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The post office is unfortunately vulnerable to political pressure. Both from their unions, and from the federal government. Imagine the nightmare of Pete Butt

The post office is unfortunately vulnerable to political pressure. Both from their unions, and from the federal government. Imagine the nightmare of Pete Buttigieg sending down dictates to the post office as he tries to build political career. Look at what’s happening in CA right now: just park the ships far enough offshore that you can’t see them and then claim the problem is solved because there aren’t as many ships waiting, charge the people who are already losing money because they can’t get their containers out of the port fines, and punish them further, claiming this as a political win because it punishes the businesses. Absolutely no thank you. This is an actual problem that needs real solutions, not politicians grubbing power.

jorblumesea 5y ago
Those people are in theory at least, elected by the American people. Meanwhile Amazon is beholden to whom, wealthy board members and stock holders? How is that better?
- GhettoComputers 5y ago
  Look at reality. Do you want packages stuck at harbor?
  - jorblumesea 5y ago
    My packages are stuck in a harbor regardless. Many major shippers, both public and private are having issues.
newhotelowner 5y ago
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/18/trump-amazon-postal-service/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/18/trump-a...
landryraccoon 5y ago
This comment is pretty disingenuous. Your argument implies that ANY public service is not worth improving, because any government agency is vulnerable to political pressure. If you think your elected leaders are not competent and professional, then fire them and elect leaders that will improve the government. If you want a better post office, we need to FIX the post office, not destroy it. This sort of argument is the one that leads to hypocritically de-funding the post office by playing politics, then since it's too political pointing to it and saying "See? The government can't do anything right", then completely dismantling it. Other countries manage to have public services that actually work. I don't believe that the American people are somehow genetically predisposed to having a bad government.
- bllguo 5y ago
  > I don't believe that the American people are somehow genetically predisposed to having a bad government. I sure do. Nothing is going to change until rejection of authority is no longer foundational to the culture. We literally convinced ourselves that dysfunction and gridlock are features of the system, not bugs.
  - jen20 5y ago
    That’s cultural, not genetic.
    - bllguo 5y ago
      sure, that's more accurate. I kind of assumed that's what they meant. in any case changing either significantly is a long shot
- kortilla 5y ago
  > Other countries manage to have public services that actually work. Which countries have something competing with Amazon? > I don't believe that the American people are somehow genetically predisposed to having a bad government. All governments are bad. The American people just happen to have alternatives that have revealed how bad some of the overlapping government orgs are so they make a lot of noise about how bad government departments are. > If you think your elected leaders are not competent and professional, then fire them and elect leaders that will improve the government. If you want a better post office, we need to FIX the post office, not destroy it. The whole thing is fucked from an incentives perspective. No government employee has motivation to try hard or innovate. There is no shared bonus structure to bring that on in any branch of the government. When government is competing with an industry, it’s either going to need to run at a loss and live off of other tax revenue or it just won’t be competitive for whoever the customers are.
  - wutwutwutwut 5y ago
    > Which countries have something competing with Amazon? Amazon have tried to enter the Swedish market and it has been a complete train wreck. The other businesses who were initially worried ended up just confused over how they could screw up as bad as they did.
spamizbad 5y ago
The post office does things that private carriers are unable to do: deliver a high volume of units to any valid address. FedEx pushes a fraction of the volume of USPS and is buckling under the strain of the current labor shortage[1] [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-04/labor-shortage-ups-union-drivers-give-delivery-service-edge-over-fedex-fdx https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-04/labor-sho...
- lern_too_spel 5y ago
  FedEx is so bad now that I avoid buying from sellers that use FedEx for shipping. The last few times I had a FedEx delivery, the delivery status went to pending twice, and the deliveries were a week late. Looking at the Google Maps reviews of the distribution centers where the packages sat, I consider myself lucky to have received the packages at all.
- pxeboot 5y ago
  The Post Office doesn't actually deliver to every address. There are hundreds of rural areas where residents get a free PO Box in the nearest town, without the option of home delivery.
  - tsol 5y ago
    So doesn't that mean effectively it does? Last mile shipping is difficult for everyone
micromacrofoot 5y ago
Amazon doesn’t really seem to have a long-term solution… they had to ease drug testing requirements at one point recently because their turnover is so high that they were running out of people. Their last mile drivers are contracted companies that treat their employees so poorly that it’s somewhat typical for them to leave their keys in the van and quit on the spot.
wolverine876 5y ago
The US Post Office delivered the mail on time for generations until the prior administration got its hands on it.
- tsol 5y ago
  It's so strange how easily people can be convinced "this never worked, it's not worth even trying". Certainly that's by design

jorblumesea 5y ago

Those people are in theory at least, elected by the American people. Meanwhile Amazon is beholden to whom, wealthy board members and stock holders? How is that better?

