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So that people can discuss the US Postal service intelligently. About 15 years ago, there was a service (Outbox) designed to scan your mail, email anything impo

So that people can discuss the US Postal service intelligently. About 15 years ago, there was a service (Outbox) designed to scan your mail, email anything important to you, and discard junk mail. They were growing, people enjoyed the service, and then they went to Washington DC to talk to the Postmaster General about expanding nationwide. https://www.rstreet.org/commentary/outbox-vs-usps-how-the-post-office-killed-digital-mail/ https://www.rstreet.org/commentary/outbox-vs-usps-how-the-po... >When Evan and Will got called in to meet with the postmaster general, they were joined by the USPS’ general counsel and chief of digital strategy. But instead, Evan recounts that Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe “looked at us” and said “we have a misunderstanding. ‘You disrupt my service and we will never work with you.'” Further, “You mentioned making the service better for our customers; but the American citizens aren’t our customers—about 400 junk mailers are our customers. Your service hurts our ability to serve those customers.'” That's the US mail. Can we all please stop pretending that any actual human needs the US mail to continue? No one's paying their bills through the mail... you can't even really write checks. Hell, given how international mail works, it's the US government subsidizing Aliexpress and Temu. No one should be defending the US Postal Service.

chneu 1y ago
The USPS does a lot more than ship junk mail. It's a fun joke but it's super ignorant. It speaks to idiots, everyone else rolls their eyes and thinks you're not very bright. It's a public service. It doesn't need to turn a profit because every dollar put into it generates economic activity.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 1y ago
  >The USPS does a lot more than ship junk mail. It's a fun joke but Junk mail is well over 99% of their activity by any metric you can offer. Pieces of mail, revenue, weight, etc. It's not a joke. It's the fucking truth of it. And you're all bizarrely delusional if you can't or won't see it. >everyone else rolls their eyes and thinks you're not very bright. I've experienced that all my life. And yet I always out-tested everyone who thought that. Why would that change? The comment above yours talks about how he's always paying by check... what the fuck is grandpa going to do in the next couple years when that goes away? They can only postpone the deprecation of paper bank checks for so long. Guess he will either have to stop living in the 1950s, or just croak. >It's a public service. It's a goddamned public nuisance. >It doesn't need to turn a profit because every dollar put into it generates economic activity. ??? We could also pay them to dig holes and fill them back in. That'd be an economic win too, eh? Though your comment probably comes closest to hinting at the real justification: a unionized voting bloc that without it the Democrats would become doomed to irrelevance.
  - tomhow 1y ago
    > It's the fucking truth of it. And you're all bizarrely delusional if you can't or won't see it. Please avoid personal swipes like this in HN comments, and the general style of commenting on display here. It's against the guidelines: Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - chneu 1y ago
    I have no clue what your comment is even trying to say. You just sound offended instead of making any really valid points besides the rate of junk mail. Notice I didn't say the USPS doesn't ship junk mail. Just that they do a lot more than just ship junk mail. This is objectively true. The USPS provides massive benefits to numerous americans. Prescription drugs shipped via USPS, last mile service to people that other carriers wont deliver to, signature mail, passports, etc. Money put into the USPS benefits the economy. This is like food stamps. A dollar in creates more than a dollar of economic activity. This is something that some people absolutely refuse to acknowledge. The USPS doesn't need to be profitable because it provides an invaluable public service. hard lol and eye roll at "it's a goddamned public nuisance." what a telling thing to say, because it invalidates your entire stance. The bias is on full display. It's almost like you read my comment then wrote a satire piece to show how correct my comment was. It really sounds like you've bought the conservative mentality that everything the government touches is bad. Haha.
ProllyInfamous 1y ago
>No one's paying their bills through the mail... you can't even really write checks. This is exactly how I pay all my non-cash invoices — via USPS, sending checks. I don't even use email anymore (freedom!). Ironically, I lost access to online banking a few years ago [which I'd really love to have, but US banking has ridiculous "security" infrastructure].

chneu 1y ago

The USPS does a lot more than ship junk mail. It's a fun joke but it's super ignorant. It speaks to idiots, everyone else rolls their eyes and thinks you're not very bright. It's a public service. It doesn't need to turn a profit because every dollar put into it generates economic activity.

NoMoreNicksLeft 1y ago
>The USPS does a lot more than ship junk mail. It's a fun joke but Junk mail is well over 99% of their activity by any metric you can offer. Pieces of mail, revenue, weight, etc. It's not a joke. It's the fucking truth of it. And you're all bizarrely delusional if you can't or won't see it. >everyone else rolls their eyes and thinks you're not very bright. I've experienced that all my life. And yet I always out-tested everyone who thought that. Why would that change? The comment above yours talks about how he's always paying by check... what the fuck is grandpa going to do in the next couple years when that goes away? They can only postpone the deprecation of paper bank checks for so long. Guess he will either have to stop living in the 1950s, or just croak. >It's a public service. It's a goddamned public nuisance. >It doesn't need to turn a profit because every dollar put into it generates economic activity. ??? We could also pay them to dig holes and fill them back in. That'd be an economic win too, eh? Though your comment probably comes closest to hinting at the real justification: a unionized voting bloc that without it the Democrats would become doomed to irrelevance.
- tomhow 1y ago
  > It's the fucking truth of it. And you're all bizarrely delusional if you can't or won't see it. Please avoid personal swipes like this in HN comments, and the general style of commenting on display here. It's against the guidelines: Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- chneu 1y ago
  I have no clue what your comment is even trying to say. You just sound offended instead of making any really valid points besides the rate of junk mail. Notice I didn't say the USPS doesn't ship junk mail. Just that they do a lot more than just ship junk mail. This is objectively true. The USPS provides massive benefits to numerous americans. Prescription drugs shipped via USPS, last mile service to people that other carriers wont deliver to, signature mail, passports, etc. Money put into the USPS benefits the economy. This is like food stamps. A dollar in creates more than a dollar of economic activity. This is something that some people absolutely refuse to acknowledge. The USPS doesn't need to be profitable because it provides an invaluable public service. hard lol and eye roll at "it's a goddamned public nuisance." what a telling thing to say, because it invalidates your entire stance. The bias is on full display. It's almost like you read my comment then wrote a satire piece to show how correct my comment was. It really sounds like you've bought the conservative mentality that everything the government touches is bad. Haha.

ProllyInfamous 1y ago

>No one's paying their bills through the mail... you can't even really write checks. This is exactly how I pay all my non-cash invoices — via USPS, sending checks. I don't even use email anymore (freedom!). Ironically, I lost access to online banking a few years ago [which I'd really love to have, but US banking has ridiculous "security" infrastructure].