-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
"I had so many checks signed with my name on them.
They were BEAUTIFUL checks, the best checks.
But we can't send them out now. We can't do it. We want to do it, but we can't do it.
I tell the people I say, 'We have to send out the checks', and they say, 'We can't do it.'
So we've decided together as a nation, to send all of that money to Mar-A-Lago."
My business sends literal thousands of letters a month through the USPS. I can't even imagine how we would do that without the USPS (and no, it's not spam mail).
I used to work at a small business where we shipped stuff on the daily. USPS we had issues so moved to FedEx. I grew up in a rural area and was equally served by private shipping. Have not needed the mail in 5 years.
Packages are one thing, mail is another. All of that can be done online. I'd be in favor of socializing internet access a public utility to account for bills etc. In fact I helped organize our city run gb fiber and did a decent bit of the networking. I am a cybersecurity engineer, far from so dumb I forget to close my eyes to sleep. That's way uncalled for. Also spent quite a bit of money organizing and contributing to progressive causes, so you probably need to reevaluate your perceptions based on one thing I've said.
Make your case on why it's still needed and will continue to be needed. That's what a forum is for. Hostility maximum off the charts. Calm down and make your case. Give some statistics. How many people are underserved by private shipping or have no access to email? Why is physical mail a need in 2020?
You seem to miss the part where everyone doesn't have the internet RIGHT NOW. Socializing the internet would be a good thing but if USPS goes down in June, that's not in the cards. You could also read all of the other people calling you dumb and privileged in this thread explaining how it will be a bad thing.
You can pat yourself on your back all you want. You are dumb as hell. I knew you would be an engineer when this started. It's the usual person who thinks this way.
a government trying to ditch the postal service will no way in hell make the internet a public utility lol. Like do you even hear yourself?
He doesn't. He's the stereotypical engineer who thinks he has it all figured out. He's like Scott Adams.
And even if you make the internet a public utility, there's still a ton of people that don't use the internet, that don't want to, that don't know how. Not every one owns a computer or a smartphone, or knows how, or has interest in knowing how.
for me personally I know two people in my life, my father and one of his brothers Don, that do not own a computer or a smartphone or internet access, nor do they have interest in having those things.
not everyone lives the way you do, or even the way you think they should.
for me personally I know two people in my life, my father and one of his brothers Don, that do not own a computer or a smartphone or internet access, nor do they have interest in having those things.
not everyone lives the way you do, or even the way you think they should.
My parents get their medicine delivered via USPS. Their costs would increase with literally any other carrier. So yeah sit down.
We are still years and years away from putting everything online and forcing people to use the internet for bills, etc. Years and years. There are huge pockets of the US where people still need bills and other information through the mail and otherwise don't have access to reliable and affordable internet access. There's even people who live in large cities who fall into this category.
Your mention of making voting online only instead of mail shows your privilege. I won't shame you for having privilege, I do as well, but you need to recognize that it's there and you can't make blanket changes to things before the rest of the country has caught up because it wouldn't effect you personally.
Also, the postal system is in the US Constitution. A town getting a postal office built meant it was in large part, actually a town now. It has more than 90% approval across party lines between the left and right. It also doesn't cost taxpayers ANY money. They make their money through stamps and other means.
In short, this is not the hill you want to die on.
People are going to get angry when someone makes an outrageous claim...
You are the one who has made the claim, you need to be the one who brings the data. You can start by telling us all the total volume of the material that the USPS handles, the nature of that volume and how it could all be easily replaced in a way that doesn't submarine significant parts of the economy or disproportionately harm certain demographics. You could also stop down and explain what technology the USPS uses and why it's antiquated. While we are at it, you could show us some white papers on digital voting security and maybe some examples of where it was been successfully administered at scale.
Of course, you already said you were happy to die on this hill, so I am not sure why you are getting upset that people are obliging you your wish.
I'm just worn out by all of this I know it's the Republicans game plan to just do everything they can on every little thing, but what is the fking point anymore. Why am I paying taxes? Like just fking stop this cancer already
There's a lot of things that aren't quite a parcel and aren't quite a letter. Important documents that can't be digitized and require physical signatures, replacements for credit cards, replacements for ID cards and car license plates. Certified letters are also a necessity for all sorts of business and legal proceedings.
And that's ignoring the already-stated fact that UPS/FedEx/DHL simply cannot and do not deliver to large segments of the USA. Regardless of whether it's a letter or parcel, relying on those companies would leave a lot of people with no service at all.
Whatever that means. Reading your post history adds up - you are an extremely hostile individual. Calling people buffoons and telling them to fuck off on a constant basis. This kind of posting is actually not allowed here, idk how you've been slipping through the cracks.
Thank you for others who have had more polite posts. Particularly getting mailed prescription drugs and costs associated with that is something I hadn't thought about and has changed my mind.
