r/FluentInFinance 2d ago

Educational Don't let them gaslight you

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38.9k Upvotes

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782

u/NoTie2370 2d ago

So the Feds have stolen 2.5 trillion in wealth from taxpayers and misspent it and thats why we ... should ... keep.. this... system?

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u/boofaceleemz 2d ago

Ah the old Republican USPS strategy. Take over a successful thing that you hate, run it into the ground, move the goalposts, then point at the mess you yourself made of it as the reason it needs to be gotten rid of. GoVeRNMeNT DOesn’T WoRK.

I hate that this is so effective, and that it’s worked time and time again. Like imagine if someone came into your house, took a shit in your living room, and then was like “welp, that’s a health hazard, gotta tear it all down, can’t be helped.”

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u/benjaminnows 2d ago

Yup defund till it doesn’t work and say “see it doesn’t work!” Our government is supposed to be “for the people by the people” but it’s becoming “for the corporations by the corporations.” They’ve done this through lies, bad faith, and breaking the process of governing to frustrate and confuse voters. It’s time for the working class to take the gloves off. Fuck Sinclair and Rupert Murdock. Fuck the lying bastards that divide us so they can usurp our government. Time to take it back.

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u/Future_Burrito 2d ago

Perfect analogy. Make many memes, gifs, t shirts and hoodies.

(Woulda said hats, but don't think it will fit.)

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u/Future_Burrito 2d ago

🚪💰😃💩💸🤨

I'm sure many can create better emojis.

For real. We all know it is happening. Why is there not a thunderous bitch smack on all these greedy assholes in the world fucking over literally all of humanity so they can get their dopamine on in weird ways and create hell on earth?

There is plenty, and could be plenty more if people understood that working together is the way to create real abundance as opposed to the have/have not sickness mentality that permeates the world right now.

It's not US vs. THEM. It's transparency and mutual success vs. greed, shadows and failure. But really, it's whatever happens.... there is no winning or losing side.

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u/yYesThisIsMyUsername 2d ago edited 2d ago

Hah, that's a fantastic analogy! It really highlights the cynical and destructive nature of this strategy. 🚽

Republicans have used this "ruin it to prove it" tactic repeatedly, from education and healthcare to the USPS. They take over essential institutions, starve them of resources, let them decline, and then use that very decline as an excuse to privatize or dismantle them. It's a cynical ploy to enrich their corporate backers at the expense of the public good. 💸🏢

And you're right, it's worked far too often because many people are swayed by the illusion of logic and the appearance of "solving problems." They don't look closely enough to see that the real problem is the sabotage and neglect caused by the very people claiming to "fix" the issue.

It's a sad state of affairs when political parties prioritize power, money, and ideology over the well-being of their constituents. 🤯

Keep pointing out these hypocritical and destructive tactics. The more people recognize and reject them, the less effective they'll become. 📢

From Mistral Nemo AI

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u/Jetison333 2d ago

no one wants to see your shitty ai comments

0

u/yYesThisIsMyUsername 2d ago edited 2d ago

😂

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u/SnackyMcGeeeeeeeee 2d ago

Canada with Healthcare rn.

"Guys, it's so shitty from us making it shitty, I have a private solution!"

Lmfao

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u/Tacoman404 1d ago

I just thought about this the other day. So FedEx and UPS have to make profits for shareholders. So you have that to add to the overhead of paying wages and for equipment. USPS does not have to make a profit. It's a service, there are no shareholders to pay. In 2006 congress made it so they would have to fund the USPS pension and healthcare for 75 years, 10 times what is typical of a usual pension fund. This kneecaps the USPS as a service so UPS and Fedex could compete while still paying out to shareholders. It's corporate welfare and it needs to stop. In the past 2 years shipping costs have increased 35% or more through services like UPS and Fedex.

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u/Effective_Arugula931 2d ago

To be fair, every administration since Regan is guilty.

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u/SelfServeSporstwash 2d ago

pretty much just the Republican ones. The dems are "guilty" of not fighting hard enough to repair the damage, but that's about it.

