• enthusiasm_headquarters@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    This is what they do now. Some counties and cities tax junk mail, this is very effective. When my city did this, it so affected the amount of paper being recycled that the city worried that people were no longer interested in the recycling program (they figured it out). You can’t blame the USPS for junk mail. They deliver, as fast as they can, and that’s it.

    One thing that should be brought back to the post, and my president, Elizabeth Warren, agrees, is payday check loans. That used to be a USPS service, and it was very popular. The payday loans were always locked with interest no higher than inflation, so it wasn’t a disaster if you got one. In the 1940s. the USP Savings System held billions in receipts, and was so trusted that even the rich invested in it.

    When banks returned to full health, the “government monopoly” was taken from the USPS and ended up in the hands of a bunch of predatory check cashing companies that you now see littering every struggling neighborhood in the USA, except in the few places they’re banned. Ironically, the 1980s destroyed the small town community bank (part of Reagan’s legacy was the S&L scandal), which were supposed to be replacing the USPS, and the extortionists proliferated. Major banks are now in the game, offering payday/salary loans with 200-300% introductory rates.

    Blame this guy.

    It goes without saying, the business of payday loans hits the poor hard. Interest can reach 1000% if payments are missed, it’s hell. In contrast, the USPSS helped establish credit for millions of working poor people in America. Even when it was judged “redundant” in the late 60s, over a million people still had an account with USPS. And nobody ever talks about it.

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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      14 hours ago

      You can’t blame the USPS for junk mail. They deliver, as fast as they can, and that’s it.

      They also establish postage rates. Those rates are specifically designed to maximize revenue from junk mail. So, yes, I can actually place a large part of the blame for junk mail directly on the postal service. They need the revenue from that junk mail to stay solvent. Without that junkmail, they would bankrupt themselves.

      Which means their primary business is trash distribution. If uBlock functioned in the real world, the first thing it would block would be highway billboards, followed immediately by the USPS in its entirety.

      One thing that should be brought back to the post, and my president, Elizabeth Warren, agrees, is payday check loans.

      I fully agree with that. Basic banking services should be a core function of the post office.