Re: The US Postal Service

On 2/18/2025 5:49 AM, Shadow wrote:

On Tue, 18 Feb 2025 07:22:34 +0700, John B. <slocombjb@gmail.com>
wrote:
 

As I said, my father worked in the Post Office all his working life so
I heard all the bitches when I was a kid. Some sort of centralized
sorting was used even way back then, whether by machine or machine. A
local sporting clothing company sold, and advertised, all over the
U.S. and their advertisement going to addressees other then  local was
bundled and sent somewhere else for further sorting.
>
It wouldn't make much sense for mail addressed to 9 East Overshoe
Avenue, Nowhereville, Cal, to be sorted in a little town in N.H. Just
bundle it up and send it all to California or some other central
point.

  Here in Brazil the postal service was run by the State. Cheap
and fast. Quite amazing, considering most Brazilians are practically
illiterate and it's very hard to read the addresses on the envelopes.
Plus the size of Brazil. Routing is done by postal code. When you post
it, the computer program determined the route(it was so efficient it
was probably another TK invention). For example a parcel posted here
to Rio de Janeiro would go from my town to an intermediate point, then
to Sao Paulo, then to Rio de Janeiro. Since postal vans run the routes
at least once a day, it would take 2-3 days to Rio.
"Express" mail same thing, hitching a ride on airlines or even
military planes that happened to be going near that remote Amazon
village.
I remember in Lula's first term some 20 years ago a "simple
letter" was around 1 U$ cent to anywhere in Brazil (called a "social
letter" because it produced no profit for the postal service, but
allowed poor people to write to relatives).
Then came Temer and Bolsonaro, bribed to privatize the
services. They imposed "voluntary" retirement for the employees that
had stable jobs, outsourced practically all the postmen at 1/4 of the
salary, and actually mandated that letters and parcels be retained in
warehouses and only delivered at the legal limit (2 weeks for cheap
post). Did I say cheap post? LOL, taxes (tariffs) doubled, in some
cases tripled, and there is no longer a "simple letter". Cheapest is
around 3 dollars.
All this to "prove" that State-run is "bad" and should be
destroyed.
They didn't manage to privatize due to public outcry, but
numerous private firms entered the market  attracted by the high
tariffs.
Some things which are manufactured here are not worth buying
because of the postal tariffs. Like tennis shoes, cost around US$ 6
but you'll pay U$ 5 for the post.
Bike-related, I put off buying things for my bike until
there's enough to justify paying the post.
  Thefts, which were practically unheard of are now quite
common. You would have to be crazy to risk a stable well-paying job by
stealing. Now that postmen are outsourced, have no workers rights and
really miserable pay theft has become a problem. They don't really
care if they are fired.
  Some things are better left to the State. Like postal
services, medicine, education, police services, jails, water,
electricity and roads/trains. LOL.
[]'s

Brasil Post has to operate in the same world of technological change, labor interests and costs (direct and administrative) as every other postal system:
https://www2.gwu.edu/~ibi/minerva/Fall2000/Edson.Oliveira.Sr.pdf
Every country's Post has experienced dramatic change with a wide range of new systems and policies from inspired to shambolic and all that will continue, everywhere, not just in Brasil.
--
Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971