this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
212 points (99.5% liked)

United States | News & Politics

2738 readers
1020 users here now

Welcome to [email protected], where you can share and converse about the different things happening all over/about the United States.

If you’re interested in participating, please subscribe.

Rules

Be respectful and civil. No racism/bigotry/hateful speech.

Post anything related to the United States.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

The Belgian Post was half privatized (50% minus 1 share) about 20 years ago, so that it could modernize without direct political meddling and so that there would be external (non politicized + professionel) oversight. That modernization was really needed and it worked out well enough. The company hasn't been without controversies, but it's not a disaster either.

Since that time, they were still given lucrative government subsidies/contracts to provide certain services that were deemed impossible to be made profitable (according to them), but on which they secretly made billions of euros of profit. Hidden subsidies basically, but still far less than what they used to cost the Belgian state before the modernization.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This isn't that far off from the USPS model, but USPS isn't protected from republicans out to destroy it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, the political background is completely different, I would not trust the present day usa republicans at all either.

One other very large difference is that, as I understand it, Usps does not get any outside government funding at all, even for their uneconomical activities. On the other hand, the Belgian post did get direct government funding before the partial privatisation (probably lots), and afterwards they've still been receiving subsidies (relatively less) to continue doing uneconomical things. Which means that even if the privatisation of Usps is done in an orderly and conscientious manner, afterwards they will no longer self subsidize those uneconomical activities, leaving the bill to be picked up by the tax payer, or those activities to be cancelled. Either way, the usa public will be worse off than they are now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

So, far, far more corruption and inefficiency than before.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You just said yes but okay bro

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I said "That modernization was really needed and it worked out well enough. The company hasn't been without controversies, but it's not a disaster either."

That you conclude from that, that the company is now less efficient + more corrupt than before, has 2 possible explanations:

  1. you lack reading comprehension. And/or
  2. you read the things that you want to read, ignoring what was actually said.
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Idk if anyone told you this but gullible is written on the ceiling

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

?

Edit to add: the insult makes no sense in the context of the discussion, so what the hell?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Oh, you're a bot, my bad.