DUmmy is worried about the future of the USPS

[dane]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021074403
JaneyVee (50 posts) If they privatized the U.S. Postal Service
1-Stamps will be $5 each.
2-You will pay monthly to receive your mail (unless it's bills of course)
3-You will pay monthly to opt-out of the INSANE barrage of junk mail you will undoubtedly receive now that we're forced to submit your personal info to another corporate entity with a CEO just looking for a big paycheck & bonus.
4-Every time gas prices rise so will stamp prices.
5-It will be publicly traded, go bankrupt, and cease to exist. Leaving us without a mail system.
6-Your mail, personal info, prescriptions, etc will be in the hands of a private & secretive corporation.
7-Could effectively influence politics & elections by controlling messaging/political mail/ads
8-The plutocrats get to crush another Union as they continue to raid & pillage middle class wages.
9-They'll find new & inventive ways to price-gouge.
Anything else?

A couple of DUmmies suggest one or two more that I simply don't understand

elleng (33,011 posts)
3. Federal Express and/or United Parcel would be the 'postal service'
which is what was probably intended. Interestingly, they use the USPS for the last miles of their services anyway; Fed Ex and UPS can't do THEIR business without the U.S. Postal Service.

I get a lot of stuff from on-line vendors, delivered by UPS and/or FEDEX right to my back porch, with a 1/4 mile dirt driveway between the porch and the paved road.  Then there's this one.

KauaiK (7 posts)
14. Left off one - LESS reliable
It will be less reliable than the PO. 

On the 23rd of Jul I mailed (USPS) a small (less than 1 LB) package of bicycle parts to another member of a bicycle forum in Idaho (I'm in Fla), and the counterman told me it would arrive there on the 25th or 26th.  The guy got it on Aug 2nd.  I used a 'Priority Mail' package.  I've never ever had a package take that long with UPS/FEDEX.

[formerlurker]

They do that for some rural routes - they deliver it to post office and then post office delivers it.   Happens frequently.

[jtyangel]

  They are talking about some private business model(that's already in place in some sense with FEDEX and UPS) versus the USPS model. Did this dummies ever consider that the USPS unwillingness at points to accept the changing mail system with technology like the internet had  lot to do with where they are now? The moved at the speed of government and have suffered for it. I'm not too worried if it privatizes; there will be more incentive for it to find new efficiencies and new ways of doing things. And I don't dislike the USPS. I think it's a useful line of communication that needs some updating and definitely a nice piece of Americana, but one gets the feeling sometimes that if we were sitting in the US circa 110 years ago, these same dummies would be decrying the death of the horse drawn carriage too. Sometimes an industry dies because it becomes obsolete. Watching a piece of American history like the post office die is painful and makes people nostalgic for the 'old times' but it is what it is. It won't be the first or the last agency or business to die because of obsolescence. The funny thing is these are the same dumbasses who want us to let go of how we did things in the past when it comes ot other things, but like I said they cling to their horse and buggy like a tick to a dog's back.

[Undies]

3-You will pay monthly to opt-out of the INSANE barrage of junk mail you will undoubtedly receive now that we're forced to submit your personal info to another corporate entity with a CEO just looking for a big paycheck & bonus.

Call me silly, but I think those $5.00 stamp prices should put an end to junk mail.

[Vagabond]

They are talking about some private business model(that's already in place in some sense with FEDEX and UPS) versus the USPS model. Did this dummies ever consider that the USPS unwillingness at points to accept the changing mail system with technology like the internet had  lot to do with where they are now? The moved at the speed of government and have suffered for it. I'm not too worried if it privatizes; there will be more incentive for it to find new efficiencies and new ways of doing things. And I don't dislike the USPS. I think it's a useful line of communication that needs some updating and definitely a nice piece of Americana, but one gets the feeling sometimes that if we were sitting in the US circa 110 years ago, these same dummies would be decrying the death of the horse drawn carriage too. Sometimes an industry dies because it becomes obsolete. Watching a piece of American history like the post office die is painful and makes people nostalgic for the 'old times' but it is what it is. It won't be the first or the last agency or business to die because of obsolescence. The funny thing is these are the same dumbasses who want us to let go of how we did things in the past when it comes ot other things, but like I said they cling to their horse and buggy like a tick to a dog's back.

They support the post office because the post office is unionized.  They haven't figured out that UPS and Fedex are as well.  I'm on your side, the ost Office is still relevant, just some parts of it's business model need to be updated.

[Randy]

elleng (33,011 posts) 3. Federal Express and/or United Parcel would be the 'postal service' which is what was probably intended. Interestingly, they use the USPS for the last miles of their services anyway; Fed Ex and UPS can't do THEIR business without the U.S. Postal Service.

Ellen in her blind stupidity actually hit a nut. FedEx does the actual transportation of Priority Mail with the USPS doing the origin processing and delivery work. Everything else she says is DUmmified up of course, but she did stumble over this one. :D