GhettoComputers 5y ago
Look at reality. Do you want packages stuck at harbor?
- jorblumesea 5y ago
  My packages are stuck in a harbor regardless. Many major shippers, both public and private are having issues.

newhotelowner 5y ago

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/18/trump-amazon-postal-service/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/18/trump-a...

landryraccoon 5y ago

This comment is pretty disingenuous. Your argument implies that ANY public service is not worth improving, because any government agency is vulnerable to political pressure. If you think your elected leaders are not competent and professional, then fire them and elect leaders that will improve the government. If you want a better post office, we need to FIX the post office, not destroy it. This sort of argument is the one that leads to hypocritically de-funding the post office by playing politics, then since it's too political pointing to it and saying "See? The government can't do anything right", then completely dismantling it. Other countries manage to have public services that actually work. I don't believe that the American people are somehow genetically predisposed to having a bad government.

bllguo 5y ago
> I don't believe that the American people are somehow genetically predisposed to having a bad government. I sure do. Nothing is going to change until rejection of authority is no longer foundational to the culture. We literally convinced ourselves that dysfunction and gridlock are features of the system, not bugs.
- jen20 5y ago
  That’s cultural, not genetic.
  - bllguo 5y ago
    sure, that's more accurate. I kind of assumed that's what they meant. in any case changing either significantly is a long shot
kortilla 5y ago
> Other countries manage to have public services that actually work. Which countries have something competing with Amazon? > I don't believe that the American people are somehow genetically predisposed to having a bad government. All governments are bad. The American people just happen to have alternatives that have revealed how bad some of the overlapping government orgs are so they make a lot of noise about how bad government departments are. > If you think your elected leaders are not competent and professional, then fire them and elect leaders that will improve the government. If you want a better post office, we need to FIX the post office, not destroy it. The whole thing is fucked from an incentives perspective. No government employee has motivation to try hard or innovate. There is no shared bonus structure to bring that on in any branch of the government. When government is competing with an industry, it’s either going to need to run at a loss and live off of other tax revenue or it just won’t be competitive for whoever the customers are.
- wutwutwutwut 5y ago
  > Which countries have something competing with Amazon? Amazon have tried to enter the Swedish market and it has been a complete train wreck. The other businesses who were initially worried ended up just confused over how they could screw up as bad as they did.

spamizbad 5y ago

The post office does things that private carriers are unable to do: deliver a high volume of units to any valid address. FedEx pushes a fraction of the volume of USPS and is buckling under the strain of the current labor shortage[1] [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-04/labor-shortage-ups-union-drivers-give-delivery-service-edge-over-fedex-fdx https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-04/labor-sho...

lern_too_spel 5y ago
FedEx is so bad now that I avoid buying from sellers that use FedEx for shipping. The last few times I had a FedEx delivery, the delivery status went to pending twice, and the deliveries were a week late. Looking at the Google Maps reviews of the distribution centers where the packages sat, I consider myself lucky to have received the packages at all.
pxeboot 5y ago
The Post Office doesn't actually deliver to every address. There are hundreds of rural areas where residents get a free PO Box in the nearest town, without the option of home delivery.
- tsol 5y ago
  So doesn't that mean effectively it does? Last mile shipping is difficult for everyone

micromacrofoot 5y ago

Amazon doesn’t really seem to have a long-term solution… they had to ease drug testing requirements at one point recently because their turnover is so high that they were running out of people. Their last mile drivers are contracted companies that treat their employees so poorly that it’s somewhat typical for them to leave their keys in the van and quit on the spot.

wolverine876 5y ago

The US Post Office delivered the mail on time for generations until the prior administration got its hands on it.

tsol 5y ago
It's so strange how easily people can be convinced "this never worked, it's not worth even trying". Certainly that's by design