Government Employees Are the Scum of the Earth

[Kidlicious]

Kuci thinks it's good to let the free market force people to live in big cities. Freedom.

[Sava]

Kuci thinks it's good to let the free market force people to live in big cities. Freedom.

I don't think he understands "good" from "bad" when other people are in the equation.

[Kidlicious]

I don't think he understands "good" from "bad" when other people are in the equation.

It's just all about money for him. Things like living in the country have no value, and actually cost. That's not a psycopath.

[Sava]

It's just all about money for him. Things like living in the country have no value, and actually cost. That's not a psycopath.

If he wanted to live in the country, it would have value.

I'm leaning toward psychopathy only because I'm one and know my own. He's just not as bright as others I've met.

[Kuciwalker]

It's not at any price... it's at a price that would be not a huge headache (for people outside those areas too. imagine if you're stuck billing someone $10/mo for some service and have to pay >$10 to deliver the letter because the contracts were signed when postage was actually feasible). Most of the people who live in those areas are relatively poor already, but they perform a necessary service our society needs to continue.

If the service they provide is so valuable then they could get someone to pay them plenty of money for it - enough money to offset the higher cost of postage.

You aren't going to see a ****ing food shortage because the government stopped subsidizing rural postage.

[Sava]

You aren't going to see a ****ing food shortage because the government stopped subsidizing rural postage.

No. But the rise in cost to mail things would translate into higher prices for everything.

If private companies could do the same job for less money, they would. But they can't, so they don't.

When you kill something that benefits everybody, everybody suffers.

[Kidlicious]

If he wanted to live in the country, it would have value.

I'm leaning toward psychopathy only because I'm one and know my own. He's just not as bright as others I've met.

Psychopaths don't tell people that they are psychopaths. You're just a troll.

[Kuciwalker]

If private companies could do the same job for less money, they would. But they can't, so they don't.

Private companies could do that easily if the Feds handed them billions of dollars a year for free.

[Aeson]

If the service they provide is so valuable then they could get someone to pay them plenty of money for it - enough money to offset the higher cost of postage.

You aren't going to see a ****ing food shortage because the government stopped subsidizing rural postage.

I didn't say anything about food shortages happening because of increased postage. Only that we couldn't just move to cities like you seem to think is a valid option.

We would see lots of unnecessary hassles and it could cause some businesses to fail. Unemployment would go up somewhat as postal workers are let go. At least in the short term delivering the same mail is going to be less efficient. Lots of small changes in business models (especially billing) would be forced all through the system.

Give it a few years and most of the paper mail requirements will be virtually gone anyways. We have broadband here now for instance, and several of the service providers (banks, ISPs, cable, ect) are paperless or have that as an option. 5 years ago it was really bad dial up you couldn't get much done on and there was no such thing as a direct deposit for anything local. We aren't the real boondocks, but progress is being made pretty rapidly. In the meantime, the post office seems like it could be returned to sustainability with less political capital than it would take to privatize it.

Those are the main reasons why I'm unsure if it would be a good idea right now or not.

[Aeson]

Private companies could do that easily if the Feds handed them billions of dollars a year for free.

The post office was revenue neutral for quite some time. The fact that in those years (decades?) the door to door letter carrying business wasn't overrun with private companies would suggest that the USPS was being pretty efficient about it. It's more likely that the USPS' real advantage is efficiency gains because of standardization, existent infrastructure, and mass delivery.

They claim the losses now are because of increased pension demands from Congress, which is a good argument for privatizing it (to get Congress out of it) but a very bad sign for it actually being possible.

[Kidlicious]

Private companies could do that easily if the Feds handed them billions of dollars a year for free.

Didn't you understand his point?

[Tupac Shakur]

let the free market force people to live in big cities.

That's actually a great idea. It's been happening for centuries, of course, but let's remove all the remaining obstacles.

[Kidlicious]

Because there is no inherent value to the free market. Like I said, you folks think that's some kind of higher power.

[The Mad Monk]

It's just somewhat surprising to me since they were pretty good about it through the 80's and 90's.

They've been wanting to close offices and cut Saturday deliveries.

Begging for them, really.

Congress won't allow it.

Recently, some higher ups have gotten in trouble for trying to do an end run around congress.

[Kidlicious]

Does anyone else question the assumption that any private business would want to run the post office, atleast without subsidies?