
Rotting food, dead animals and chaos at postal facilities amid cutbacks - ilamont
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-20/usps-cutbacks-post-office-chaos
======
luminadiffusion
You’re telling me that baby chicks are arriving dead to farmers across the
Midwest. Food and medicines are spoiling from being stored in facilities that
are not designed for storage. Old people and vets on VA plans are being forced
to wait for their prescriptions sometimes for over 1 week after they are due.

All because this critical infrastructure lost $6B last year?!?!

The DoD’s base annual budget for 2020 was $633B - and they will spend every
single penny of it.

The USPS spends less than 1% of our base DoD budget to deliver timely mail to
every single registered household in the US.

Oh, by the way, this corrupt administration PLANNED TO LOSE $1.06T BEFORE THE
PANDEMIC.

And, taxes collected from individual citizens make up approximately 60% of our
Federal budget. Taxes on corporations make up just 7%. The rest is a
smattering of funds that come from trade, interest from the Fed, and other
sources.

If you ever wondered who this American government works for... it is not “We
the People”.

The citizens are not treated like they directly pay for more than half of
government expenses. They don’t even matter enough to support consistent
communication infrastructure.

Your elderly grandparents can’t have your medicine on time because it costs
the postal service an average of $0.033 above their collected revenue to mail
each item...

...while each Javelin missile we fire at some poor goat herder in Afghanistan
costs the same as a small house in the suburbs of a major US city.

The level of corruption in this administration and this entire government is
more than nauseating - and the fact that they are doing with my tax dollars
adds insult to injury. The shock is wearing off - and below it is nothing but
rage.

~~~
twiceaday
Isn't payroll tax kinda like a 'per employee' corporate tax? In most cases,
what is the point of looking at your pre-tax salary? It just seems like
creative accounting between the company and the government(s). In most cases,
all of the decisions you or your company make around salary deal with take-
home pay. Companies must be paying people more specifically to account for
payroll taxes. That amount is effectively the corporate per-employee tax.

~~~
simsla
No, not in any material way.

\- When there's a rise in payroll tax across the board, I'd be extremely
surprised all companies across the board raise their salaries. By default, a
payroll tax hike will go out of the employee's cut.

\- There are many huge companies whose payroll and profit are largely
decoupled (as in, employee salaries are not a great indicator for company
profit). Think McDonald's, Amazon, Walmart.

------
fffrantz
This should be a reminder that mail, while on the decline for two decades,
still is an important component of our day to day lives, and that we still
heavily rely on its on-time delivery and reliability. I do not want to get
political, but it seems impossible to me that mail would be entirely handled
by the private sector. Mail, like many utilities such as public transport or
water treatment, is rarely profitable with a low-enough cost to make it
affordable for everyone. It really breaks my heart to know that people may not
have had enough food on their table because their paycheck or allowance was
delayed in the mail.

------
olivermarks
A package mailed to me in early June from the UK to California that touched
down in Chicago in mid June is totally awol today. I used to have a tracking
number that told me that it was in Chicago but since I reported it missing
that has now disappeared in online searches.

I am not a fan of either of the two parties and putting politics to one side
it is unclear why there is the reduction in equipment and force at the USPS at
a time when there is a huge increase in deliveries due to the SIP directives.

~~~
ironman1478
It is extremely clear why this is happening. By reducing the efficacy of the
USPS, they can delegitimize it. Then when voting time comes they can say "Hey
look, they couldn't even get you your package, what makes you think that the
the USPS can safely and securely handle your vote". And guess what, they'd be
right because the USPS won't be able to do it safely b/c they actively ruined
it. This has been the common tactic of the republicans for a long time and it
is continuing to work.

~~~
olivermarks
Again, disregarding politics why is the USPS, which is well funded and
overwhelmed with business delivering Amazon and Shopify packages, downsizing?
This isn't a federal directive is it? You would think they would be expanding
to meet demand.

It could just be that the monopoly online retail business models that broke
the high street are now breaking the post office too. hiring a non postal
service ceo/pmg sounds like a terrible idea also
[https://federalnewsnetwork.com/management/2020/07/usps-
warns...](https://federalnewsnetwork.com/management/2020/07/usps-warns-staff-
of-temporary-mail-delays-as-it-cuts-soaring-delivery-costs/)

------
obiefernandez
Anyone else read this and feel rage bubbling over about Trump and his
enablers? I'm not trolling, either. I used to not get _that_ emotional about
politics, but lately I feel like I'm about to explode.

~~~
hammock
Have you considered whether the way you feel reading the news is by design?

~~~
arcticbull
Have you considered the underlying actions were designed to solicit an
emotional reaction via news channels, I.e. trump is trolling to own the libs,
at the cost of watching the country burn (literally here in CA).

~~~
garmaine
Trump is responsible for the fires in California?

Edit: seriously people? He’s a monster but let’s accuse him of the things he’s
actually done. To make stuff up is not helpful.

~~~
arcticbull
Of course not. Although, he did blame the last fires on insufficient raking of
the forest [1]. If he actually stands by it, and didn't do anything to address
the lack of forest, uh, raking, then one could reasonably assign him
responsibility for the current fires. I don't advocate for that, because
raking forests makes no sense.

[1] [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/19/make-
america...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/19/make-america-rake-
again-finland-trump-forest-fire)

