2d ago

US: Unions say privatizing postal services in Europe have led to reduced services, increased prices, job losses, and cut off rural communities

uniglobalunion.org Unions resist Trump’s threats to privatize U.S. Postal Service

UNI Global Union’s U.S. affiliates in the postal sector are fighting back after President Trump recently reiterated his desire to privatize the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), which celebrates its 250th anniversary this year. “Make no mistake, the postal service is under attack,” warned Mark Dimondstein...

unions @lemmy.ml

cyu @sh.itjust.works

2d ago

US: Unions say privatizing postal services in Europe have led to reduced services, increased prices, job losses, and cut off rural communities

uniglobalunion.org /news/unions-resist-trumps-threats-to-privatize-u-s-postal-service/

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13 comments

I’m from Europe and I don’t have any single example of privatisation leading to improvement. Everything went shittier and more expensive due to privatisation. The perfect example is in France with EDF (electricity).

yra, expect it's going to do the same thing in the US too. Not looking forward to it.

Anyone who seriously proposes privatizing the US postal service should be removed from power. They're either trying to harm the US, or are too stupid to be trusted with anything more dangerous than a paper towel.

Yeah, but it will make the line go up.
We must feed the beast our flesh and our happiness. We must scrape our souls to the rind, and hollow our humanity. We must empty the deep well of society that is fed by our interconnectedness. We must pour it all into the gaping maw of capitalism.
The line must go up.

The only reason to privatize the USPS is to be able to take loans against the pension so you can indirectly steal the pension.
This benefits no one.
- This benefits no one.
  It deff benefits a few... And that's the point.
  
  Absolutely. When people say "This benefits no one!" It's usually because they aren't the ones benefiting from it, and can't internalise that they're going to be getting fucked so someone, who already has more money than most Nations could spend in several decades, gets a bit more money.

The state runs a postal service to facilitate for the generation of wealth by making logistics easier. The postal service doesn't have to be profitable as the state get its money by taxes on both end of production and consumption.
A private company don't care about this. They have to survive solely by transporting goods. With no care for what the goods is or how efficient its moved. If the rural community won't generate enough profit from the transportation of goods they just shut it down.
As a results it's impossible for new local businesses to emerge. Want to start an online store selling handcrafted goods? Oops you can't move your product.
Anything that won't allow for multiple companies to operate simultaneously everywhere should be state owned.
Try running multiple trains on the same track at the same time at different speed. Doesn't work well does it?
Why did we privatise the Norwegian railway service...

What they’re saying is true. The former state owned postal service now delivers mail every second day here and the postage has risen several hundred percent. They’re debating whether they should deliver only once a week. One of the private delivery companies only delivers once every two weeks if there are others in the area that have packages to be delivered.
It was a big mistake to break up the state monopoly on mail and package deliveries.
- Almost like privatising important utilities and services is a really bad thing! Weiiiird!

Keep in mind that it would be signigncantly worse in the US due to lower population density and worse infrastructure, too.

13 comments