nah the congress has the *ability* to create a postal service, not a requirement
― iatee, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
l-r: ilx threads that even obliquely involve rural vs urban, iatee
― heated debate over derpy hooves (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
The internets are making everything else privatizable, it seems
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
iatee just curious b/c I have not paid attention to this kind of shitstirring before -- have u lived in a rural area?
― Silky Slim (dan m), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
is there anything in section 8 that congress "shall have the power to" do, that it doesn't?
― goole, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
iatee, you realize that that's the whole point, that there's a minority of people who wouldn't be able to get service in the free market, but who need it, and whose services, in turn, we need.
Anyway "1% of Americans" is kind of a dumb stat to cite. It's more like 3+% of the labor force.
― i don't believe in zimmerman (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
no I considered moving to one but then I remembered I was not a farmer xp
― iatee, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
If the real point is to kill the unions and prove 'they don't work', the Republicans could just mandate that UPS and FedEx, etc..., serve rural areas which they could argue is a justifiable use of the commerce clause and totally wouldn't make them look like Mammon-worshipping hypocrites.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
iatee what about all the people that need to live in rural areas to serve those farmers - grain silo storage/operators, farm implement sellers, harvest season laborers, grocery stores, etc etc?
― heated debate over derpy hooves (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
the post office is kinda crazy for sending letters thousands of miles for, like, 50 cents. who does that? crazy people, that's who.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
^
― iatee, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:44 (1 year ago) Permalink
p simplistic view of what the post office does imo
― Silky Slim (dan m), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
tbh guys theres plenty of decent stuff to talk about here and i know its hard to resist but this is kind of a do not feed the iatee sorta situation
― Rachel Profiling (jjjusten), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
They could just order their John Deere combines off of Amazon. Except nobody would deliver them. RIP farmers.
― i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yeah, who has ever heard of things like "economies of scale," am I right?
― i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
anyway outside of the rural/urban stuff this is what the post office does in 2k12
― iatee, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
the post office is bad for the environment and other living things! that's what you're trying to say. i buy that. so many tons of junk paper.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
So instead of banning bulk rate/junk mail, let's def. eliminate the post office instead.
― i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
a) the rights that inhere to you as a citizen of the US and b) the sovereignty the US government holds over the country are both irrespective of the physical geography of the continent. each person and each square inch of US space is formally the same. if this makes the mail expensive in some places relative to others, that's a lesser concern.
both of those things are somewhat fictive (or abstract, if you like) but so what? i mean shit if health care is going to follow the same logic as rights/access then shuffling paper around the country in some useful, regularized way is nbd frankly.
you can argue that in the 18th cent the intent of the clause in Section 8 is idealized, it's about the state fostering the movement of information and correspondence and not about paper per se, but we're not borg yet so let's just pay for it, jesus.
― goole, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
if you banned them the post office would be even more fucked! xp
― iatee, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
Less concerned by actual number of farmers than the idea of telling millions of people that they need to cut all their social/family connections and pack it up for Queens.
All indications are that Americans will continue to naturally urbanize in the coming generations, we don't need draconian bullshit like purposely making life outside of major metropolitan areas more difficult.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
I have to admit I wouldn't miss getting mail from every Orthodox Jewish institution in my neighborhood (of which there are many) bcz someone put every plausibly non-Gentile name from my building's directory on their lists. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph....
Kept getting notices from The Nation when I subscribed that the bulk mail subsidy for periodicals had also vanished or nearly so, yes?
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
I'm pretty sure the post office isn't fucked becauase ppl like me are in charge it is fucked because people don't really use mail that much and, without a doubt, that trend is only going to continue
― iatee, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
and they can't even send a return address because there's no Post Office! Yikes!
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
the junk mail thing is a non starter because the post office is not responsible for the content of the mail you get though xposts
― Rachel Profiling (jjjusten), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
right but its fragile finances atm are built on 50%+ of the mail people get being pieces of paper they will immediately throw in the trash
― iatee, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
you can tell all those benefits that postal workers get make them really happy because everyone who works at the post office is always soooooooooo happy. just a bunch of good time charlies. i say release them from their inhuman chains of misery.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
post office people are cocks! i like mailmen, though. my great grandpa was a mailman, and almost everybody he worked w/ was a WWII vet. Except for the dudes who worked in the offices, and they were all gov't job placement hacks, and he hated them a lot.
― fka snush (remy bean), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:58 (1 year ago) Permalink
I thought the mail was privatized in Queens.
