
Trump: Post Office loses $1.50 on avg for each package it delivers for Amazon - chapill
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/980063581592047617
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thisisit
_“The whole post office thing, that 's very much a perception he has,” another
source said. “It's been explained to him in multiple meetings that his
perception is inaccurate and that the post office actually makes a ton of
money from Amazon." _

[https://www.axios.com/trump-regulation-amazon-
facebook-646c6...](https://www.axios.com/trump-regulation-amazon-
facebook-646c642c-a2d7-454b-a9a9-cdc6e4eaef2c.html)

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simonsarris
I'm much more worried about the China subsidy and how it allows crap goods
sellers to unfairly compete with Americans.

For example:
[https://mobile.twitter.com/PollySpin/status/9555543439562219...](https://mobile.twitter.com/PollySpin/status/955554343956221953)

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atomi
So you're saying you prefer these cheap Chinese products be sold first to
American merchants, and then resold to US consumers? More American merchants
will make money through arbitrage but it's effectively money spent by
consumers to subsidize merchants. There isn't any real value being created.
And fewer products will be sold, making entry to interesting maker or hobby
projects prohibitively expensive.

If I need some cheap diodes and caps, I'll hit aliexpress rather than spend
20x the markup for the exact same product on Amazon.

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obblekk
Citation?

Follow up questions:

1\. How much of that is fixed cost that has to be paid (if not by Amazon then
by other customers)

2\. How does -$1.5/package for Amazon compare to other shippers? E.g. how much
does USPS lose on Walmart?

My understanding is the USPS is structurally designed to lose money as a
subsidy to society for communication/interaction over long distances. I'm
fully in favor of revisiting whether that subsidy is necessary in the modern
internet driven age in which border expansion is not a goal. But, picking on
Amazon for using the subsidy as intended doesn't make sense.

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asdsa5325
Your second question is the key: the USPS exists to encourage business. It
loses money on most, if not all, package plans it has with businesses. It does
not seek to gain profit.

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chrismcb
The USPS does not exist to encourage business. It should not be losing money
on business plans. The USPS is solely funded, so losing money on a major part
of their business is just bad business

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Overtonwindow
One thing that has always been a worry is the budget deficit the postal
service runs. I think more should be done to examine where costs are going,
where profits could be made, or expanded. Quoting from their 2017 financial
report: "The Postal Service reported a net loss for the year of $2.7 billion"
[0] That use to be $8 billion ten years ago, so perhaps things are getting
better...

[0.] [https://about.usps.com/news/national-
releases/2017/pr17_069....](https://about.usps.com/news/national-
releases/2017/pr17_069.htm)

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skyzyx
[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/amazon-bankrupting-
united-...](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/amazon-bankrupting-united-
states-postal-service/)

