U.S. Postal Service: salvageable or doomed?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkEvLjj_rqc

^ a little video I'd like you to watch iatee

farmers should quit growing food, move to the city and work in private equity

again w/ the farmer thing

almost nobody is a farmer!

and yet we still pretend like half the country is

You can farm just as easily in queens, amirite?

literally as i clicked on this thread a mail truck stopped hard in front of my window. the mailman got out to retrieve a box that had escaped the truck and was lying in the middle of the street.

almost nobody is a farmer!

― iatee, Wednesday, May 2, 2012 4:32 PM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's why they all live out in the middle of nowhere!

Mandatory victory gardens should have been part of Obamacare

fewer than 1% of americans are farmers

iatee, the numbers of farmers are shrinking, but they are still required, bcz, you know, food.

yes

all those people in the middle of nowhere are just getting books sent in the mail that teach them how to build bombs to blow up post offices anyway.

I do think its kind of terrifying to start measuring these sorts of things per economic viability tho - its a sad insight into the creepy economic mental sludge that is going on across the board in politics these days, and makes it even clearer that the neocons have won even while losing.

do you even know what the word neocon means

mail service is a constitutional issue. if you live in the middle of nowhere you still get, like, due process. sending off a letter is the same deal. so what if it's expensive!

all those people in the middle of nowhere are just getting books sent in the mail that teach them how to build bombs to blow up post offices anyway.

Get govmt out of my Medicare!

yes you insufferable little dude xxpost

nah the congress has the *ability* to create a postal service, not a requirement

http://gaffngun.com/forums/images/smilies/avatar54063_2.gif

l-r: ilx threads that even obliquely involve rural vs urban, iatee

The internets are making everything else privatizable, it seems

iatee just curious b/c I have not paid attention to this kind of shitstirring before -- have u lived in a rural area?

is there anything in section 8 that congress "shall have the power to" do, that it doesn't?

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.

no I considered moving to one but then I remembered I was not a farmer xp

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.

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?

the post office is kinda crazy for sending letters thousands of miles for, like, 50 cents. who does that? crazy people, that's who.

the post office is kinda crazy for sending letters thousands of miles for, like, 50 cents. who does that? crazy people, that's who.

^

p simplistic view of what the post office does imo

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

They could just order their John Deere combines off of Amazon. Except nobody would deliver them. RIP farmers.

Yeah, who has ever heard of things like "economies of scale," am I right?

anyway outside of the rural/urban stuff this is what the post office does in 2k12

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-BP551A_JUNKM_D_20111005205703.jpg

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.

So instead of banning bulk rate/junk mail, let's def. eliminate the post office instead.

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.

if you banned them the post office would be even more fucked! xp

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.

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?

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

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.

and they can't even send a return address because there's no Post Office! Yikes!

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

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

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.

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.

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.

I thought the mail was privatized in Queens.

http://www.officialpsds.com/images/thumbs/Doug-Heffernan-King-of-Queens-psd41765.png

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 office
2 - 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

'basic economics' say that it doesn't cost 50 cents to send a piece of paper anywhere in america

I dunno, I kinda liked "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight"

xps i used to buy stamps regularly using those vending machines until they seemed to all disappear some 10-15 years ago. never seen one since.

So

Post offices now close for lunch, so plan accordingly

yeah, I found that out recently.. and a european LONG lunch at that, possibly even a siesta in a big cart of mail

does that mean they are literally having one person staff the post office?

Yeah, I'm not sure if they close for lunch everyday, or just when there's literally only one person in the station - pretty annoying though

My local post office closes for lunch - yep only one employee.

So my brother is proposing to his girlfriend. And the engagement ring is coming today, requires a signature, and he's working. He asks if I can go to his house and sign for it and leave.

Said ok, but was anxious because the mail service where he lives is notoriously bad. They once applied a mail forwarding request I made for my father at my address and my mail started going to their place.

Sure enough, something goes wrong. My bro msgs me to say the package shows delivered, did I get it? No, nobody's been to the door, nothing outside. Shows as signed for by my bro's initials.

My guess is to avoid being dinged for a late delivery, the mailperson marked it delivered, fabricated the signature, then figured they'd go to your house, hope you were there, and if not, leave a note on the door. Because of the ridiculous workload mailpersons have, they do this all the time (they did it to me at my old place even before DeJoy).

The other theory is they put it in the mailbox and fraudulently marked it as signed for. But since it's an engagement ring, my brother is freaking out like a 12 year old.

I went outside to see if I could see the mail truck. There it was, at the front of the community, and moving towards his place, so I figure ok, they'll be by shortly.

Here's where I got completely stupid. I didn't want to approach the mail person as I don't live in that community and it's gonna sound strange, me asking them for a package for someone else. But I also didn't want to assume they would come by the house and have them leave, as my brother didn't leave his mail key to check the box.

So I got in the car and drove to the street the truck was on and after I saw it was clear that they were still delivering on the route towards my brother, I parked and walked back to his house. Sure enough, they pulled up and stopped outside his house so I stayed outside so I could sign for it. But then the driver left.

Now my brother is begging me to flag them down and I'm asking if he's sure there's no mail key in the house and no, there's not. I told him they were driving away and I didn't want to tail the driver as that would creep them out.

