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I've been shipping stuff online for 15 years. The post office has always been a huge mess. The only reason articles are getting written about it now is because

I've been shipping stuff online for 15 years. The post office has always been a huge mess. The only reason articles are getting written about it now is because A. Covid-era mail volumes have doubled or tripled. And B. You get to blame Trump.

MisterBastahrd 5y ago
DeJoy was literally having them tear mail sorting machines out of their facilities, having them discarded in trash bins, and then cut hours for workers. Try again.
- shiftpgdn 5y ago
  The Obama administration had them remove a massive amount of sorting machines too. Those are letter sorting machines. Letter volume is down to literally the lowest it had ever been. There is a reason they are getting ripped out.
  - dsr_ 5y ago
    The letter sorting machines are faster and cheaper than manually sorting the same letters... and they were already paid for. You are correct that there is a reason that they are being ripped out, but it's not because letter volume is down.
    - shiftpgdn 5y ago
      Letter volume is down and the machines need to be replaced with machines that can handle parcels. How are they supposed to replace them!?
    - makomk 5y ago
      Manually sorting letters isn't actually the alternative here - what the US Postal Service was moving towards under DeJoy (and probably before him too) was sorting the same letters using the same kind of automatic machines, but a smaller number of them reconfigured to sort into a larger number of different piles using parts from the scrapped machines. This reduces overall capacity, but should be more efficient so long as they don't actually need the extra capacity.
burkaman 5y ago
I've been reading articles about Republicans sabotaging the postal service by making it pre-fund its retiree health fund since well before Trump. In fact, the law was passed 15 years ago, just as you started shipping stuff. It's always been absurd to expect a government service to make a profit, and we've been talking about that for a long time, I don't think most people say it's Trump's fault.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  Any employer that promises its employees benefits in the future should have to set aside money to pay for them. Including the government, even though it has exempted itself from this common sense requirement that it imposes on non government entities. If anything, the rest of the government should have to do what USPS was legislated to do. Note that the law you are referring to required the USPS to set aside money for accrued benefits, just like any private company has to. Otherwise you end up with the situation that IL/CT/NJ and many other governments are subjecting their taxpayers to, which is raising taxes now to pay for labor performed decades ago. It’s nice for the taxpayers of decades ago, not so nice for the taxpayers of today.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - burkaman 5y ago
    I don't believe we have to choose between "act like a corporation" and "run up impossible debts for future generations". You are right that pre-funding benefits is good, but the sabotage I'm referring to is pretending the postal service is a business, changing its financial obligations without changing its service obligations, and then complaining that it's "losing money". A government service does not need to make a profit, and talking about "profits" at all is nonsensical. How many billions do public libraries lose every year? How many trillions does the military? If it makes a profit, it's probably not doing its job.
    - lotsofpulp 5y ago

MisterBastahrd 5y ago

DeJoy was literally having them tear mail sorting machines out of their facilities, having them discarded in trash bins, and then cut hours for workers. Try again.

shiftpgdn 5y ago
The Obama administration had them remove a massive amount of sorting machines too. Those are letter sorting machines. Letter volume is down to literally the lowest it had ever been. There is a reason they are getting ripped out.
- dsr_ 5y ago
  The letter sorting machines are faster and cheaper than manually sorting the same letters... and they were already paid for. You are correct that there is a reason that they are being ripped out, but it's not because letter volume is down.
  - shiftpgdn 5y ago
    Letter volume is down and the machines need to be replaced with machines that can handle parcels. How are they supposed to replace them!?
  - makomk 5y ago
    Manually sorting letters isn't actually the alternative here - what the US Postal Service was moving towards under DeJoy (and probably before him too) was sorting the same letters using the same kind of automatic machines, but a smaller number of them reconfigured to sort into a larger number of different piles using parts from the scrapped machines. This reduces overall capacity, but should be more efficient so long as they don't actually need the extra capacity.

burkaman 5y ago

I've been reading articles about Republicans sabotaging the postal service by making it pre-fund its retiree health fund since well before Trump. In fact, the law was passed 15 years ago, just as you started shipping stuff. It's always been absurd to expect a government service to make a profit, and we've been talking about that for a long time, I don't think most people say it's Trump's fault.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
Any employer that promises its employees benefits in the future should have to set aside money to pay for them. Including the government, even though it has exempted itself from this common sense requirement that it imposes on non government entities. If anything, the rest of the government should have to do what USPS was legislated to do. Note that the law you are referring to required the USPS to set aside money for accrued benefits, just like any private company has to. Otherwise you end up with the situation that IL/CT/NJ and many other governments are subjecting their taxpayers to, which is raising taxes now to pay for labor performed decades ago. It’s nice for the taxpayers of decades ago, not so nice for the taxpayers of today.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- burkaman 5y ago
  I don't believe we have to choose between "act like a corporation" and "run up impossible debts for future generations". You are right that pre-funding benefits is good, but the sabotage I'm referring to is pretending the postal service is a business, changing its financial obligations without changing its service obligations, and then complaining that it's "losing money". A government service does not need to make a profit, and talking about "profits" at all is nonsensical. How many billions do public libraries lose every year? How many trillions does the military? If it makes a profit, it's probably not doing its job.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago