this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 18 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

The USPS was never intended to turn a profit. It’s not a business. Its entire purpose is to deliver mail to every American, regardless of where they’re located. Making that profitable was never realistic nor necessary for a government service.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

It doesn't have to profit, but it also doesn't have to subsidize incoming packages from China.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

I'm sorry, what do you think is happening here?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

How are they subsidizing them?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The UN Postal Union sets guidelines for international mail that dictates developing countries shouldn't have to pay full price to send mail to developed countries. Basically if it costs $30 to ship something from a developing country, they would charge $20 and the destination country would pay for the shortfall (dollar values not real). China was a much smaller economy when this agreement was drafted.

The US renegotiated this agreement with the United postal union in 2019/2020 but there were still come compromises made - while the amount of subsidization is minimal compared to 10 years ago, USPS still allegedly eats some losses on every package from China.

Basically Trump is mad because the deal he personally negotiated 5 years ago wasn't good enough. Same thing that happened with his trade agreement with Canada

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

You're ignoring the fact that the person who ordered the thing is in America, and are acting like this is a subsidy for China.

Not everything is zero-sum.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, and the person who ordered the thing from China is getting their shipping cost subsidized by the American taxpayer, while someone who orders something domestically has to pay for 100% of their own shipping. It literally is a subsidy for China

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Congratulations, you cracked the code on how public services work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 25 minutes ago (1 children)

You should try scrolling up and looking at what the context of the discussion is. Someone asked what was being subsidized, I answered, you swooped in with a bunch of self righteous off-topic remarks.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 minutes ago

Hurr durr but why should I have to pay for public education if I don't have any kids?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

for fucks sake this entire conversation is bullshit. the whining about pittance of tax dollars spent on packages from china is entirely designed to make you stop paying attention to the absolutely obscene mountains of tax moneys going directly to american billionaires in the form of tax cuts, bailouts, and yes--fucking subsidies
honestly gtfo with this bitching about the USPS