this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2024
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162
Trump considers privatizing US Postal Service, Washington Post reports (www.reuters.com)
submitted 3 days ago by inclementimmigrant to c/politics
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[–] Sarmyth 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Shipping would get soooo expensive. I ship all over the US and the pricing from UPS and FedEx stays competitive with USPS, and often USPS will do the last mile delivery in more rural zones. If you remove the limiting price point that the USPS provides to the market, these private shippers will raise prices so high, so fast, it'll make your head spin.

The margins these companies are willing to charge an individual is actually obscene. I ship pallets every so often, so I have a FedEx freight shipping contract. It discounts my freight costs ~90%. For anyone without a business and no contract they're happy to charge you 10x more they need to. They profit off the price they charge me, they rake you over the coals because they can. If they have more opportunities to do that, they will.

[–] whotookkarl 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

"The U.S. Postal Service, which has lost more than $100 billion since 2007,"

How much did the military "lose" during the same period? It "lost" $842 billion last year and it's proposed next year "loss" is $849.8 billion.

It's not a fucking business with a profit motive, that's the dumbest way to conceptualize a government.

Edit: 2007-2022 was $11,293.64B, 2023-2024 was $1,624B. The US military budget for the same period USPS cost $100B was $12,917.64 billion dollars.

Edit edit: counted 2022 twice

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

They can't even pick a lane. Congress critters "You should act like a business" USPS "We want to get into banking to increase revenue" Congress critters "No."

[–] inclementimmigrant 72 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

Looks like Trump and the Republicans will finally succeed with what trump started eight years ago with letting DeJoy fuck the postal service.

Good luck old people in getting your medications by mail, assholes.

[–] Eldritch 42 points 3 days ago (3 children)

It's been going on far longer than trump. And they may not be there yet. They've been pulling procedural fuckery for the last 30 years minimum. But the post office itself is constitutionally mandated. It would require an amendment to the constitution. Not impossible. But also not an executive order.

[–] Zachariah 24 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Have you checked with the Supreme Court about what they think the founders intended?

[–] Eldritch 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It's actually relatively safe. Most of the time they f*** things up by purposefully misinterpreting vaguely worded things. It's pretty explicit. They would have to outdo themselves to abolish it outright.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The Constitution just says you need a postal service, it doesn't say it needs to be government run. They can easily make an argument like that. The postmaster general would just be handing out contracts instead of running it.

I don't see this Supreme Court pushing back too hard on any interruption similar to this.

[–] Maggoty 3 points 3 days ago

Really? They completely fabricated history for Bruen. That's not just misinterpreting vague wording. And then they stopped a very clearly worded EPA statute because the current Congress didn't consent to the regulation. (A requirement never seen before or since)

[–] just_another_person 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Would need support for more states than they'd be able to muster up, especially the more rural states which will definitely not support this.

[–] Maggoty 2 points 3 days ago

Here's a bag of money Mr. Senator.

[–] psmgx 5 points 3 days ago

It’s been going on far longer than trump. And they may not be there yet. They’ve been pulling procedural fuckery for the last 30 years minimum.

FedEx has been fighting this battle for decades

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

And say goodbye to mail-in ballots 🙃

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

And it didn't seem that Biden minded anything that Dejoy was doing. It's been a number of years where there were sufficient number on the board of Governors to get rid of Dejoy and they did nothing.

[–] shalafi 47 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Rural folks wouldn't know what fucking hit 'em. Imagine a sliding-scale USPS delivery and fee schedule, amped up by private enterprise.

"Fuck you mean it costs $10 to send a letter from Bumfuck?!"

"Fuck you mean I gotta wait a month longer than city folk!?"

Y'all, delivery's bad enough in the sticks without this crap. And another reason not to fuck with the USPS, those guys are the one government agency everyone deals with personally and loves. Who doesn't know their carrier?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I think USPS does stellar work, but I have never known my mail carrier. I just can’t find a normal seeming way to run out there while they are delivering mail and introduce myself. Maybe it’s different if you have a house, but I’ve never had one.

[–] PumpkinSkink 7 points 3 days ago

Take up smoking. You'll get to know all your neighbors and your local USPS, FedEx, UPS and Amazon workers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think it's more common if you live in an apartment building with lots of units. The delivery person will sit there organizing and unloading boxes for a few minutes before moving on. Houses are lucky to get more than a few seconds with their delivery person before they move on.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I’ve lived in a lot of places like that, but when I did, the mail carrier did not want anybody to approach them while the boxes were open. They’d always holler that I should come back in 30 minutes and that they can’t give out mail before it is in the box.

That is part of the reason I never tried to really talk to them.

[–] rayyy 19 points 3 days ago

We are just beginning to enter the nightmare Twilight Zone of FAFO.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 days ago

That pretty much goes without saying.

"Privatization" the way the Republicans do it might as well have been tailor-made to appeal to Trump.

Imagine the sales pitch:

"Okay now Mr. President, see this program over here that's carried out by government employees? Just imagine that instead of having government employees do it, we contract with some private company to do it. The government would still be paying for it, but instead of all of that money going to a government agency, it goes to some private company that'd damned well better show their gratitude if they expect to keep that contract."

I can just see him, like Scrooge McDuck, with a dippy smile on his face and dollar signs in his eyes.

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres 16 points 3 days ago

This seems unambiguously up to Congress since a “post office and postal roads” are specifically mentioned as part of Article I of the constitution but who the fuck knows in the Calvinball judicial era?

Just to be clear, it says, “may” setup a post office not “shall” and some FedEx executive with a briefcase full of cash could probably convince at least 4 SCOTUS judges to vote for something. But Jeff Bezos and whoever owns the greeting card industry — Hallmark, I guess — might have larger briefcases of cash so we’ll see who wins. (Not us. We’re losing either way. But Amazon vs. FedEx and every company that has to mail records by law — health insurance and banks probably being the big ones — means nothing is guaranteed and it’ll take decades of court cases to sort out.)

[–] CharlesDarwin 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The qons are getting revved up for the looting and the pillaging.

Remember to keep that Samuel L. Jackson clip ready when the dumbasses start complaining about what they FUCKING VOTED FOR.

[–] reddig33 18 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Ask the Brits how they like their privatized royal mail these days.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Only USPS is actually private.

By law, first-class mail is sealed against inspection, meaning that government officials may not open it without first getting a warrant from a judge.

FedEx and UPS don’t provide the same protections from unlawful searches.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Would be a shame if a strike happened and people had to rely on expensive private shipping companies.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I'll be forced to vote in person if that happens (If voting even matters at that point). Fuckity fuck.