this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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It's kinda like comparing universal healthcare to individual payer for-profit insurance. One rewards everyone as a universal system with consistency (at least in theory) and the other rewards only rich people.
Right. One's a business and one's a service the government provides.
Except USPS is completely self funded, and does NOT use any of your tax dollars.
That's an excellent point, but it is still a government service.
Being administered by the government, self sufficient, and mandated to not make excess revenue just makes it a remarkably easy to justify service.
There’s nothing inherently stopping us from crowdfunding services with a similar “business model” separate from the government. Can’t wait for that light bulb to flicker on for most of us.
I actually live in a city where the public works is a publicly owned utility, and it's pretty great. Rates are reasonable, excess revenue goes to infrastructure improvements rather than shareholders, and leadership is paid reasonably ($300k+benefits for CEO equivalent), and key decisions are voted on by the city council.
I'm curious why you want something separate from the government. To me, a crowd funded publicly controlled service is a government service in all but name and accountability.
The city/state level is much more likely to achieve things like this and that’s great but it’s not always the case. Regulatory capture and complex relationships with industry players make the government an imperfect vehicle for doing what’s best for communities. Sometimes a downright impediment to it.
My point is that there’s nothing inherently stopping us from doing it for ourselves in any situation where the state is not optimally stewarding the public trust on our behalf, and the sooner we figure that out the sooner we start solving up-til-now rather intractable problems.
I suppose my point was more that publicly owned funded and managed is functionally what government is.
Any issues with government management of a utility is just as applicable to a crowd funded publicly managed one.
There's nothing stopping us from altering the state to optimally steward the public trust. It's probably easier because the state already exists, and has mechanics for dealing with the types of civil issues that arise from community organization on complex projects.
The government isn't something that's apart from us, it's made of us.
What, to you, is the actual difference between a community working together and organizing their resources for the common benefit, and a government?
Sorry for the delayed reply. Been AFK.
The ability to collaborate solely with values-aligned community rather than being forced to reach consensus across all people in a geographic region regardless of how antagonistic or philosophically misaligned we are.
That's why they oppose universal healthcare here in the US -- they wan't access to special treatment.
What they don't realize is they can still have Mommy's Super Special Boy(tm) access, since even in a system of universal healthcare, there's still a demand for private practice.
So really, it just boils down to them hating poor people and other marginalized groups
Also universal healthcare can afford specialized equipment because the amount of people they would service is higher than the profit driven hospital
Rather than the current system of specialized equipment still having to make profit so treatment costs increase
I would argue that a postal service is not structured the same way as an on demand service like uber.
A postal courier who arrives at your door, picks up an important document, and takes it straight to the recipient will cost about the same.
When you write a letter or send a parcel you first take it to a designated pick up point. It is then picked up at an allocated time along with all the other letters and parcels, and at best it is going to arrive the next day having been through a huge sorting routing system at the post depot.
Apples and oranges.
Also fuck uber eats and the gig economy.
Idk, I got a care package in the mail with a cake inside, seems like they can both deliver food lol. 🤷
Also the cake is delicious, and yeah fuck the gig economy.
Did the cake arrive in half an hour? I mean, would they be able to deliver a hot meal because you suddenly decided you couldn't be bothered to cook that evening.
You can actually just put the letter in your mailbox. You don't have to take it to a dropoff.
If you're willing to drop it off, they also do same day for $4 for packages under 5 lbs inside a local region. They'll pick it up and drop it off just about anywhere in the country next day for basically the same cost.
Your point stands, but the USPS is a logistical wonder.
I’m an Uber driver and it’s a godsend of flexibility and decent, consistent income for me but I’d be so much happier with a collectively-owned alternative that charges less and passes more of the ride fare onto the drivers.
Except you would be very upset if your Uber eats took 3-5 days to arrive, as a postal system does. The cost is because it's an entirely different product, an on-demand courier system. It's closer to comparing universal healthcare with having a doctor on retainer (if such a thing exists).