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Practically they don’t need to be profitable since we print our own currency. As Prof. Stephanie Kelton puts it “the governments red ink is our black ink.” But

Practically they don’t need to be profitable since we print our own currency. As Prof. Stephanie Kelton puts it “the governments red ink is our black ink.” But politically when US politicians want to attack a popular service, they use analogies to home economics to manufacture a crisis. Worth noting also that the USPS in particular has been politically sabotaged (and they explain how to fix it): https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/ https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis...

jhoechtl 6y ago
That does sound all economically right to me, why the downvotes?
- faizshah 6y ago
  Understandable, it’s a somewhat new way of thinking called “Modern Monetary Theory.” See Kelton’s “The Deficit Myth” for more info. Many interesting threads in the last year on this: https://www.google.com/search?q=modern+monetary+theory+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com https://www.google.com/search?q=modern+monetary+theory+site%...
- derriz 6y ago
  Because she's one of the biggest proponents of Modern Monetary Theory and most economists view it as snake-oil. MMT claims to offers a fix/cure all our economic problems - everyone can have limitless money to spend as long as "sovereign" governments are the ones handing out the free money. And like snake-oil theories it collapses under the mildest of empirical tests. I could go on, I guess (random google) an article like this sums it up for me: https://www.singlelunch.com/2018/10/01/bad-economics-shame-on-you-planet-money-mmt-episode/ https://www.singlelunch.com/2018/10/01/bad-economics-shame-o...
  - makomk 6y ago
    More specifically, it draws a bogus conclusion from a true premise using an assumption that wouldn't be true anymore if their policies were enacted. The government can indeed print money and government debt is private savings - what it can't do is print resources. The USPS uses a whole bunch of sorting offices and equipment and vans and people's time which cannot just be magicked out of nowhere by the government. They all consume scarce resources that can't be used for anything else. The same is true of the USPS staff's healthcare and retirement - again, a whole bunch of resources. We're used to the fact that money represents a claim on real things at a rate that only slowly declines due to inflation because government fiscal policy is carefully managed to ensure that by not printing too much or too little money.
  - anoncake 6y ago
    > Note that I’m not engaging the ideas of MMT on their own merit! They could be correct for all I know. For all I know, there could be articles that do debunk MMT but this one doesn't.

jhoechtl 6y ago

That does sound all economically right to me, why the downvotes?

faizshah 6y ago
Understandable, it’s a somewhat new way of thinking called “Modern Monetary Theory.” See Kelton’s “The Deficit Myth” for more info. Many interesting threads in the last year on this: https://www.google.com/search?q=modern+monetary+theory+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com https://www.google.com/search?q=modern+monetary+theory+site%...
derriz 6y ago
Because she's one of the biggest proponents of Modern Monetary Theory and most economists view it as snake-oil. MMT claims to offers a fix/cure all our economic problems - everyone can have limitless money to spend as long as "sovereign" governments are the ones handing out the free money. And like snake-oil theories it collapses under the mildest of empirical tests. I could go on, I guess (random google) an article like this sums it up for me: https://www.singlelunch.com/2018/10/01/bad-economics-shame-on-you-planet-money-mmt-episode/ https://www.singlelunch.com/2018/10/01/bad-economics-shame-o...
- makomk 6y ago
  More specifically, it draws a bogus conclusion from a true premise using an assumption that wouldn't be true anymore if their policies were enacted. The government can indeed print money and government debt is private savings - what it can't do is print resources. The USPS uses a whole bunch of sorting offices and equipment and vans and people's time which cannot just be magicked out of nowhere by the government. They all consume scarce resources that can't be used for anything else. The same is true of the USPS staff's healthcare and retirement - again, a whole bunch of resources. We're used to the fact that money represents a claim on real things at a rate that only slowly declines due to inflation because government fiscal policy is carefully managed to ensure that by not printing too much or too little money.
- anoncake 6y ago
  > Note that I’m not engaging the ideas of MMT on their own merit! They could be correct for all I know. For all I know, there could be articles that do debunk MMT but this one doesn't.