
What If Jeff Bezos Tries to Acquire the Struggling U.S. Postal Service? - rmason
https://www.ccn.com/what-if-jeff-bezos-tries-to-acquire-the-struggling-u-s-postal-service/
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erentz
Just a reminder that the bill that destroyed the USPS finances was backed by
both Democrats and Republicans in 2005. It required the post office to fund
pensions and health care 75 years in advance as an intentional way to screw up
their finances and make it insolvent.

It passed unanimously in the Senate and every Democrat in the House voted for
it. It’s truly been a bipartisan effort.

[http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll430.xml](http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll430.xml)

The USPS is a vital service, note “service”. It is not a corporation designed
to make money. It has mandates to deliver and pick up mail from every home in
the US no matter where they are 6 days a week. It is a part of our
infrastructure as much as the military or coast guard or national parks
service or so on.

~~~
soldierof4chan
People that keep repeating this conspiracy theory have no idea what they're
talking about. While it's true that the PAEA (The bill in question) was passed
unanimously, the PAEA does not require funding retiree health and pension
funds "75 years into the future".

You can read the bill itself [1] and see that this appears nowhere in it. What
it actually requires is that the USPS fund the discounted present value of
current employee retirement health and pensions liability.

What this conspiracy theory also critically misses is that the Post Office
hasn't contributed to the fund in a decade but still pays current retirees out
of the fund. With more money leaving the fund than entering it, it is expected
to be depleted by 2030 [2].

1\. [https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-
bill/6407](https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/6407)

2\.
[https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-602](https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-602)

~~~
wahern
> Post Office hasn't contributed to the fund in a decade

To be clear, there are two funds: pension and health benefits. AFAIU the USPS
has been making progress on fully funding the pension plan.

The health benefits fund is a lost cause because health costs are rising far
too fast. Also, unlike with pensions most organizations (public and private)
are permitted to decrease health benefits for existing retirees as they're not
considered vested benefits, but under Federal law the USPS _specifically_ is
not permitted to lower health benefits for retirees. The USPS is really over a
barrel in that regard, and that's why they don't bother--that and the hope
that healthcare reform will have shifted the costs enough that some day the
USPS-specific restriction will be lifted. Given their situation what they're
doing does make sense--retirees have Obamacare, but nothing exists to replace
lost pension income--it's just quasi-illegal. I say quasi because satisfying
the health fund mandate is clearly impossible.

It's worth repeating that the USPS doesn't control their rates, which are set
by the Postal Regulatory Commission. The politics of the PRC are
complicated[1] and they can't be expected to mitigate the funding dilemma
created by Congress. Only Congress can fix things. But that won't happen
anytime soon as the fundamental issue implicates national healthcare policy.

------
Meandering
I am normally for privatization. There are so many ways USPS could bolster
their infrastructure to grow. Reduce the bureaucracy and improve efficiency.

Being said. USPS offers a secure and power agnostic means of communication. I
don't trust large corporations to respect privacy or provide the caliber of
federal security USPS offers it's clientele.

Although, when legislation becomes a component of business operations...
failure becomes imminent.

~~~
t0mas88
In my part of Europe the postal service was privatized a long time ago. It
works fine, the guarantees on service and rights to privacy etc were put into
law and apply to other shipping/postal companies as well. It's a net win for
consumers because rates dropped, "order before 16:00 for next day delivery"
has become 23:59 and the privacy guarantees now apply also to
FedEx/UPS/DHL/other carriers.

The group that has all the downsides of this are the postal workers. What used
to be a government job with almost no way to get fired and amazing benefits is
now a commercial job with higher performance requirements and less benefits.

~~~
surfpel
Is this a highly industrialized, population dense part of Europe? The United
States is huge and for the most part has low population density making
anything related to movement inherently difficult and expensive.

~~~
t0mas88
Indeed quite densely populated, but I don't think it matters much for the
privatization concept? UPS / DHL / FedEx still also cover all of the US, just
at a higher price per parcel than over here?

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Nevermark
The UPSP seems like a good thing to keep going.

I don’t find arguments that Amazon paying a lower mean wage than other tech
companies means Bezos is the “meanest” CEO.

Amazon employs many people in jobs that are not tech jobs.

Whether there is something wrong with their wages, I don’t know. But that
argument makes no sense.

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dpeck
it's amazing how the media takes the bait on silly things like this every
time. I would like to understand how the profession as a whole hasn't had a
moment of realization about trolling and how they're being used. They're our
societies overaggressive immune response.

It's not happening, it's not going to happen. It's a distraction and nothing
more.

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vangelis
Just repeal the PAEA.

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amf12
If Bezos tries to acquire USPS, Donald Trump will save USPS. Simple.

~~~
drdeadringer
I don't follow.

I don't know if I am unable to follow because this is so simple it's obvious
only after it is explained or if I am too simple to understand first think out
of the gate.

To gamble that it is the former, may I hear an explanation?

~~~
bobwaycott
I believe the parent is referring to the well-known animus Trump holds for
Bezos, and suggesting Trump will do The Right Thing™ as a matter of spite if
he learns Bezos wants to take over USPS.

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chantelles
What if Jeff Bezos buys X game!

------
intopieces
I wish I could opt out of USPS delivery. I'll pay a subscription to do it.
Seriously. I'll pay $10/month for the USPS to shred everything that doesn't
require a direct signature from me. I agree that it should remain solvent and
free for everyone, but I want to improve my experience and also contribute to
the solvency.

