111–120 of 172 posts
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Maybe should read mainstream media or ask your neighbor Canada
Canadian here. I have no plans to visit the US for the foreseeable future. This is upsetting to me since I have multiple long-term friends who live there that I'd like to visit. I don't feel safe so I'm not going!
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There's no goal for the privatized USPS to actually be successful , only to destroy the public good. It's government, it works, so therefore it must be destroyed. This is really how Republicans think.
I'm Canadian so I can't speak to the issues surrounding the USPS. However, in Canada we remain in the midst of a long work-to-rule strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) against Canada Post (CP). The biggest issue in this strike is that there is a very wide gap between what CUPW is demanding (in terms of pay increases, protection of workers, maintenance of routes) and what CP is offering. CP had been l…
Honestly that sounds like some good ways to reduce costs and carbon emissions. For the elderly there would need to be some considerations made. I live in the US but in large apartment buildings here there’s a couple of mailrooms for hundreds of units, I imagine it’s significantly more efficient than delivering to each unit.
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I agree that people overconsume "garbage." Indeed who needs 30 dolls or 30 Lego sets (Yes, I know Legos are not made in China, but never the less it's true). We don't need to revamp home decor every five years. What's wrong with having avocado green bathrooms or wood paneling in basements? Did the Russkies or Chinese communists ever feel like their people's housing needed new decor every few years? I doubt it. We cou…
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I'm Canadian so I can't speak to the issues surrounding the USPS. However, in Canada we remain in the midst of a long work-to-rule strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) against Canada Post (CP). The biggest issue in this strike is that there is a very wide gap between what CUPW is demanding (in terms of pay increases, protection of workers, maintenance of routes) and what CP is offering. CP had been l…
> CP wants to close a lot of post offices, complete the phase-out of door-to-door postal service in favour of community mailboxes (which are already in use for more than half of households), and even reduce delivery frequency to less than 5 days per week. Honestly that sounds like some good ways to reduce costs and carbon emissions. For the elderly there would need to be some considerations made. I live in the US but…
Even tourists like me are afraid to visit america now. So much hatred
For what it's worth, international arrivals are down about 3.8%: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2025/08/26/have-for... https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2025/08/26/have-for... A statistically significant drop, but not exactly plummetting.
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From someone outside the US (Canada) and in a country that's been abused by its giant next-door neighbour -- longer than just the current, explicit abuse -- I kinda hope this recession is deep and hurts badly. We've already seen some huge, positive structural changes to our economy and a down-and-out, bleeding US will have nothing but positive effects for the rest of us. I'd have some sympathy but this is an entirely…
At least in 2024, the US was the largest importer of Canadian exports, by a large margin. If the US economy is in recession, it likely means less spending in general and so less spending on Canadian goods which is likely a problem for the Canadian economy. I'm sure there would be some benefits for Canada as well, but in a connected world economy, when one major country suffers, it's negative for most other countries.…
You're not wrong in who imports the most Canadian goods. Or on how we're all interconnected globally. But just for the record, if you take away oil, we import more from the US, than the US from Canada.
And our imports from the US are waaaay down. Funny thing, but when the US talks about annexing Canada, or applying tariffs until we "capitulate and join the US", we get a annoyed. Everywhere I go, especially for groceries, each price tag now has a Canadian or provincial flag on it. They didn't before, but they sure do now. And the outcome is obvious.
And really, it's buying from Canada or what... Middle East dictatorships? Or of course drilling more in US territory, which is fine, but hardly Canada's fault. And the funny thing is, we sell our oil at a massive discount to the US.
Like our copper. And iron. And 100 other things, all typically at a discount compared to world market pricing.
A funny thing has already started to happen, in fact the following video is 2 months old. Instead of trading with the US, and the US trading with the world? We're all just trading with each other instead. When this video was made, Canadian exports were up world wide, and down to the US. And overall?
Exports were just up.
Right now we're feeling some pain from recent tariffs on steel. But we'll just weather it, and bypass the US, like has happened with everything else:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCwQfSbAyeQ
I believe the end result is the rest of the world will just trade with each other, not with the US, resulting in little difference for everyone else. And disaster for the US. Long term of course.
The weirdest part of all of this is, the US specifically wanted more integration. Forced us to take on the FTA then NAFTA in the 80s and so on. Told us we'd be screwed if we didn't comply. And every year since, our real world earnings have gone down per capita, as the US absorbs us economically.
And then some guy shows up and tries to claim we're taking advantage. Huh?! What? You made us take on free trade, forced us to integrate economically, we were worse for it, but.. we're taking advantage??
We're basically more than happy to use these opportunities to cut financial ties with the US, because they current arrangement wasn't working out well anyhow.
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Canadian here. I have no plans to visit the US for the foreseeable future. This is upsetting to me since I have multiple long-term friends who live there that I'd like to visit. I don't feel safe so I'm not going!
You’re only hurting yourself and your friends. At least in LA we’re as pissed off about the current admin as anyone else and love it when people visit.
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> it works, so therefore it must be destroyed. This is really how Republicans think I've been living here four years and met some really wonderful Americans, both Democrat and Republican, yet I don't think I've met a single one who thinks the way you're presenting. This seems like a pretty bleak way to view your country's politics, respectfully.
What voters think is largely irrelevant. Republican politicians campaign by claiming everything government does doesn't work, and once in office they do everything possible to ensure those claims become true.
The republican politicians then have to craft a message that will get enough normal, not rich people to vote them into office. So they talk about hot-button culture war issues, selecting the positions they must take to get numbers they need (abortion, gun rights, "freedom of speech," gay marriage, immigrants, vaccines, etc etc), all the while reminding their base that the government (except the military and police) is bad.
So that is say, normal people who vote republican can be very nice and reasonable, and they have one or two things that strongly motivates them to vote for a terribly harmful platform.
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There has long been a desire to privatize the USPS, so this also fits neatly into the narrative that the USPS should not be a public good.
Have you looked at your mail lately? The USPS is mostly shipping around recycling, like ads. I would happily pay $7 to send a letter 1 time a year if it meant I would see half as much spam. Surely you see how the spam is subsidizing letters, and then “public good” isn’t so obviously black and white. I mean we could ban spam, tax to pay $6.50 of every $7 letter to enable wedding invitations be $0.50 to mail… but why?
The post office fucking rules.