with such a proposal but then list the argument I have heard from multiple people of why this won't work.

How is someone supposed to get an id without going to the DMV or some other government office? The government doesn't have a picture of everyone so people would be required to go into an office to get one. Some people are unable to go in due to the reasons you list.

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

#299

Post by ghthor »

sixstringtheory wrote: post #178
missedthecue wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accountability to whom? The NSA is still illegally snooping on you and I, killer-cops go unpunished, and the social justice system is biased against black men, but supposedly there is accountability? The difference here is that it's not profitable for UPS to piss off its customer base. A CEO of a privatised postal company acting in his own rational self interest would produce far different results than Donald Trump a…

Every delivery service has horror stories. I’ve experienced bad deliveries with all of them. Turns out, there are still humans working at all of them. Voting is accountability. You’ll have to find another time to discuss every other thing that’s wrong with our government, because right now we’re talking about a service being purposefully degraded in efforts to reduce the one of the only means we have for holding gove…

Theirs 2 sides to every story. The Democrats and the press are doing there best to whip up a fear frenzy over a strong flu wave that's really only killing people who were already sick. If that wasn't happening no one would give a shit about the USPS and what's happening for the better there, in my opinion.

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

#300

Post by _-david-_ »

sangnoir wrote: post #283
andrekandre wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Finally you simply throw ballots from the disfavored precincts directly in the trash. cant this be done, arguably even easier with mail-in voting?

Provisional ballots avail a lot more leeway for election officials to legally discard ballots compared to mail-in ballots. Its not legally easier to do so with mail-in ballots

I don't think the person you were responsing to was suggesting mail in ballots are legally easier to disgard but easier to illegally discard.
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