USPS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as an accessible explanation of why the USPS struggles financially, especially in threads on mail delays and international rates.
What it is
A Last Week Tonight segment on the US Postal Service's financial troubles. John Oliver explains why it matters, what pushed it to this point, and what viewers can do.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2020 to 2021.
What Hacker News said
Recommends lexicality · 2020-07 · on “Amazon gets priority while mail gets delayed, say US letter carriers”
John Oliver did an interesting video on this: [this video] TL;DR: Deliberate government action to defund them has resulted in them having way less money than you would expect.
Recommends teh_klev · 2020-07 · on “Pending Postal Service Changes Could Delay Mail and Deliveries”
It has for many years: [LINK] Discussed here: [LINK] And love him or hate him John Oliver boils this down to: [this video]
Recommends chb · 2020-08 · on “Save the USPS”
For those wondering why the USPS cannot turn a profit, Jon Oliver does an excellent job of explaining: [this video]
Cites m000 · 2020-06 · on “The U.S. can now set its own rates for mail from China and other countries”
> why can't I choose a shipping option that costs something less than 50 cents to anywhere in the US? Not an American, but I believe there's a 2006 bill that prevents USPS from selling services below the cost. Learned about it in a John Oliver's video [1], mentioned somewhere else in this thread. I'd guess that Chinese epackets are part of an international agreement, so they are exempt. > The system was illogical. It would be illogical if USPS had flexible costs. But the USPS costs are more or less fixed. The mailman will go his round every day and will get his salary, even if he has little to deliver. So, you may as well have him deliver Chinese epackets, for whatever price the Chinese are
Cites RedShift1 · 2021-10 · on “International Mail Service Suspensions”
No other company has to do this. They created this rule specifically to make the USPS run at a loss so they would have a reason to gut it. And that's what they're doing now, gutting it. John Oliver had an episode about this: [this video]