• corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    It’s a service that’s mostly used by businesses

    almost entirely consists of financial statements

    When was the last time you

    I can’t even remember

    • 4 points
    • 2 of them bad-faith arguments
    • 0 of them pertinent to whether a consolidated mail service with a mandate to deliver mail from and two all Canadians (even if it’s not the profitable places) is something we need to preserve as a service; just like roads we all pay to maintain that go to places we don’t need to go to.

    because

    when is the last time you

    • drove? 2 years ago
    • rode a bus? 2 years ago
    • used a school? 30+ years ago
    • needed police? never so far
    • needed an ambulance?
    • needed a fireman? 38 years ago

    But I still fucking pay for those! This is a society and we do that; don’t be selfish.

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Financial statements can be sent electronically. We are literally creating huge volumes of paper, spending a ton of money and creating a ton of CO2 and other industrial waste, just to send a bit of information that could’ve been an email that most people just throw away without reading anyway.

      Buses and roads are used by millions to get to work/school. Police are protecting you even if you never call them (countries without credible police are extremely dangerous; police have an extremely powerful deterrent effect against organized crime). Even if you’ve never driven or used a bus you’ve definitely eaten food that has travelled on a road multiple times before reaching you (unless you live on a commune out in the country in which case you probably shouldn’t be paying taxes for all that stuff).

      Anyway the point wasn’t even that there shouldn’t be a postal service, just that we don’t need daily delivery. If we eliminated non-addressed mail and made all financial statements electronic then the postal workers would be driving empty vans around town every day. We could easily switch to weekly delivery without impacting service much at all.

      • Carl@sh.itjust.works
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        23 hours ago

        I don’t agree with you on mail at all. Not everything can be emailed to you. My bills are emailed/texted to me… But I still get some finicial papers, forms, and letters sent via the mail. I also get packages still delivered via canada post. You can mail in election votes. I depend on it.

          • Carl@sh.itjust.works
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            18 hours ago

            You made it sound like you are for privatization. I am good getting my mail once a week. As long as it is free. I depend on it.

            • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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              15 hours ago

              It’s not free. It’s never been free. It’s $1.23 per letter for mail. But that $1.23 is way below cost. Canada Post lost over a billion dollars in 2024. The question is who should pay for the shortfall?

              I think big companies sending out all those financial statements and bills should be paying more for postage. Others around here seem to think taxpayers should be subsidizing their postage. That makes no sense to me! We’re talking about billion dollar corporations. Why do they need a subsidy to send people mail?