Post

I sent a letter the other day and thought man, it is really cool how we have this giant logistics network that will deliver basically whatever you want wherever you want for $40 tops

99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-... One of my all time favourite episodes

Here’s the rub - you don’t want the government “making money.” If the government is hoarding surpluses, that means they aren’t spending it on schools, infrastructure, healthcare, research, oversight - the optimal state would be a net-zero balance. A government surplus does nothing for you.

but in my day, if you interfered with the mail, you’d be up against Chief Postal Inspector Rumbelow. Hah! And there’s a big difference. Gods forgive.

The irony is, it was once left to 'run like a business', and it was at the very least self funding. Once Republicans hampered it with a giant burden of prefunding decades of pensions, something no business would ever do to itself, it suddenly wasn't financially viable anymore. They want it to fail.

Fucking government services should not be run as businesses. That's why they're SERVICES...we're already paying for them by taxes.

Ok, but maybe they could do a second album other than Give Up? And no, the live album of a bunch of the songs from the original one doesn't count.

, Ben Gibbard yelled quietly (I'm very sorry)

Royal Mail was sold off, prices have tripled, service has gone down significantly.

Shit, they used to do banking and a whole bunch of other stuff. Why not expand to do other things? They know where all the houses are, have them expand to checking on the elderly, partner with the local library, stuff like that.

People thinking the government should be a business and make money is a big part of why we are here. And all these dems doing anti tax stuff right now isn’t helping.

This is an excellent point too. Even when public goods ARE intrinsically profitable, they must be hobbled to prove the previously held belief of "government waste." We eat from the dumpster of ideology once again

(Accuweather is mostly [entirely?] just repackaging the NWS/NOAA data!)

Also they don't let it run like a business, since 1970 they have sought to hamper and fetter it at every turn.

the use of "profitability" as a measure does not work for public goods. roads/highways are not profitable! but the amount of business done through those goods is where profitability comes from. many businesses rely on low costs of public goods to function. imagine a "profitable" fire department lmao

The entire point of generating revenues through taxes is to use some of that money on something that otherwise could not be paid for!! ffs

EV charging, too.

This is The Way u_u u_u u_u

The reach of USPS to every household is precisely why it should provide these additional services.

I mean USPS did do some banking back when, and it would absolutely kill off the scam of check cashing places so I wouldn't mind a return. Making the post office the go to for competitive rural utilities would also give it some protection from right wing defunding BS (though not privatization). 1/

Bring back and expand the Postal Savings System Act of 1910.

You know those guys care deeply about the census too

there's no "department of war" in the constitution! (or in the US code, for that matter)

If the usps stick to delivering mail, that’s what will succeed. They don’t need other services or gimmicks. They tried that before. I worked there for 25 years. And do not work your carriers to death. And please replace those rolling death traps called LLVs.

also if people think they get a lot of bullshit in their mailbox now if the post office goes to anything under 6 day delivery they lose the exclusive access so any asshole can use the boxes then.

I also don’t understand the opppsite position. You want the pot office to raise rates and limit service? Why?

Dems should refuse to fund the war but first they should make Republicans fund the Post Office

I dream of the rest of eternity in the post office line