Although, yes, as an engineer this is how I think. The idea that a person drives around every day and puts 99% junk in my mailbox and 1% useful stuff which could be done online is ridiculous and wasteful on the face of it. There are millions upon millions of people in this category. There's got to be a better way to do this... and there is a better way to do this, and that's public works to get everyone connected to the internet. Never claimed we are there now, although I would be interested in having a conversation about equability between an online voting portal vs mail in voting for this election cycle. One thing is for sure though - this is not the place to have that discussion.
Perhaps they should completely socialize USPS, fund it via taxes, and do free delivery of essential packages and state/federal communications on an opt-in basis with the alternative being digital. Something has to be done because the current financial configuration is going to sink them regardless of what I think.
I love that you reply to me but no one else lol. You literally do not know what you're talking about. Deride my post history all you want, maybe I deserve it, but at least I do not advocate for making the country a worse place.
What you want me to spend my evening replying to like 5 different people at once? I was wrong and just admitted it but keep riding your high horse. And least I'm not an asshole.
BRB while I apply my limited anicdotal experiences with something I don't understand to the other 350 million people In this country as proof I know what the fuck I'm talking about so I can sound like a complete dumbass in my own fucking ignorance.
Keep adding to your shitty post history.
Keep adding to your shitty post history.
Literally USPS is the only way many rural communities get mail because the big ones refuse to go out there.... but you know this, you already admitted it would screw people over, you just don't care because you're callous
Losing express mail is a whole other can of worms. How will Legal Documents, cremated remains and live animals get to other parts of the country.
Your antics aren't cute. Maybe you should quit while you're behind.
world without USPS would be ass, but it's a huge talking point.
It'll be an even bigger talking point if it disappears.
But I guess I'm a little more on the one-track mind side of things. Any service the government can provide me is a plus. USPS doesn't even really cost tax dollars even.
It'll be an even bigger talking point if it disappears.
But I guess I'm a little more on the one-track mind side of things. Any service the government can provide me is a plus. USPS doesn't even really cost tax dollars even.
The only reason the post office loses money is because Republicans passed a law in 2006 that essentially makes it impossible for them to break even. They have to have cash on hand to cover 75 years of pension up front, a burden no business in the world has. They make annual installments of nearly $6 billion US. Otherwise, they are profitable.
Congress, Not Amazon, Messed Up the Post Office
Legislators passed a law that made the USPS less competitive with the private sector.
www.bloomberg.com
Stop falling for propaganda. It was a law deliberately written by conservatives to bankrupt the post office by setting an impossible to meet goal. So they could justify shutting it down and privatizing mail. I know the public has the collective memories of goldfish but this information is a Google search away.
Gotta stop those disguised folks from being able to mail in their votes for socialism?
Not trying to dogpile on you, as that's a dead horse, but I'm sure many people think the way you're talking about here, so I felt it needed a response.
First of all, the USPS does make a certain amount of revenue from direct mail advertising. As a business, it makes sense for them to do this. It may be annoying but it's about as ridiculous/wasteful as any other form of marketing. Which is to say, it's a bigger problem than the USPS.
But if you don't like junk mail, the answer is definitely NOT to turn to the internet. The internet is much more cluttered with ads and garbage than your mailbox. The internet also introduces many tracking and potentially harmful personal data collections that are not possible via junk mail. We would be so lucky to only have to deal with junk mail.
Lets note, they employee 600k in the country. 600k more people to add to unemployment. 40k alone in Texas. Amazon, UPS, and Fedex aren't going to fill the void left. They will prioritize profit. Large cities will be okay, but rural places will get killed by costs/unemployment of workers. This is 100% of cutting the nose to spite the face
No. They really do. Widespread mail in voting would decimate the GOP for the foreseeable future. They won't cave on this because they simply cannot; It's life or death. The pandemic has put them in a bind, and they'll have to expend a lot of political capital and employ an unprecedented amount of propaganda to hold the line, but they will.
Allowing the USPS to die kills a few birds with one stone.
What I find incredible about this entire thing is that politicians love to go on and on about our great American Ingenuity, and how free market competition will create the best services at the lowest prices...and not only does killing a competitor in the market betray this idea, but the USPS outperforms the other services in many ways.
I'm one of the shittiest posters on here, but goddam this is the single worst take i've ever seen.
You've never recieved legal, regulatory, or financial documents that must be wet signed or certified, or mailed or sent a check, or gotten something from an online order? Wow.
This country will fall apart without the USPS. SO MUCH critical stuff goes through it for SO MANY business, legal, and personal affairs.
see the funny thing is that those companies are running to their own problems right now to. And even at their peak can't handle what the US postal service does they are not designed for it
As an engineer, and for the sake of all my fellow engineers, this is not how I, or anyone who isn't detached from reality thinks. Part of being an engineer is doing a feasibility and requirements analysis for any potential idea. This idea is nowhere near feasibility, and doesn't meet the vast majority of requirements that the USPS currently fulfills. You flexing this as an "I AM ENGINER I MAKE EFICENT" just makes engineers look bad to other people, and makes you look bad to other engineers.
Yup. And everyone and everything in the country will pay the price for these power-hungry bastards.