But then I figured they would stop to deliver another package and I could get out and politely ask them about the package. So I found them, and they were going the opposite direction. Dammit. So I waited 30 seconds, turned around and went back to see if I could catch them. Now they're again going the opposite way.

So now I've figured out that I obviously freaked them out and they're trying to get away from me. Exactly what I wanted to avoid. Brother is hounding me about it and I'm like DUDE I'M GONNA GO TO JAIL IN A MINUTE.

So I went to the mailroom at the front of the community to pause and figure out what to do next, like going to his work to get his mail key.

Mail person is parked there as I arrive, right across from me. Fuck. She is staring right at me, intently. She starts taking pics of my car and is clearly talking to someone. FUCK.

Alright so I've completely made a mess of this and terrified the poor woman. I don't blame her at all. It's why I hadn't wanted to do it.

So I decided to get out of the car slowly and talk to her from a distance rather than approach the truck. After all, I'm 6'0, 225 pounds, heavily tattooed, and unkempt and looking agitated due to the situation. She gestures at me with a shrug, basically saying "what the FUCK do you want?". Which is fair.

So finally I explain the situation and she is relieved when I explain I just have a question about a package. She offers to help, and then retrieves the package. Sure enough, another mail carrier (I guess they have two because it's a big community) delivered the package to the box and fabricated the signature to make it look like a door delivery. Thanked her, apologized, and went on my way.

So yeah, i completely fucked this up, and unintentionally terrified a mail person today. Shoulda just told my brother to stfu, grabbed his mail key, and checked the box.

this story has big george costanza energy

Lol

Damn.

Spent a good chunk of postage to make sure an overseas package got shipped and delivered on time. Got a notice a few days back with a "return to sender" notice on tracking with no explanation. Just got the returned package in the mail. Reason for return - no customs form declaration. Clearly attached to the package - a customs form declaration!!

This is as much if not more another sign of the general unraveling of society, but reportedly there have been a number of armed robberies of mail deliverers here in the last couple of weeks. Gunmen just run up in broad daylight and demand packaged and master keys. That's fucked up.

when you're gonna misdeliver one of my packages, absolutely make sure it's my pills.

some days i feel like a single-issue voter, and that biden doesn't deserve my vote for not immediately ousting this piece of shit crony dejoy on day one.

he doesn't have the power to do so unfortunately

I can't say I'm a fan, but his tenure has had some welcome surprises.

Talking to my neighborhood postal worker (who both lives here and delivers here, which seems like a great setup), it sound like there's a rash of attacks on postal workers where the attackers steal their building/group mailbox keys and then steal packages. Sounds like a very unpleasant time to be a postal worker.

Yeah, I've heard that in Oakland a bunch.. I caught a dude red-handed trying to break into my apartment's mailboxes, and he had a ring of keys instead of a screwdriver

I feel like there's been a crazy spike in postal crimes in general. Check fraud has definitely gone up, and it's tied to mail theft. It's gotten so bad, I never mail anything unless I'm doing it INSIDE the post office into a kiosk or slot that's either constantly watched (i.e. within their tellers' view) or going into the area they're stationed at where they can see the mail being dropped in. Last year, some guy came into my local post office to tell them someone was trying to steal mail from their outside boxes using some kind of sticky thingie (and fled before he could be caught), and they told him "we're very aware of him." Not in a blaisé way, it was kind of implied they were doing something about it (what, I don't know).

U.S. Postal Service: salvageable or doomed?

I can't say I'm a fan, but his tenure has had some welcome surprises.

― birdistheword, Friday, January 5, 2024 12:30 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

counterpoint: go fuck yourself

There are definitely some good things about the USPS recently. Their newly introduced Ground Advantage rate is cheaper and seemingly quicker for sending packages domestically. When I have to ship CDs, I'm paying about a dollar less per package than I used to and things are arriving in the same amount of time.

xp I'm not a fan of DeJoy's austerity plan - it's going to needlessly slash jobs and delay service - but he was also instrumental in getting the Postal Service Reform Act passed into law. That codified six-day delivery into law and ended the disastrous federal mandate that the USPS pre-pay the health plans for retirees, neither of which is a small thing. So right back at you.

I feel like there's been a crazy spike in postal crimes in general.

A lot of mail boxes have vanished here, like months ago. I think it's because crooks figured out a way to wash signatures off of checks, so they were stealing from the boxes in search of those (and who knows what else). Supposedly more secure replacements are on their way, eventually.

I actually talked with a carrier about this - there have been cases where they found boxes sawed or cut-through. So in addition to upgrading locks (like maybe a double-validation system), they're hoping to make the physical mailbox tougher to slice or puncture. It's really crazy how it's come to this.

he doesn't have the power to do so unfortunately

The Postal Board where he's nominated the majority does, tho

“checks”?

<cheques notes> yep.

Some people get paid via actual checks in the mail — idk if that’s what’s in question but checks in the mail are a v real thing fwiw

Also my mom got frauded via a check recently. It’s not insignificant imo.

Literally waiting on two important ones right now.

And for every pension I administered, there was 10% of our population who got paper checks