― pplains, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:58 (1 year ago) Permalink
reasons why the junk mail thing doesn't matter
1 - the recipient is not the customer/funder of that mail, so their demands and wishes have nothing to do with the financial situation of the post office2 - basic economics say that the only reason for the sender to pay for that "junk mail" is that it actually has a higher return rate than the cost of mailing. so no matter what we call it, it works enough for it to be growing business for the post office, and our value judgements about it dont really matter
― Rachel Profiling (jjjusten), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
'basic economics' say that it doesn't cost 50 cents to send a piece of paper anywhere in america
― iatee, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
you are amazing
― Rachel Profiling (jjjusten), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
you really think that billions of dollars of subsidies to send paper trash around the country is a good thing because of 'basic economics'
― iatee, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
How much does it cost? xxp
― i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
do you really think that you can get away with this level of hilariously misapplied argumentation xpost
― Rachel Profiling (jjjusten), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
― dayo, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
― dayo, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
I just want people to look at this post for a while, just look at it
― iatee, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
everyone can learn some 'basic economics' if you just reread that post I think
well apparently you cant but yknow
― Rachel Profiling (jjjusten), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
There's a question on the table about how much it costs to send a piece of paper.
― i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
usps works the life out of people and those people can never leave because they will never find better money/benefits and its a vicious cycle and it kinda sucks unless you are a chill rural route carrier but mostly you sell them your soul for good healthcare.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
I think you should write a textbook called 'basic economics' where you teach people how the government paying money to send trash around the country is just 'basic economics'
― iatee, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
Don't make me use the gavel and call the previous question or w/e.
― i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
iatee, you realize that you arent actually fooling anyone here right
― Rachel Profiling (jjjusten), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
no you convinced me w/ basic economics, I'm on your side now
― iatee, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
what i heard was USPS actually earns money from junk mailers paying them to send crap everywhere but this was from a pamphlet i received sponsored by awesome patriot junk mailers for america or some such group.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
um, you should probably double-check what 'basic economics' refers to, iatee
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
iatee if you had bothered to read the first post in the thread you'd know that the turn to increased junk mail is in large part a result of absurd pension-funding requirements designed to kill the postal service
― i don't believe in zimmerman (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
1. postal service exists, 2. prices set by (?)(no idea what bulk rates are tbh), 3. business that want to cram your box with coupons use it.
again this seems like a minor problem. solving 3. by getting rid of 1. doesn't make much sense to me.
― goole, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
and are the distances between people really at the heart of the matter/the main thing to consider? (not a rhetorical q, just haven't thought about that way)
― eaumaille, Thursday, 28 March 2013 23:54 (2 months ago) Permalink
yes. it costs more money to get things to remote places and to keep offices open in places fewer customers. the post office isn't given much flexibility here to adjust like a normal business.
― iatee, Thursday, 28 March 2013 23:58 (2 months ago) Permalink
places with
but the solution must surely be more complicated than asking people to not live remotely?
― eaumaille, Friday, 29 March 2013 00:02 (2 months ago) Permalink
USPS should become the facebook public option
― max, Friday, 29 March 2013 00:03 (2 months ago) Permalink
sry the social network public option
― max, Friday, 29 March 2013 00:04 (2 months ago) Permalink
I've asked before it never works xp
― iatee, Friday, 29 March 2013 00:04 (2 months ago) Permalink
People have a right to get things delivered to remote places by the federal government. It is a just use of state powers.
And while we're at it, FedEx and UPS should be penalized more for competing against the state. Their competition lowers the efficiency of the state's economies of scale.
― I am only able to build things if Obama helps me (dandydonweiner), Friday, 29 March 2013 00:05 (2 months ago) Permalink
We should outlaw email too, because that really ruined economies of scale for the USPS.
― I am only able to build things if Obama helps me (dandydonweiner), Friday, 29 March 2013 00:06 (2 months ago) Permalink
i have no idea if those posts are serious or not
― k3vin k., Friday, 29 March 2013 00:15 (2 months ago) Permalink
new board description
― s.clover, Friday, 29 March 2013 00:16 (2 months ago) Permalink
'competing against the state'
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 29 March 2013 00:16 (2 months ago) Permalink
iatee too literal
― eaumaille, Friday, 29 March 2013 00:55 (2 months ago) Permalink
clover otm
― I am only able to build things if Obama helps me (dandydonweiner), Friday, 29 March 2013 01:27 (2 months ago) Permalink