• Nougat@fedia.io
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      1 month ago

      I’d bet he wants to take over Amtrak so he can replace it with that stupid Las Vegas car tunnel.

      • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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        30 days ago

        Or replace it with nothing, because “railways and mass transit are obsolete” (translation: “they’re hurting my car sales”).

    • takeda@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      Exactly, we have UPS, FedEx, DHL and bunch of others.

      Leave USPS the fuck alone.

      • root_beer@midwest.social
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        1 month ago

        They’re all shit too. Fat lot of good privatization would do. USPS was Cool and Good until DeJoy was dropped in to throw wrenches into the cogs.

        • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 month ago

          UPS is actually fairly reliable. FedEx is hit and miss depending on the driver coverage area you’re in, DHL and others just don’t even exist.

          USPS has always been great, but primarily for handling “last mile” where a lot of customers need reliable delivery of low monetary value packages like letters that UPS isn’t set to handle, but carry some of the most important lifelines of information to rural and poor Americans.

    • Davin@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Everything that has been privatized, has ended up costing us more for shittier service. This will not be different.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      This but unironically.

      Can you imagine a presidential candidate running on the platform of seizing the assets of the billionaire class? They would transcend political parties, they would unify the nation and people would finally gain something from our politics.

      And they would probably be found with thirty bullets to the back of the head and it would be ruled a suicide.

  • MasterNerd@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    What a surprise given the fuckery he pulled with Hyperloop and California high speed rail

  • Wispy2891@lemmy.world
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    30 days ago

    In my country since the government privatized a part of postal service, the quality of service heavily declined to the point that now is almost guaranteed that they will “lose” your letter if you send it in a place that will cost too much to deliver

  • OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The usps is a government SERVICE. These parasites look at that and say “but nobody profits from that” and somehow they just can’t let that happen.

    • earphone843@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      The thing is they did generate a profit until they were fucked with by Republicans to make them look unprofitable.

    • Airowird@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      Except the taxpayers benefit from it, who are the ones paying for it anyway!

      What Chancellor Musk means is that no oligarch is getting rich from it, so he is unable to understand its purpose.

    • Pilferjinx@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I still can’t get over the idea of for profit prisons. incentivized incarceration is beyond stupid.

  • itsonlygeorge@reddthat.com
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    30 days ago

    They already tried this in LA with privatizing the public transportation system back in the 50’s. The big car companies bought it all and dismantled it in favor of selling their cars.

    Most of Amtrak loses money except for the NE corridor. So if you privatize Amtrak it means even worse service and eventually no trains where it is not profitable.

    Same with privatization of the USPS, it just means less services for a higher price until they decide to close it altogether because email will replace letters altogether. Say good by to any privacy since all email is monitored and capitalized for marketing.

    Fuck fElon Muskrat.

  • Bathilda_Bagshot@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    They want to eliminate or control the Postal Service so that they can eliminate mail-in voting. Their added bonus is padding the pockets of fellow millionaires and billionaires.

  • WhatSay@slrpnk.net
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    1 month ago

    You know who wants to replace the postal service? Amazon. They have delivery vehicles, lockers, and so on. They have been building towards it for years. I’m sure an attack on the postal service would leave Amazon on top, and I bet it’s a plan in the works.

    As for Amtrak, maybe musk wants to swallow it up with his boring company.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Actually they don’t, they want to replace fedex and UPS.

      No one wants the business of daily letter service.

      • Zron@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        What people who want to gut the postal service don’t understand is that it’s a fucking service.

        The USPS does last mile delivery for all courier agencies. FedEx and UPS won’t pay a driver to deliver your dildo out to your cabin in bumfuck Nebraska, but the USPS will, along with your tax documents, bank statements, and anything else you need.

        If you get rid of USPS, you’re cutting anyone who isn’t in a major city off from not only packages, but critical documents.

        • vithigar@lemmy.ca
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          30 days ago

          It is insane to me when people complain about the failure of a public service to turn a profit as if that’s still kind of bad or unexpected outcome.

          Services cost money to operate for the benefit of those using them. That is literally the point.

          • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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            30 days ago

            Yes, the Republican con has been to compare government to a household budget and/or corporations, and it’s just so very stupid.

  • AntY@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I remember seeing an interview with Margaret Thatcher where she said that rail could never be successfully privatized. Just as a reminder of how extreme Musk’s ideas are.

      • overload@sopuli.xyz
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        1 month ago

        British Rail Service is so bloody expensive as well. Seems like you guys have these, essentially, per-track monopolies.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    30 days ago

    This is exactly the shit that will give permanent erections to the cons.

    And people should not call this shit “Trumpism” - this is who the Republicans are and what the Republican project has always been. They HATE the idea of a functioning society for all. Next up, we’re going to hear how education should be handed over to the Devos family. You know, for “choice”.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      29 days ago

      Yeah, I had no idea it wasn’t private. What’s the deal with that?

            • rumba@lemmy.zip
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              28 days ago

              I knew it was kinda of poorly designed, I remember the rails aren’t smooth enough for commuter traffic but we did it anyway.

              • PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world
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                28 days ago

                It’s fine at slower speeds but the track is so old that the trains can’t go very fast. Also, most of the track in America is owned by private freight rail companies which means AmTrack has to wait for the freight trains to go by and that increases the amount of time a train trip takes.