Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

“There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery.”

usps.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 179 posts

Re: “There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery.”

#41

Post by tsally »

cwan wrote: post #2

While I don't doubt volumes have fallen as a result of things like email, the US postal service also hasn't done itself any favors. You read anecdotes like this, and it's a wonder that volumes haven't plummeted even faster: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/04/things-a...

Every time the US postal service comes up in discussion, someone invariably mentions how life would be so much better if the service was privatized. I think this argument represents a fundamental misunderstanding of public services; the post office is perhaps the canonical example of an extremely important service that only can exist in the public sector. As others have mentioned already (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1236487), delivering a piece of paper from California to Maine for under a dollar is not something the private sector can provide.

As a rule of thumb, if your gut tells you that a particular service is essential to a civilized society the service belongs in the public sector. As a nation we've decided the ability to affordability correspond with others around the country is such a service. Education is another. These two examples are extraordinarily complex problems which the US public sector solves well, all things considered. Yet every time we discuss these services someone always wants to privatize them.

For the most fundamental components of our society, privatization is never the answer.

Re: “There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery.”

#42

Post by sachinag »

jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #39

Privatize the system and outsource it to UPS/FedEX,etc. (I know easier said than done). If I ever need to send snail mail, I just send it via those guys.

The problem is the mandatory requirements for full service in unprofitable areas. The USPS literally has a plane that goes weekly to the most isolated part of Idaho: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/us/30idaho.html

There's no way a private contractor could/would do that.

Re: “There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery.”

#43

Post by roboneal »

muerdeme wrote: post #33

I saw the chairman of their board speak not long ago, and it turns out the biggest problem is that USPS can't fire any of their union employees, who consistently get awarded UPS salaries + 15-20% in arbitration.

It's even better - when they literally have no work for employees they are asked to find work elsewhere but the USPS will pay them any difference in pay/benefits essentially forever.

Re: “There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery.”

#44

Post by tsally »

jonknee wrote: post #9

> Ten years ago, the average household received five pieces of mail every day. Today, it receives four pieces and by 2020, that number will fall to three. ... And it would receive much less than that if the USPS wasn't mostly a delivery network for spam.

I think the current solution for snail mail spam is the optimal one. Consider the two possibilities: (1) the government raises taxes in order to increase the USPS's ability to handle spam or (2) the USPS offloads the majority of the filtering process to the recipients (the current solution).

On days I receive spam in the mail, I waste approximately one second when I have to pause to throw it away. If the USPS were to implement an effective spam filtering mechanism, I'm willing to bet my taxes would go up by more than the value I loose doing the filtering myself. More broadly, the nation as a whole looses value if the USPS takes on the filtering problem.

Re: “There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery.”

#45

Post by steveklabnik »

ojbyrne wrote: post #28
joshfinnie wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I think netflix has made it quite apparent that they are looking for instant streaming as the model for the future. They already have aligned their website to feature the instant streaming over their mail service, they have teamed up with the gaming consoles to enhance the instant streaming experience and it sounds as if they have made a way for the iPad to have instant streaming. This change might hurt them…

I think streaming is _one_ of their products for the future, but I'd bet blue ray dvds are also a significant growth area both for them and the movie studios. There's going to be a war before those studios will let netflix stream recent releases in HD.

Aren't Blue Ray sales pretty much a failure by all accounts? I was under that impression, I could be wrong.

Re: “There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery.”

#46

Post by roboneal »

jonknee wrote: post #20
Avshalom wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

considering that those 44 cents will get a letter basically hand delivered from Key West Florida to Barrow Alaska. Still a pretty good deal.

I'm not saying it's a bad deal, just that the OP hadn't actually bought a stamp in a long time (or at least realized the cost).

15% price increase (39 to 44 cents) in 4 years is not unnoticed "in volume" and easily outstrips inflation.

Re: “There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery.”

#48

Post by mmt »

sachinag wrote: post #42
jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #39

Privatize the system and outsource it to UPS/FedEX,etc. (I know easier said than done). If I ever need to send snail mail, I just send it via those guys.

The problem is the mandatory requirements for full service in unprofitable areas. The USPS literally has a plane that goes weekly to the most isolated part of Idaho: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/us/30idaho.html There's no way a private contractor could/would do that.

I think you're confusing outsourcing with deregulation. A private contractor would happily do that for enough subsidy.

Re: “There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery.”

#49

Post by steveklabnik »

tsally wrote: post #41
cwan wrote: post #2

While I don't doubt volumes have fallen as a result of things like email, the US postal service also hasn't done itself any favors. You read anecdotes like this, and it's a wonder that volumes haven't plummeted even faster: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/04/things-a...

Every time the US postal service comes up in discussion, someone invariably mentions how life would be so much better if the service was privatized. I think this argument represents a fundamental misunderstanding of public services; the post office is perhaps the canonical example of an extremely important service that only can exist in the public sector. As others have mentioned already ( http://news.ycombinator.com…

Can only exist in the public sector?

How do you explain FedEx and UPS?

I can see both sides of this argument.

Re: “There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery.”

#50

Post by araneae »

jrockway wrote: post #36
pxlpshr wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, I see mail as a temporary problem. If Netflix Streaming contained all the top titles, I would use that almost exclusively. There really would be no reason for mail, it's slow and inefficient.

What's nice about mailing physical media is that the movie studios don't have much control. You can buy a widget and do whatever you want with it, including mailing it around. You can't do this on the Internet, though, because computers are magical and Someone Could Copy It!1111!!

Right. It may be temporary, but how long it's temporary is something that could really hurt them. Hardly anything I want to watch on Netflix is On Demand, and I already hate Sundays.
Post reply on HN