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U.S. Postal Workers Were on the Front Lines Before. They Were Ignored

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Re: U.S. Postal Workers Were on the Front Lines Before. They Were Ignored

#121

Post by lwf »

nomel wrote: post #94
qppo wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why first principles? Create a do-not-mail list. Make up the funding gap with taxes.

I would like to see a fee for unsolicited bulk mail senders to help pay for the service, along with a "do not mail" list. I would prefer that nobody subsidies the delivery of landfill to my mailbox.

It's the other way around: bulk mail is incredibly cheap to sort, route, and transport, and it's that which subsidizes your hand-addressed letters.

The USPS literally has a service "deliver this flyer to every residential mailbox in this ZIP". It's cheaper per-item than a letter, yes, but the margins on "stuff a bunch of identical objects into N boxes" are much higher than "figure out which of N boxes this 1 unique mailpiece goes to".

Re: U.S. Postal Workers Were on the Front Lines Before. They Were Ignored

#122

Post by Loughla »

cactus2093 wrote: post #114
Loughla wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's easier to keep a phone number or email address active for many years, but an address for a large percentage of the population is temporary. Working with low-income folks daily, this is not true in total. We have to check phone numbers and e-mail addresses every time we interact with our clients, because they cycle through them almost monthly. Physical addresses tend to change annually. >And public libraries pro…

> I don't want to link my bank account to a third party site anyway. And this is just my take, but this last sentence really weakens the rest of your argument. Your view seems to be that of someone who's uncomfortable with modern technology. At some point, we'll need to accept that being uncomfortable with the status quo of antiquated, painfully slow, inefficient non-tech solutions is just as valid of a viewpoint as…

Sorry, I wasn't as clear as I should've been. I updated the comment to clarify. It's not that I don't want to pay bills electronically. It's that my bank won't let me. So I assume the only other option is some kind of third party, similar to paypal, if that even exists for this kind of thing.

Re: U.S. Postal Workers Were on the Front Lines Before. They Were Ignored

#123

Post by crankylinuxuser »

dantheman wrote: post #99
artimaeis wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USPS does not have domain over the pricing structure of its most popular commodity: first class mail. That is regulated to the Postal Regulatory Commission. As for other services offered they do maintain control, which is why priority delivery starts at $7.15. They're also mandated to provide door-to-door delivery with first class mail, so effectively every piece of rural mail costs them money, but they can't do…

It's an idea that's past it's prime. Weekly delivery is all anyone needs, it's all junk mail anyway

Spoken like a cityfolk.

In the more rural parts, mail is very important. Cutting it down to 1/week is terrible.

Re: U.S. Postal Workers Were on the Front Lines Before. They Were Ignored

#124

Post by gruez »

icedchai wrote: post #82
throwaway185205 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Hello, merchant? I haven't received my package, but the tracking info says it was delivered at 9:00." Do you know what the merchant says, because they deal with this _all the time_?

I had a USPS package delivered signature required. They just left it in the mailbox. Unfortunately, it wasn't my mailbox, but one of my neighbors. It took me another 3 days to track it down...

>I had a USPS package delivered signature required. They just left it in the mailbox.

What did the signature show up as? Was there no signature? Did the postman sign himself?

Re: U.S. Postal Workers Were on the Front Lines Before. They Were Ignored

#125

Post by ezrast »

dantheman wrote: post #81
nerevarthelame wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What private companies are delivering mail to rural areas in the middle of Montana? And how much do you think they charge to deliver a single letter to someone an hour away? (Answers: No one - they contract the work to the USPS, and at least $10 per letter)

Perhaps $10 dollars a letter is what it should cost in rural Montana; why is subsidizing a lifestyle choice the post offices business?

Because a reliable communications network is a public good, and cutting off millions of poor Americans from critical services is a despicable way of remediating whatever vague injustices the USPS is perceived to be committing against taxpayers.

Re: U.S. Postal Workers Were on the Front Lines Before. They Were Ignored

#126

Post by m0zg »

learc83 wrote: post #55
m0zg wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps ease the limits then? What's the endgame here? Let it die? Keep spending tens of billions on it each year in perpetuity while it delivers packages for Amazon and Chinese overseas sellers for next to nothing? Neither is a good outcome for anyone, left or right.

>Keep spending tens of billions on it each year in perpetuity while it delivers packages for Amazon for next to nothing? According to the Post Office they aren't delivering packages for next to nothing. They are delivering them for competitive rates and if they increased them they would lose business, revenue, and profit. Now this could be temporarily different due to COVID-19, but if that's the case then emergency f…

There's no such thing as "competitive rates" to a lot of the rural USA because nobody else is required to go there, so nobody does. Instead, they let the taxpayer fund those package deliveries while Bezos is swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck. You don't have to carry water for him just because he owns WaPo.

And to add insult to an injury, the mandatory service such as first class mail is priced below competitive and cemented that way by law. It's as though certain people in US Congress want the USPS to be insolvent, and ultimately nationalized / tax funded.

Re: U.S. Postal Workers Were on the Front Lines Before. They Were Ignored

#128

Post by bmelton »

m0zg wrote: post #33
pietrovismara wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get why public infrastructure and services are supposed to make a profit. They are already funded by taxes, why are we supposed to pay them again?

USPS is not "funded by taxes". Or at least it's not designed to be. It's not a part of the government either.

It is an "establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States" specifically authorized by the United States constitution, and (if you ignore its transition from the USPOD) predates America.

Re: U.S. Postal Workers Were on the Front Lines Before. They Were Ignored

#129

Post by icedchai »

gruez wrote: post #124
icedchai wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a USPS package delivered signature required. They just left it in the mailbox. Unfortunately, it wasn't my mailbox, but one of my neighbors. It took me another 3 days to track it down...

>I had a USPS package delivered signature required. They just left it in the mailbox. What did the signature show up as? Was there no signature? Did the postman sign himself?

This was about 7 or 8 years ago, so I don't remember. Apparently this is a common complaint: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/usps-drops-off-sig...

Re: U.S. Postal Workers Were on the Front Lines Before. They Were Ignored

#130

Post by arianvanp »

ilamont wrote: post #90

Didn't Holland and other central European countries privatize their mail systems? Maybe HN users from those areas could share their perspectives.

Yes it has been privatised but there is basically only one postal service (PostNL). The other one (Sandd) only exists because when PostNL was privatised they weren't allowed to monopolize.

Because mail has been so drastically reduced in the last years due to digitalisation of banking and Government, PostNL has trouble staying profitable so recently this monopoly limit has been removed again to allow of a fusion of Sandd and PostNL.

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