General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSHitler wants to privatize USPS
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/12/14/trump-usps-privatize-plan/They intend to 'privatize' the entire fed gov't. That means destroying what's there, emptying the fed treasury into their pockets + the social security trust fund, too, so they can monetize everything to benefit themselves, leaving us with/ no functioning gov't and destitute. THAT'S THE PLAN. Count on it.
Henry203
(178 posts)Healthcare will get worse as profits will be its only goal.
think the service part of USPS could be made any worse than it already is. It is horrendous, and notoriously unreliable and slow.
However, privatizing the thing is a sure fire way to make the cost of the services skyrocket. And I'll all but guarantee that detaching it from government funding will not lower our personal taxes in return. The USPS is very bloated in current form, and there are a LOT of worthless employees dragging the system down. It most certainly needs an overhaul, but I won't claim to know all of the answers.
Henry203
(178 posts)Use USPS and it very reliable and just as fast as fedex and UPS. It is also less expensive.
ForgedCrank
(2,381 posts)tons of stuff online, and this is not my experience at all. USPS is slower than two old people screwing. Every single time that I buy something and get a USPS tracking number, I cringe because I know it'll take forever to get here, and that is almost always the case, exceptions are rare.
Ebay sellers use it because it's cheaper, nothing more.
peggysue2
(11,515 posts)Yet my experience with the postal service has always been good. It may be worse in rural districts; I've never lived in the boondocks.
My complaints usually involve FedEX and UPS. Not only are they ridiculously expensive but they consistently screw-up package deliveries, and then offer lame excuses. My favorite was the delivery guy being afraid to come into my neighborhood, that I couldn't expect the driver to risk his life.
Really? That would certainly surprise my neighbors sitting in their comfortable, well-tended homes.
The dried food and supply packages I've sent my son on his through-hikes are normally sent through USPS. We've only lost one in approximately 200 mailings. And they've always been on time.
So, the idea of privatizing the world does not give me warm, fuzzy feelings.
Henry203
(178 posts)The USPS is very good.
PortTack
(34,830 posts)For those that are complaining
ask yourself, you ready to pay $5 to mail a letter vs 50 cents?
I can only imagine what package shipping will go to. It will kill a lot of small businesses.
Sequoia
(12,553 posts)Wuddles440
(1,437 posts)As in previous posts, any delivery problems my wife and I have encountered have almost anyways been with FedEx or UPS.
TBF
(34,748 posts)what did people think would happen?
So it will be privatized and the options will be private - usps, ups, fed ex, dhl and whatever -- and they will all be more expensive & they will all suck.
Dan
(4,156 posts)They want the pension fund of the USPS .
JMCKUSICK
(603 posts)Irish_Dem
(59,696 posts)Captain Zero
(7,577 posts)He wants to consume the country.
Irish_Dem
(59,696 posts)And also shows his sadism and cruelty.
Consuming the flesh of innocent victims.
Turbineguy
(38,502 posts)TheBlackAdder
(29,016 posts)The USPS was pretty much breaking even each and every year until they were forced to come up with $5 Billion of pension pre-funding. Then, lo and behold, the USPS is running at a loss of $5 Billion a year and then claim it's losing money.
It's all a scheme to not only seize real-estate and property assets, but also their pension funds.
Whatever company gets it will borrow against that money and then go bankrupt, thereby sticking taxpayers with replenishing the pension system.
sakabatou
(43,251 posts)Yavin4
(36,613 posts)Privatization means making a profit on heretofore public services. And the only way to make a profit is to deny service or charge a price that not only includes service delivery but a profit as well.
So, if you live in a hard to reach area of the country, mail delivery service to your home is incredibly expensive but the cost is spread out because it's a public service. Privatization means that individual consumers bear the entire cost of the service as well as a profit.
allegorical oracle
(3,393 posts)pays for its employees' retirement and that requires billions of dollars set aside for the future. Public services shouldn't expect to make a profit. They could cease with the USPS TV commercials. Those cost plenty and who isn't aware that you can mail stuff at the post office?
Hated that Biden's Chairperson of the Post Office's Board of Directors never chucked Louis DeJoy.
jeffreyi
(2,094 posts)He was on the receiving end of an a$$ chewing. He was in what amounts to a shouting match with the committee member, and then finally covered his ears! The guy is very wierd.
allegorical oracle
(3,393 posts)mail-sorting machinery before the new ones arrived. Mail stacked up in some offices for six weeks because DeJoy also ordered workers not to hand sort mail. It costs a fortune to send packages, now, and one 1st Class Parcel took 18 days to go 70 miles from my post office. Could've delivered it myself in an hour.
Autumn
(46,660 posts)Lovie777
(15,223 posts)Mail in ballots will be in trouble and thrown in the trash, and SS and other checks will get lost, plus the fear is that we might pay a fee just to receive mail and services.
CousinIT
(10,484 posts)They also want to destroy teacher's unions.
