
U.S. Postal Workers Were on the Front Lines Before. They Were Ignored - anarbadalov
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/u-s-postal-workers-were-on-the-front-lines-before-they-were-ignored/
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cjsawyer
Unrelated to this specific article: The USPS is a crucial part of the US
infrastructure. The thought that we could loose it over mail in ballot voting
is a sick joke.

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cactus2093
This doesn't seem to be a common opinion, but I generally don't understand why
USPS is critical infrastructure. Vote by mail is just about the only essential
service they provide that I can think of, and that could potentially still be
supported in other ways without USPS the other 364 days of the year.

Many of the justifications I've come across of why mail is essential seem to
center around transmission of information being essential, and I 100% agree
with that. But these days important information does not need to be
transmitted by mail. The fact that many important services are still tied to
hard-copies of paper - like mailing checks, mailing bills, mailing a warning
when a bill has been missed, etc. causes some completely unnecessary problems.
It's easier to keep a phone number or email address active for many years, but
an address for a large percentage of the population is temporary. I've seen
the argument made that not everybody has internet access, and that this is an
equality issue that physical mail is still necessary for less privileged
people. But many poor people are more likely to have a cell phone than have
stable housing with a stable mailing address. And public libraries provide
internet access for those who don't have it otherwise.

Also, and this part is arguably a first world problem but it's still a big
annoyance, the junk mail that props up USPS is completely out of control. How
is an essential government service entirely ad-supported like USPS is? That
seems crazy. Imagine if the fire department made you watch some ads after they
put out your fire.

I'm not arguing for getting rid of the USPS now, we do seem to need vote by
mail at least for a while longer until we have a better, sufficiently secure
alternative. I just think all these arguments about how essential it is to the
fabric of modern society are bit outdated.

Edit: anyone who is downvoting me care to comment on what I'm wrong about?

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Loughla
>It's easier to keep a phone number or email address active for many years,
but an address for a large percentage of the population is temporary.

Working with low-income folks daily, this is not true in total. We have to
check phone numbers and e-mail addresses every time we interact with our
clients, because they cycle through them almost monthly. Physical addresses
tend to change annually.

>And public libraries provide internet access for those who don't have it
otherwise.

There is no public library with internet access within 100 miles of my current
address.

>How is an essential government service entirely ad-supported like USPS is?

They're not entirely ad supported?

>I just think all these arguments about how essential it is to the fabric of
modern society are bit outdated.

And this is my take - your view is of a young, middle- to upper-middle-class
person with no problems accessing the modern world today. For poor people, for
rural people, the mail is essential. I receive all of my bills via mail,
because the internet is so bad here. My bank does not offer bill-payment, and
I don't want to link my bank account to a third party site, outside of using
my bank to auto bill pay, if that's even an option.

~~~
cactus2093
> I don't want to link my bank account to a third party site anyway.

And this is just my take, but this last sentence really weakens the rest of
your argument. Your view seems to be that of someone who's uncomfortable with
modern technology. At some point, we'll need to accept that being
uncomfortable with the status quo of antiquated, painfully slow, inefficient
non-tech solutions is just as valid of a viewpoint as being uncomfortable with
technology.

~~~
Loughla
Sorry, I wasn't as clear as I should've been. I updated the comment to
clarify. It's not that I don't want to pay bills electronically. It's that my
bank won't let me. So I assume the only other option is some kind of third
party, similar to paypal, if that even exists for this kind of thing.

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ralph84
Judging by the comments no one is actually reading TFA. Article is about the
2001 anthrax attacks. Two USPS employees died. Article is basically
complaining that the USPS didn't upend their entire way of doing business in
response to an isolated terrorist attack.

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bytematic
Wonder what happens when soldiers can't send/receive mail from their families

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buzzert
Soldiers don't have access to the internet?

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csours
Correct. Soldiers often don't have access to the internet.

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carapace
I was nearly at the end before it occurred to me to wonder about references
for all this. It's really light on actual facts while being generous with the
rhetoric.

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ilamont
Didn't Holland and other central European countries privatize their mail
systems? Maybe HN users from those areas could share their perspectives.

~~~
arianvanp
Yes it has been privatised but there is basically only one postal service
(PostNL). The other one (Sandd) only exists because when PostNL was privatised
they weren't allowed to monopolize.

Because mail has been so drastically reduced in the last years due to
digitalisation of banking and Government, PostNL has trouble staying
profitable so recently this monopoly limit has been removed again to allow of
a fusion of Sandd and PostNL.

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ghostloads
Everyone who works/worked is an essential part of the machine we call society
and should always be celebrated.

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mumbisChungo
USPS makes Canada Post look like a Bond villain by comparison.

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fasteddie31003
Why don't they talk about raising their mailing rates? I would imagine their
demand is pretty inelastic.

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toomuchtodo
Congress controls USPS rate setting, as well as mandates the rate of
healthcare and pension benefit contributions.

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fasteddie31003
I didn't know that. That seems to be the root of the issue then. Let the USPS
set their own rates.

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eranima
That's not the issue. The issue is the Postal Service was required to prefund
its pension plan 75 years in the future, a requirement no other government
corporation has: [https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-
crisis...](https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-
how-to-fix-it/)

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_curious_
Why does this institution still exist? Or, what is so vital to America about
paper mail/communications that it cannot be delivered once each week?

Seems like the primary beneficiary in this era is the direct mail marketing &
advertising industries.

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voz_
Anyone in the country can send information to anyone else in the country for
almost nothing. Is there any other infrastructure that provides this service
today?

This kind of unfettered, nearly free (should be entirely free, but I digress)
communication is the cornerstone of a healthy society.

