US post office carriers "forced to work fewer hours," leaving "buckets of mail" • Hacker News Board

Re: US post office carriers "forced to work fewer hours," leaving "buckets of mail"

#21

Post by iron0013 » Mon, Aug 17, 2020, 4:55 PM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #2

> DeJoy instructed USPS employees to leave mail behind if it delayed carriers from their routes I mean, this does make sense. The more time you can spend doing the route itself, instead of waiting or coming back mid-way for whatever couldn’t be sorted in time in the morning is more “lean” efficient. While some mail would take an extra day, it results in more mail delivered per carrier-hour.

According to mail carriers, the actual result is an ever-growing backlog of undelivered mail. The first mail to be delayed may only be one day late, but as the backlog grows, the undelivered mail gets later and later on average.

Re: US post office carriers "forced to work fewer hours," leaving "buckets of mail"

#22

Post by avmich » Mon, Aug 17, 2020, 4:56 PM UTC

convery wrote: post #16

badwolf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly due to those services charging fees and generating income tends people to envision them as a business instead of a service.

A service is just a specialized business though.

Interesting. If there are two objects with fields a, b and c, and one object initializes them to 1, 2 and 3, while another - to 1, 2 and 4. Does it make sense to derive the second object from the first? Or the other way around?

I thought business can be viewed as a specialized service. But both approaches are possible, so the choice of "default" says about our preferences.

Re: US post office carriers "forced to work fewer hours," leaving "buckets of mail"

#23

Post by stingraycharles » Mon, Aug 17, 2020, 4:56 PM UTC

avmich wrote: post #10

stingraycharles wrote: post #3

Genuine question: seems like this is mostly a political post without much relation to the typical content one would expect on HN. Is there some kind of “off-topic” policy at HN for these things, or is it fair game given that enough people upvote it? Edit: article seems to be flagged now, guess I have my answer.

If I remember correctly, HN is supposed to have information interesting and useful for thinking people. This example doesn't qualify as off-topic then.

Apparently the guidelines even explicitly say:

“Off-Topic: Most stories about politics”

I would certainly classify this as such.

Re: US post office carriers "forced to work fewer hours," leaving "buckets of mail"

#24

Post by andrewxdiamond » Mon, Aug 17, 2020, 4:56 PM UTC

prions wrote: post #12

curiousgal wrote: post #5

> Trump himself has admitted to wanting to starve the postal service of funds so that mail-in voting will become difficult, as tens of millions of Americans are expected to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic. This is why I can't help but admire Trump, the fact he remains untouched proves how cunning him and his team are. Either that or how fragile the checks and balances system truly is.

How is anything about his hamfisted (publicly admitted) attempt to disenfranchise voters even close to cunning? Maybe it’s because his party and half of America is also on board with it?

Be careful to not challenge people’s beliefs too much, they’ll get upset and start screaming about censorship

Re: US post office carriers "forced to work fewer hours," leaving "buckets of mail"

#25

Post by kube-system » Mon, Aug 17, 2020, 4:57 PM UTC

jorblumesea wrote: post #4

It's interesting to see that in America, some government services can run at a loss but others are expected to be solvent. No one complains that the military doesn't pay back the 700 billion a year it takes but if public transportation goes over budget or the post office, suddenly it's a big deal. I honestly don't get it. Most services in most countries run at a loss but they provide huge public benefits so it's wort…

That is due to their financial structure, not simply a cultural expectation.

The USPS isn’t funded by taxes at all, so of course they need revenue from operations.

Re: US post office carriers "forced to work fewer hours," leaving "buckets of mail"

#26

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 17, 2020, 4:57 PM UTC

curiousgal wrote: post #5

> Trump himself has admitted to wanting to starve the postal service of funds so that mail-in voting will become difficult, as tens of millions of Americans are expected to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic. This is why I can't help but admire Trump, the fact he remains untouched proves how cunning him and his team are. Either that or how fragile the checks and balances system truly is.

[deleted]

Re: US post office carriers "forced to work fewer hours," leaving "buckets of mail"

#27

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 17, 2020, 4:58 PM UTC

Lendal wrote: post #15

jorblumesea wrote: post #4

It's interesting to see that in America, some government services can run at a loss but others are expected to be solvent. No one complains that the military doesn't pay back the 700 billion a year it takes but if public transportation goes over budget or the post office, suddenly it's a big deal. I honestly don't get it. Most services in most countries run at a loss but they provide huge public benefits so it's wort…

Even if there was some sort of budgetary problem, it seems logical that services that are explicitly required by the Constitution, such as mail and census, would have precedence over those that are not.

[deleted]

Re: US post office carriers "forced to work fewer hours," leaving "buckets of mail"

#28

Post by zamadatix » Mon, Aug 17, 2020, 4:59 PM UTC

Lendal wrote: post #15

jorblumesea wrote: post #4

It's interesting to see that in America, some government services can run at a loss but others are expected to be solvent. No one complains that the military doesn't pay back the 700 billion a year it takes but if public transportation goes over budget or the post office, suddenly it's a big deal. I honestly don't get it. Most services in most countries run at a loss but they provide huge public benefits so it's wort…

Even if there was some sort of budgetary problem, it seems logical that services that are explicitly required by the Constitution, such as mail and census, would have precedence over those that are not.

Article 1 Section 8 gives congress the power to collect money to provide postal service it does not require that they do so. This is opposed to Article 1 Section 2 which states a census shall be done and how often.

This isn't to say I'm against the USPS or anything of that matter just that lately I've seen "postal services are mentioned in the constitution" turned into "postal services are required by the constitution".

Re: US post office carriers "forced to work fewer hours," leaving "buckets of mail"

#29

Post by beebmam » Mon, Aug 17, 2020, 4:59 PM UTC

stingraycharles wrote: post #3

Genuine question: seems like this is mostly a political post without much relation to the typical content one would expect on HN. Is there some kind of “off-topic” policy at HN for these things, or is it fair game given that enough people upvote it? Edit: article seems to be flagged now, guess I have my answer.

I imagine your comment is being downvoted because a significant portion of your comment is a statement, not a question, and that statement is something that people disagree with.

Re: US post office carriers "forced to work fewer hours," leaving "buckets of mail"

#30

Post by asabjorn » Mon, Aug 17, 2020, 5:00 PM UTC

prions wrote: post #12

curiousgal wrote: post #5

> Trump himself has admitted to wanting to starve the postal service of funds so that mail-in voting will become difficult, as tens of millions of Americans are expected to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic. This is why I can't help but admire Trump, the fact he remains untouched proves how cunning him and his team are. Either that or how fragile the checks and balances system truly is.

How is anything about his hamfisted (publicly admitted) attempt to disenfranchise voters even close to cunning? Maybe it’s because his party and half of America is also on board with it?

If someone can stand in line for the cashier at Home Depot and Whole Foods, they can also do so at the voting booth.

Mail-in voting has no tracking of the voter receiving the ballot and if a filled out ballot is counted. It also has no verification of who votes and no protection to make the vote anonymous.