4 ms·

It's interesting the FCC takes a stand against robocalls while the USPS would happily deliver offers to sell my grandmother into slavery directly into my mailbo

It's interesting the FCC takes a stand against robocalls while the USPS would happily deliver offers to sell my grandmother into slavery directly into my mailbox. It baffles me that all spam doesn't fall under the definition of harassment.

testbjjl 4y ago
The USPS at a time was the center of a lot of communities (open on Sundays, serving alcohol) before other forms of communication and has a legislative history to disseminate “information” independently due to “information” not being uniformly accessible in all states.
- withinboredom 4y ago
  Yep. And you used to be able to mail your children to their grandparents or whomever too.
mustyouremember 4y ago
The USPS is required to maintain unusually massive pension obligations, and it is expected to pay for itself. They would sell their own grandmothers for a chance to balance their books, hence the Faustian junk mail bargain.
- gsk22 4y ago
  Not as of 4 months ago: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-50-billion-postal-service-relief-bill-2022-03-08/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-50-billi...
SoftTalker 4y ago
Junk mail is wasteful and a PITA but it isn't quite as intrusive as a phone call. You pick up your mail when it's convenient, and it's easy to identify junk mail and discard it without it really interruping your day or having it change its message when it sees you heading for the trash bin.
- jjtheblunt 4y ago
  > when it's convenient not in general: my wife is a letter carrier part time for USPS, and the overwhelming 2 problems they face are people never getting around to it being convenient, and Amazon shipping huge packages via USPS. Regarding convenience, mail gets recalled and addressees have to be seriously inconvenienced to retrieve it. this isn't a punitive thing, but a logistics issue.
  - causality0 4y ago
    Being open 8:30-5:00 means the only people actually able to use the post office are those of us doing shift work.
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  It's long since passed the point where the task of sorting through junk mail for the very rare valid item is a tedious and error-prone chore. Again, the real harm is in missing legitimate postal mail. You can request junk mail, including bulk unaddressed mail be excluded. And reject delivery requiring your carrier to pick it up and dispose of it.
  - jjtheblunt 4y ago
    I used to pay for a UPS Store USPS box, exactly to enable filtering of junk mail...it was an option for the box. worked fantastically.
  - betwixthewires 4y ago
    Yep, I just don't check my mail. I get emails for my bills, I don't get checks in the mail or anything, I track deliveries of things I've ordered. Mail is sort of useless nowadays anyway, there's no reason to send me paper when there are a myriad of ways to contact me electronically.
    - nostromo 4y ago
      I once decided not to replace a stolen mailbox at my house. I don’t get anything of value anyway. My carrier just started leaving it on the ground in front of my door. Including all that spam addressed to nobody. Even though I repeatedly opted out of that stuff. At least where I live, the post office primarily serves as a spam distribution agency, and they take that mission very seriously.
bmitc 4y ago
The USPS does that to survive because one party, funded by owners of competitors, would like to see the USPS go away. if they were simply funded as they should be, then they wouldn't have to send all that.
- seanp2k2 4y ago
  Great political strat too: ruin the thing that is competing with the businesses paying for your campaign while pointing out how badly that thing is doing. Try to make it as unbearably bad as possible for everyone and pitch fixing it as part of your campaign. Then just privatize it so your friends can extort everyone previously served by the thing. Public schools are another example of this.
  - feet 4y ago
    Ah yes, the republican strategy. While dems sit idly by and collect donations
legalcorrection 4y ago
Any bill to ban junk mail would fail in Congress because the postal workers union here is very cozy with the Democrats and would never support it.

testbjjl 4y ago

The USPS at a time was the center of a lot of communities (open on Sundays, serving alcohol) before other forms of communication and has a legislative history to disseminate “information” independently due to “information” not being uniformly accessible in all states.

withinboredom 4y ago
Yep. And you used to be able to mail your children to their grandparents or whomever too.

mustyouremember 4y ago

The USPS is required to maintain unusually massive pension obligations, and it is expected to pay for itself. They would sell their own grandmothers for a chance to balance their books, hence the Faustian junk mail bargain.

gsk22 4y ago
Not as of 4 months ago: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-50-billion-postal-service-relief-bill-2022-03-08/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-50-billi...

SoftTalker 4y ago

Junk mail is wasteful and a PITA but it isn't quite as intrusive as a phone call. You pick up your mail when it's convenient, and it's easy to identify junk mail and discard it without it really interruping your day or having it change its message when it sees you heading for the trash bin.

jjtheblunt 4y ago
> when it's convenient not in general: my wife is a letter carrier part time for USPS, and the overwhelming 2 problems they face are people never getting around to it being convenient, and Amazon shipping huge packages via USPS. Regarding convenience, mail gets recalled and addressees have to be seriously inconvenienced to retrieve it. this isn't a punitive thing, but a logistics issue.
- causality0 4y ago
  Being open 8:30-5:00 means the only people actually able to use the post office are those of us doing shift work.
dredmorbius 4y ago
It's long since passed the point where the task of sorting through junk mail for the very rare valid item is a tedious and error-prone chore. Again, the real harm is in missing legitimate postal mail. You can request junk mail, including bulk unaddressed mail be excluded. And reject delivery requiring your carrier to pick it up and dispose of it.
- jjtheblunt 4y ago
  I used to pay for a UPS Store USPS box, exactly to enable filtering of junk mail...it was an option for the box. worked fantastically.
- betwixthewires 4y ago
  Yep, I just don't check my mail. I get emails for my bills, I don't get checks in the mail or anything, I track deliveries of things I've ordered. Mail is sort of useless nowadays anyway, there's no reason to send me paper when there are a myriad of ways to contact me electronically.
  - nostromo 4y ago
    I once decided not to replace a stolen mailbox at my house. I don’t get anything of value anyway. My carrier just started leaving it on the ground in front of my door. Including all that spam addressed to nobody. Even though I repeatedly opted out of that stuff. At least where I live, the post office primarily serves as a spam distribution agency, and they take that mission very seriously.

bmitc 4y ago

The USPS does that to survive because one party, funded by owners of competitors, would like to see the USPS go away. if they were simply funded as they should be, then they wouldn't have to send all that.

seanp2k2 4y ago
Great political strat too: ruin the thing that is competing with the businesses paying for your campaign while pointing out how badly that thing is doing. Try to make it as unbearably bad as possible for everyone and pitch fixing it as part of your campaign. Then just privatize it so your friends can extort everyone previously served by the thing. Public schools are another example of this.
- feet 4y ago
  Ah yes, the republican strategy. While dems sit idly by and collect donations

legalcorrection 4y ago

Any bill to ban junk mail would fail in Congress because the postal workers union here is very cozy with the Democrats and would never support it.