[AaronFriel]

The DMV loses money.

The FDA loses money.

The FCC loses money.

These are public institutions, not for profit enterprises. They're funded partially by fees and usually largely by congressional appropriations.

You beg the question by beginning by comparing the USPS to other carriers. It's one of the few public institutions required by the constitution! Even the Defense Department doesn't get that privilege, and it loses hundreds of billions a year and doesn't have the same requirement to fund pensions for employees who haven't been born yet.

Lastly, delaying flats and prioritizing packages during a situation when many, perhaps most people will vote by mail due to a public health crisis is if not malicious, dangerously ignorant of the societal implications.

Yes, the USPS can handle the volume. But for the sake of our elections, and based on issues we may have with counting ballots, postmark and receipt date laws that vary by state, can we agree as a bipartisan issue that mail delivery now, of all times, shouldn't be compromised?

[9nGQluzmnq3M]

But should the USPS be a public institution? Many countries have opted to privatize their postal services, admittedly with varying results, but with quite a few successes as well: you may have heard the package division of what was once Deutsche Bundespost, now known worldwide as DHL.

I do agree that right now is not a great time for radical changes though!

[sokoloff]

Deutsche Post bought DHL from 1998 through 2002.

[NicoJuicy]

The problem with comparing to a lot of other countries, is that the US really has remote locations.

In those situations, their "competitors" largely just drop off their packages to USPS and let them handle the costly trip.

[jksmith]

https://www.ups.com/media/en/terms_service_gnd_pr.pdf https://www.uspis.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/USPIS-FAQs....

TLDR is, USPS needs a warrant to open first class mail. Private carriers may be able to open with impunity. Who do you want handling your mail-in ballot?

[9nGQluzmnq3M]

Tampering with ballots will still be illegal, even if the company is private.

That's also a bit of weird argument, since we're right now seeing how the USPS can easily be bent by political pressure precisely because it is a govt institution and presidents already get to appoint their cronies to run it.

[jeffbee]

I don't think the Constitution requires the federal government to establish a postal service. It only grants them the power to do it.

[dougweltman]

Minor correction that does not detract from your point:

DMV actually nets out a surplus in most states given the fees it collects.

When states cut its operating budget, it's because they're looking across the budget for ways to cut costs. This is only irrational from a budgetary, as opposed to service delivery, POV if the cuts somehow undermine revenue collection, like reducing the number of IRS auditors.

[TMWNN]

>You beg the question by beginning by comparing the USPS to other carriers.

I at no point made a comparison between the USPS and any other carrier.

>It's one of the few public institutions required by the constitution!

No. Article I merely authorizes the federal government to establish post offices.

>Even the Defense Department doesn't get that privilege

On the contrary, the same Article I repeatedly discusses the federal government's warmaking powers on land and sea.

>and it loses hundreds of billions a year and doesn't have the same requirement to fund pensions for employees who haven't been born yet.

How do you define "losing money" for the Department of Defense? Obviously it is not a money-making enterprise. That is, there is no way to measure its success or failure on a financial basis. Such a thing is possible with the USPS.

I didn't say that the USPS has to make money. But it is possible to measure its financial performance in a way that isn't possible with most other government agencies, including DoD.

>Lastly, delaying flats and prioritizing packages during a situation when many, perhaps most people will vote by mail due to a public health crisis is if not malicious, dangerously ignorant of the societal implications.

Nice speech; too bad I said nothing of the sort. As I said, there is a lot of slack in non-package processing capability because of the massive COVID19-related decline in non-package volume. The USPS trying to rearrange logistics and personnel accordingly, while avoiding overtime because of the money-losing issue, is what caused the nonsense the past few weeks (which, thankfully, seems to be dying down as people look into the issue and realize said nonsense).

[fooey]

DeJoy did recently concede that the USPS will give ballots absolute priority over other mail, so in theory, it will be everything else that gets delayed.

Previously DeJoy had threatened that states which don't pay for first class postage would be delivered slower.