6 ms·

The alternative would be to properly fund the system with tax money instead of ad money. When you bring that up most Americans start acting like a toddler, cove

The alternative would be to properly fund the system with tax money instead of ad money. When you bring that up most Americans start acting like a toddler, cover their ears, and shout “bla bla bla that’s communism”.

pfannkuchen 3y ago
Physical paper mail is pretty clearly a legacy system at this point, no? Seems straightforward to delete it and replace it with an email service where each physical address gets an email handle that gets transferred between residents when someone moves in/out. For very old people and Amish there could be an opt-in physical alternative but you need to pick it up at a central location, or pay to have it forwarded by a private package delivery service. Am I sounding like a toddler?
- elashri 3y ago
  This will be hard to implement. If I got an email because I live on xx then I moved to xxx what will happen to my old email? and would I be getting a new email for the new address. Privacy issue a side as you don't want the next resident to know your history of stuff you got... bla bla. We can solve it by requiring dynamic mapping between email address and physical address. But then your email will be tied to you as a person. Which ironically will mean that whoever got hold of this email will always be able to send you ads. It would much harder to get an email for each address you have and preventing re-using it will require some effort. I don't think a universal email will work in the US. The US does not even have a national ID and many Americans does not have passports (because a lot of then will never need one).
  - anticensor 3y ago
    The US does have a national ID card: The US Passport Card. They should strive to make it free of charge and compulsory.
    - elashri 3y ago
      I understand that. And I mentioned the passports already in my comments. But in the context of my comment. national ID would be required and must issued for every citizen (adult), which is not the case. So hence there is not effective national ID in tue US.
      - anticensor 3y ago
        The passport card acts an internal passport, between the 50 subject states and dependent territories.
        pfannkuchen 3y ago
        Thank you for acknowledging Canada’s true status.
        disinfomonitor 3y ago
        This is disinformation. US citizens do not require any form of passport to travel to US territories (let alone states). https://www.usa.gov/visit-territories https://www.usa.gov/visit-territories
  - pfannkuchen 3y ago
    > This will be hard to implement. Sure, we do need to think about it for more than 30 seconds, but I don't think it makes any sense to punt to personal addresses. Physical mail doesn't have a history, so why should "housemail"? It expires after k days, you need to forward it to a personal address if you want to save it. "Housemail" doesn't need to receive arbitrary information, only information that can't be shifted to personal email because there is no registration step. So e.g. things that aren't opt-in, and things where you are legally expected to check what you receive. So, traffic tickets, backup communication from utilities (e.g. water is getting turned off), etc. I think constraining it to only the necessary use cases makes it a lot simpler than what you are imagining.

pfannkuchen 3y ago

Physical paper mail is pretty clearly a legacy system at this point, no? Seems straightforward to delete it and replace it with an email service where each physical address gets an email handle that gets transferred between residents when someone moves in/out. For very old people and Amish there could be an opt-in physical alternative but you need to pick it up at a central location, or pay to have it forwarded by a private package delivery service. Am I sounding like a toddler?

elashri 3y ago
This will be hard to implement. If I got an email because I live on xx then I moved to xxx what will happen to my old email? and would I be getting a new email for the new address. Privacy issue a side as you don't want the next resident to know your history of stuff you got... bla bla. We can solve it by requiring dynamic mapping between email address and physical address. But then your email will be tied to you as a person. Which ironically will mean that whoever got hold of this email will always be able to send you ads. It would much harder to get an email for each address you have and preventing re-using it will require some effort. I don't think a universal email will work in the US. The US does not even have a national ID and many Americans does not have passports (because a lot of then will never need one).
- anticensor 3y ago
  The US does have a national ID card: The US Passport Card. They should strive to make it free of charge and compulsory.
  - elashri 3y ago
    I understand that. And I mentioned the passports already in my comments. But in the context of my comment. national ID would be required and must issued for every citizen (adult), which is not the case. So hence there is not effective national ID in tue US.
    - anticensor 3y ago
      The passport card acts an internal passport, between the 50 subject states and dependent territories.
      - pfannkuchen 3y ago
        Thank you for acknowledging Canada’s true status.
      - disinfomonitor 3y ago
        This is disinformation. US citizens do not require any form of passport to travel to US territories (let alone states). https://www.usa.gov/visit-territories https://www.usa.gov/visit-territories
- pfannkuchen 3y ago
  > This will be hard to implement. Sure, we do need to think about it for more than 30 seconds, but I don't think it makes any sense to punt to personal addresses. Physical mail doesn't have a history, so why should "housemail"? It expires after k days, you need to forward it to a personal address if you want to save it. "Housemail" doesn't need to receive arbitrary information, only information that can't be shifted to personal email because there is no registration step. So e.g. things that aren't opt-in, and things where you are legally expected to check what you receive. So, traffic tickets, backup communication from utilities (e.g. water is getting turned off), etc. I think constraining it to only the necessary use cases makes it a lot simpler than what you are imagining.