So all those rural people who don’t have cable or DSL available are out of luck (funny how this question seems to keep coming back to rural areas)? Or are they expected to use dialup/satellite? Or trek to their local library?
To quote myself, how widely do you think physical mail is used today? What kinds of people use it? Do you think this rate should be lower? You appear (and correct me if I’m wrong) to think that the Internet is universally available and obsequious enough that no one should ever need to use physical mail.
For that matter, I’m not 100% sure that we WANT to expect every American, no matter what their location or socioeconomic status, to HAVE to have a decent functioning computer in order to participate in the necessities of life. I mean, right now, having a computer, or even e-mail, isn’t an ABSOLUTE must in life. It would make you somewhat of a hermit, but you could live entirely without it. Do we really want to start making it a requirement?
They also don’t have delivery at all (you have delivery, at least technically) unless there are a certain number of people living in the area. Some of the tiny old crossroads communities in my county with their anachronistic post offices only have 50 households in the ZIP code, so they just get PO boxes (although that’s probably closer for them than your “delivery”).
I’m a small business owner, and I have to pay monthly sales tax. I would love to be able to pay online, but for some reason I can’t. I have to file the old fashion way. Every single goshdarn month.
So no, not everything is online. Maybe it all could be, but it isn’t now.
Wow a whole four posts before some lefty feels the need to use the predictable but still utterly repulsive charge that people who disagree with them are racists. Of course conservative blacks such as Clarence Thomas and Allen West can tell you of the hatred
they receive for not practicing group think.
And how well are the middle classes and lower classes faring in places where liberals hold power..like New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco. How are the schools in Washington DC? How is that hope and change we supposedly got in 2008? 41 months of unemployment over 8%, which doesn’t take into account those who drop out of the workforce and are unemployed? 46 million on food stamps. No prosecutions of the financial industry and a Treasury secretary and a number of White House staffers who don’t pay taxes
As far as the USPS goes, it is semi private but they also have advantages in no taxes and government owned land for most of the buildings. It’s not the worse run government agency but then they do have competition in FedEx, UPS and others to keep them on their toes.
As far as conservative opposition to municipal workers have unions, no less that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was opposed to them. They have a habit of using their power to elect politicians who will promise them generous benefits to get elected, damn the future generations who have to pay for it. Lots of municipalities are threatened with bankruptcy now.
First of all, there are many tax forms which cannot be filed electronically, at least not yet. For example, the form you file if you donate your car to charity must be mailed in.
Second, if the IRS contacts you to let you know about a discrepancy in your return, that will be by mail. Your message in return, along with copies of any supporting documents, must also be by mail. I know because I just went through this process. My original return was filed electronically.
A related question is it definitely good that everybody pays the same flat rate? If somebody decides to live in the boonies why should everybody else subsidize that? This is not necessarily my opinion but I don’t see why the flat rate is inarguably a good thing.
That is absolutely a valid question. It kind of ties in to the whole concept of essential government services and to what extent individuals vs. the community as a whole pay for them.
I think the founders believed that a functioning post was an essential government service - that’s why it was one of the few powers explicitly granted. Whether times have changed sufficiently that this is no longer the case is, at best, debatable.
Federal retirement benefits and government health care, paid holidays, vacation, etc. Private employees would kill for what postal employees have. All paid for by you and me.
Well, apparently if you aren’t living in 1981 (or so I hear) you don’t even have to use the USPS so therefore you don’t have to pay for shit. Its all Fex Ex, UPS and the internet baby.
I have read through the thread in its entirety. I do not recall having seen debaser respond to the very cogent point that the internet is not available to everyone. A lot of his/her points on the idea of ending the USPS revolve around the ability to do what the USPS does via the internet.
One of the problems with the conservative mantra that things government does should be entrusted to the private sector is that the private sector won’t do what the government does. To the extent that the USPS is a government operation, it has to follow mandates that private enterprise won’t fulfill (such as making sure that everyone in the US can get ‘delivery’ of mail) for a flat rate regardless of where it is going. This is a service to the people of the US, one that was viewed at the founding of the country as so important that they made certain to empower the US itself to establish and fund such an entity. It is still important. It may be in the future that the time will come when we can do away it, but that time is not yet here.
Yes, and they provide services to you and me. Unlike our legislators, who receive all the above and don’t do squat!
Politicians draw federal retirement benefits and receive government health care. They get paid holidays and vacation. Why should they receive such compensation for their work, while the person who scrubs their toilets or handles their mail is asked to sacrifice what they have fought for? That just isn’t right.
Uh, maybe I’m mistaken, but don’t they pay for that thought their operating costs?
They certainly have to pay their own retirement, since it’s the nonsense requirement to fund their retirement out for almost a century that’s causing their economic problems.
Since they’re self-funded, how are you on the hook for their pay, healthcare and vacation time?
Honestly, I’m confused about this, am I just off base?
They are paid for by you and me only to the extent that we buy their services, just like any private business with good benefits. No tax dollars involved.
If private employees want it, then they should learn the lesson and unionize and vote for candidates go support fair labor standards, such as mandatory paid leave, health care, etc.
Because many of the Postal Service’s services are cheaper than market price. When UPS or FedEx don’t feel like finishing the delivery they hand it off to the postal service to complete the delivery, paying the postal service less than it would cost to deliver it themselves. They are then free to either pocket the difference or lower the price. Without the USPS to complete the last mile in those situations, UPS and FedEx would either have to hike their prices or take a cut in their profits. So people paying for UPS or FedEx are actually paying less than they would otherwise because the USPS is actually so efficient, they can actually hand free money to UPS and FedEx while still offering the most comprehensive and least costly service while giving their employees good compensation and benefits, all without taking a cent of taxpayer money. Privatize the Postal Service and everyone will be paying more for delivery services. Many won’t get any service. Employees will get paid less.