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American politics

Jordinho said:
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Trump National Convention.

Serious North Korea fears.
 
thfcsteff said:
No it really isn't.
You're making the fatal mistake of seeing all as the same.
Conflating Trump with conspiracy theories is a dangerous and tricky game. You are essentially trying to write this off as a conspiracy theory when there is clear, clear line of evidence to support the claim. If necessary I can start linking his quotes from a long time back.

Your earlier point about making everything his fault/a conspiracy and playing into his hands is one I don't disagree with. Much like cancel culture, the over-swing is dangerous and I don't disagree.

Equally, writing off his actions as "incompetence" is just as dangerous. It simply is not true.

I have been following the USPS situation for many months. Everything stated is very real.

There are lots of stories out there.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former...stifies-mnuchin-white-house-slowing-mail/#app
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If you've been following the USPS, then I'm sure you'll know that it lost nearly $9B last year. It's unfunded liabilities are double it's annual revenue. Cost saving initiatives have continually failed and dwindled over the years, and they operate in an industry that is unlikely to exist in a few year's time. Despite all this, they keep spending more and more each year.

Do you genuinely think that there shouldn't be someone taking a scythe to the company (or preferably putting it out of its misery)? Do you genuinely think that it's more likely that a right-leaning government has decided not to take out a failing and obsolete business and instead has created a giant conspiracy, involving various branches of govt, the management of the USPS, the unions, workers, etc?
 
Grays_1890 said:
Talking in generic terms not defense of Trump but surely its better to run even a service better so it loses less money? Then government money can be distributed to other services where needed?
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Sure, but to make money is not it's raison d'être in the same way other services do not have to. The fundamental premise that it should make money is false. In saying that, it would break even more or less if it did not have to fund the cost if its post-retirement health care 75 years into the future. This a burden no other federal agency has and was basically an earlier republican attempt to manufacture a financial crisis in the USPS as a precursor to justify cuts and ultimately sink it. Repealing that alone would move the USPS into profitability.

What's going on here is not efficiencies or cost-cutting. brickcanning hundreds of sorting machines in democratic areas will make it less efficient and is obviously to slow the mail. Putting a trump toady in charge, a competitor to boot, is obvious electioneering as dems are more likely to vote by mail. It is as simple as that.
 
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Rorschach said:
Sure, but to make money is not it's raison d'être in the same way other services do not have to. The fundamental premise that it should make money is false. In saying that, it would break even more or less if it did not have to fund the cost if its post-retirement health care 75 years into the future. This a burden no other federal agency has and was basically an earlier republican attempt to manufacture a financial crisis in the UPSP as a precursor to justify cuts and sink it. Repealing that alone would move the UPSP into profitability.

What going on here is not efficiencies or cost-cutting. brickcanning hundreds of sorting machines in democratic areas is targetted to slow the mail. Putting a trump toady in charge, a competitor to boot, is obvious electioneering as dems are more likely to vote by mail. It is as simple as that.
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Yeh I am not talking Trump, just the service sector point.

Making money is one thing, shoring up a huge multimillion pound hole is another for any service and you should be looking to fix the leak. If you make money and it contributes actively to the pension scheme even better.
 
Grays_1890 said:
There is a difference between profit and huge loss.

The IRS, US Mint, Land Authority make money I think
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Considering the federal budget, the operating loss of the USPS is a drop in the bucket. And it could be fixed with the stroke of a pen as I mentioned.

The IRS is a tax gathering service. It gathers money but it's not theirs. Coincidentally it's another agency that repubs have also spent years eroding its budget in an attempt to hobble its activities. The other two I'm not too sure about.

On a tangential note, Micheal Lewis last book is a good read about some of this - The Fifth Risk. A very engaging speaker too if you search him out on youtube.
 
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Rorschach said:
Considering the federal budget, the operating loss of the USPS is a drop in the bucket. And it could be fixed with the stroke of a pen as I mentioned.

The IRS is a tax gathering service, it gathers money but it's not theirs. Its coincidentally it's another agency that repubs have also spent years eroding its budget in an attempt to hobble its activities. The other two I'm not too sure about.

On a tangential note, Micheal Lewis last book is a good read about some of this - The Fifth Risk. A very engaging speaker too if you search him out on youtube.
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But the IRS regardless does its job whilst covering its expenditure and does it well especially as its role is not just to collect tax but investigate cheating within taxation which takes alot of resources and money to do.

Im not 100% but I am sure there are other agencies that make huge profit from user fees like The Nuclear Regulatory Commission too.

I worked in Canadian Government within the Tourist Board for 6 years and I was taken to task for hosting clients at Wimbledon Tennis, the process was interesting as I had to sit an EY finance course specifically run for Government and I can tell you when you spend the crowns money you have to keep one eye on the losses, I agree the process is not to make money but you dont want black holes either regardless if it is deemed a pen stroke
 
Legohamster said:
US Parks makes a profit - via visitors and local area visitors.

point is they are not making billions in loses.

the Royal Mail went through various cuts in previous years here, don’t really see the difference.
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At the risk of a major derail....

Do you apply the same rationale to the NHS?
 
Even if the cuts to the USPS are valid, necessary and long-planned, implementing them in the lead-up to a general election at a time when postal votes are likely to be more in demand than ever due to coronavirus, seems ill-judged at best. Lots of government and business plans have had to be changed due to the pandemic, pushing these changes out until after the election would appear the sensible move. Unless there are any ulterior motives of course. Linked with Trump's protestations around fraud and postal votes, becoming more desperate sounding each day, it's hard not to judge the timing as being something more sinister than simple business cost-cutting.
 
Grays_1890 said:
Talking in generic terms not defense of Trump but surely its better to run even a service better so it loses less money? Then government money can be distributed to other services where needed?
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Not services like the post. If you want to run that as a profitable company, that means it will have to be concentrated only to densely populated areas, with no or very poor service to remote locations. That's not how essential services should be run.
 
NoLimits01 said:
At the risk of a major derail....

Do you apply the same rationale to the NHS?
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The NHS loses a fortune, it's of lower quality than it's competitors, it's hugely outdated and there's no need whatsoever for the state to be providing it as a service.

Very analogous to the USPS.
 
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