• zephyreks@lemmy.mlM
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    1 year ago

    Infrastructure delivers more economic impact with less grifting when it’s not designed and run to make a profit on its own.

    • DickFiasco@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Right? When did we start becoming concerned with a public service being “profitable”? I’ve heard this applied to the US Postal Service a lot recently.

      • theragu40@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        “The postal service is losing money!”

        No, the postal service costs money. It’s a service. It doesn’t aim to make a profit. It costs money, and we are in turn rendered a service that is useful.

        I swear people are delusional.

        • Pretzilla@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Conservatives want to kill the postal service because it competes with for profit services they own and invest in. See: DeJoy

          • theragu40@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Which of course is stupid, because USPS is actually great and provides a much better and more reliable service than any private competitor even in its current underfunded state.

      • winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        I first remember it becoming an issue when a failed businessman turned president wanted to run the country like one of his failed businesses.

        • Zitronensaft@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          I remember Postal Service profitability being a political issue under the second Bush, too. Trump didn’t start that. He probably even benefited from the previous rounds because he bought a historic post office in DC when it was sold off and he turned it into a hotel. That’s the same hotel where people stayed during his presidency to curry favor with him.

      • spookedbyroaches@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        You want to put pressure on these things to make them more cost effecient. You’re in a capitalist system which does that job very well. But since this is not really a replaceable company, the government has to own these companies until they go public.

      • geissi@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        When did we start becoming concerned with a public service being “profitable”?

        Late 80s, early 90s, with the rise of the rise of the Chicago School of neoliberalism.