Initech
(102,511 posts)Mike 03
(17,370 posts)Kicking
I live in a semi-rural community with many older folks, quite a few with health issues, very red, suffered a disproportionately high number of COVID cases because of refusal to mask up or get vaccinated, and unwilling to raise their taxes by one cent to help the schools and teachers out. They will complain like hell if anything happens to the USPS up here--and we have extremely good mail service here.
jeffreyi
(2,094 posts)Closing the post office will be very unpopular, but things sure looks headed that way. The post office jobs are good jobs in these parts. Won't be long before our national forests and other public lands are on the chopping block and being gobbled up. Everybody knows about national parks, they are popular and probably safe for now; less glamorous but much vaster public lands not so much. Hurts my heart.
woodsprite
(12,242 posts)Skittles
(160,304 posts)he's just the start, kind of like how Medicare "Advantage" is the prelude to complete privatization of Medicare
orangecrush
(22,122 posts)And they will formally outlaw democracy, as they oligarchs outlawed communism in Russia to make sure you never get it back.
Bumbles
(268 posts)Anytime I've filed a complaint, usually in person in our small local post office, I've gotten a satisfactory response. Our mail carriers have become friends. I look forward to talking with them whenever possible. Making and personalizing connections is so important, especially in this difficult time.
The Freepost, Maine, post office has a tradition started by a customer years ago in which customers bring in goodies to share with the community. It was lovely to walk into the outer office recently to see the varied array of Christmas cookies. Cooperative and nurturing small town America can still be found. I'm thankful I live in the blue part of Maine where it's much easier to co-exist.
JHB
(37,467 posts)It's why they supported him. He's their big chance to grab all the marbles.
drmeow
(5,330 posts)have wanted to privatize USPS for decades. Every stupid law passed about the USPS has been with the goal of claiming it is a problem and needs to be privatized.
They despise the USPS for two primary reasons: 1) It is the single most democratic institute in the country. No matter who you are, where you live, what color your skin, what religion you belong to, etc, you can mail a letter for the same price as everyone else and (it used to be - now rural locations not so much) every single person got their mail delivered to their door the same as everyone else. 2) Post office jobs are among the civil servant jobs that reliably elevated people doing that sort of labor into the middle class.
The British aristocracy had franking privileges (which Congress has) which allowed them to send mail for free. I'm sure the Musks of this world also want that.
They also want to revenue of the post office to line their pockets.
There are no depths to the hatred I have for the billionaire class!
CrispyQ
(38,585 posts)Why yes. Yes it is. According to google AI overview:
The U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) retirement programs, including the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund (PSRHBF), had an estimated value of $298 billion at the end of fiscal year 2022. However, the USPS's retirement costs are significant, totaling $10 billion in 2023 alone.
Captain Zero
(7,577 posts)Plain and simple.
AllaN01Bear
(23,318 posts)so if he strips the gvt, he aint got no job??
Quanto Magnus
(1,034 posts)wrecking it for the last 8 years....
objective achieved
aggiesal
(9,525 posts)Not that Pendejo45's Oath to the Constitution means anything.
Captain Zero
(7,577 posts)The Post Office was mandated as a government service by the founding fathers, and it's in the constitution.
TNNurse
(7,160 posts)Guess they are planning to ignore any part of the Constitution they don't like.
magicarpet
(16,955 posts)..... why shouldn't the Fascist capitalists do the same with the US Constitution ?
OMGWTF
(4,480 posts)At the end of the day, this rabid greed is nothing more than a dick-measuring contest to see who can be the world's first trillionaire.
AverageOldGuy
(2,170 posts)Abolishing the PO will require a constitutional amendment -- OR -- simply have Congress not appropriate any money for the USPS.
See how easy dictators take over? Especially when over half the electorate is comprised of dumbass muthahfukahs.
Am I bitter? Damn right.
Mountainguy
(1,021 posts)Kingofalldems
(39,290 posts)51.5% minorities along with 46% women employed there.
And Trump hates minorities, especially black people.
valleyrogue
(1,191 posts)USPS is quasi-private anyway and has been since Nixon.
spike jones
(1,796 posts)Last edited Wed Dec 18, 2024, 04:44 PM - Edit history (1)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-party-platform-public-lands_n_6690023fe4b0fb744167465b?ncid=APPLENEWS00001bif
(24,246 posts)It used to take me over a week to get a paycheck that went a total of three blocks! I now just walk over to the office and pick it up. The newspaper I work for sends out free copies to the entire city a couple times a year. Our block never gets them. It's a total mystery what happens to the papers.
Noel Kums
(90 posts)I think we're just fortunate to have a great local office with a lot of old-timers who are lifers and enjoy what they do.
Ruby the Liberal
(26,330 posts)4th gen blue
(15 posts)That people have given up on it.
Mossfern
(3,249 posts)There's a drone!
BTW, I have had only good experiences with the USPS.
Oneear
(101 posts)You will see discounted stamp prices. How is that? Louis DeJoy. I would love to be the fly on the wall and explain this to the Board of Governors, Congress, and USPS.
Jilly_in_VA
(11,106 posts)or at least he'll have a hella hard time, because that's one department enshrined in the Constitution. But he can fuck it up, and he's already done that with his buddy DeJoyless, who we can't seem to get rid of.