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A comment on The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service [pdf]. Parent comment

Re:The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Se... by quickthrowman on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @07:52PM (#23912233)
Why should we listen to someone who probably doesn’t ever open their own mail or pay a bill or send a package regarding the postal service? They don’t have to deal with the change they’re advocating for, they have the resources to actually change things.

> Dangerous path there, buddy.

Their opinion should count as much as any regular person. I’m not arguing for silencing anyone, merely limiting their outsized influence. I should’ve clarified this in my original post.

How would privatizing the mail help the poor? I’m curious.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Se... by manigandham on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @08:45PM (#23912674)
Why should we listen to you? Most people don’t experience the change they advocate for.

Removing money from politics is a good thing but I’m wary of outright saying certain people don’t matter. That doesn’t lead anywhere good.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Se... by quickthrowman on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @09:51PM (#23913158)
I’m arguing in favor of keeping mail delivery under the USPS because it’s one of the few functional democratic government services available. The government uses the USPS to send out many notices, payments, census forms, and so on. It’s a small miracle that one can place a postcard in a mailbox anywhere in the US and have it delivered to almost any address (some areas have mail service at a post office instead of home delivery). The utility of this service being available to everyone for the same price regardless of location is more valuable than any increased competition created by removing the USPS monopoly on first-class letters.

I’m arguing in favor of a system that everyone can access for a low cost, a service one could rightly consider essential.

Why should you should listen to me (or any other poster in this thread arguing in favor of keeping the status quo postal system) instead of the Koch brothers? I take the needs of everyone into consideration when formulating my argument instead of ideological or profit motives. Do you think it would be beneficial to the nation to saddle poor rural people with mail rates 10-50x what they are now when we have a perfectly functional system? I don’t, because it screws over the least fortunate to benefit.. who? It literally does not affect me if I have to pay .55 to mail a letter, but someone living on $700/mo that needs to use the private mail to mail a $10 letter will absolutely notice. Why destroy a functional and equitable system just so rich people in cities can pay less for postage? It’s not practical or fair.

I also clarified my position on the influence of billionaires and their opinions: They shouldn’t be ignored completely, but they should not be allowed to have the massive outsized influence they currently enjoy. Their opinion should count no more or less than anyone else.

[ Parent | on HN ]