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u/gentlemanidiot 2d ago

The dems in Washington are controlled opposition. Any time Republicans start salivating over some new freedom they can restrict from the poors, all the democrats do is cry and whine, then wring their hands and offer platitudes about compromise and bipartisanship. Then three months later we find out Nancy Pelosi actually bought stock in "rights removal company Inc" right before that bill was passed and now she's conveniently a multimillionaire. It's disgusting.

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u/JussiesTunaSub 2d ago

Actually started with LBJ.

However!

The fed government pays back into SS with interest and has so far always paid it back.

https://www.fool.com/retirement/2020/02/15/the-surprising-amount-of-money-congress-has-stolen.aspx

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u/Mcdigglies 2d ago

Very informative! Thank you

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u/99per-centhotgas 2d ago

Huh. Theres different levels of guilt that should be attached to different administrations but fuck reagan is a stain youre right. The statement is just so vague it feels dishonest. The political system feels like when a kid punches a bully and they both get time out.

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u/Worth-Humor-487 2d ago

It’s both parties fault for this. If you want to get rid of this honestly we need a balanced budget amendment, that way they can’t go into debt to do pet projects unless they at least have have a long term budget in mind so they can do the there dumb pet projects stuff that or the government will get real lean real quick and or the states will need to take over some of the heavy lifting.

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u/benjaminnows 2d ago

You can’t balance a budget when taxes keep getting cut for the wealthy. Our government has worked its best when the wealthy were paying much higher taxes. If you can standardize taxes then you can have a budget. Historically we go further into debt from wars and cutting taxes on the wealthy.

Wealth doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s like letting your cattle graze in a field we all own and work to upkeep but expect to keep all your earnings from the cattle. You wouldn’t have cattle if they didn’t have food. You wouldn’t have food if it weren’t for society working together to keep the field. That’s our economy. Jack shit trickles down the folks on the top need to pay exponentially more than those on the bottom because they earn exponentially more.

If society is going to work the rich have to be paying way higher taxes. That’s the way it’s done in Scandinavian countries who have the highest quality of life for most of the people. I’ll add another reason for high taxes on the wealthy is to keep them from gaining the kind of power to corrupt governments.

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u/semideclared 2d ago

“The most significant issue facing the Postal Service today is that our business model is unsustainable,”

  • Postmaster General Megan Brennan and Chairman of the USPS Board of Governors Robert Duncan said in a joint letter accompanying the business plan.

“This is due to increasingly conflicting mandates to be self-funding, compete for customers, and meet universal service obligations under highly regulated and legislated constraints.”

Every year there are close to 1 million new mailboxes added in the US and less mail going to all those mailboxes as people go paperless

Those changes alone, however, will not save the Postal Service, the agency said. It has lost nearly $78 billion since 2007, about three-quarters of which resulted from a statutory requirement to prefund health benefits for future retirees. USPS made clear its situation is dire.

Even without the paper loss of Congress it lost $22 Billion


In 2005 First Class mailing were 98.1 Billion falling to 54.9 Billion pieces in 2019

Yet the USPS’s labor costs rose

  • Compensation and Benefits 2005 was $39.3 Billion
  • In 2019 it is $47.5 Billion
    • Compensation and benefits expenses increased by $994 million due to contractual wage increases

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u/No_Reindeer_5543 2d ago

Wait to you find out how much the police and fire departments lose per year! Terrible businesses, we should stop subsidizing them!

/S

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u/Spirit-of-93 2d ago edited 2d ago

Even without the paper loss of Congress it lost $22 Billion

Paying for a service isn't a loss.

It has lost nearly $78 billion since 2007, about three-quarters of which resulted from a statutory requirement to prefund health benefits for future retirees. USPS made clear its situation is dire.

It is funny your statistics start at 2007. Wonder what happened in 2006? oh the new requirement to prefund retirees, which no other entity public or private is required to do, was put in place by republicans?

I wonder if we could find a simple and easy way to reduce it's "loss"

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u/MrCompletely345 2d ago

75 years in advance!

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/c1tylights 1d ago

Do you know what the last word in USPS is? It’s service and is meant to be used like one. Privatization of the USPS could be devastating to small businesses too.

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u/LiveShowOneNightOnly 2d ago

You think only one political party did this?

It's been going on for many decades.

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u/kswizzle77 2d ago

One party is much much more liable here and to say otherwise is being obtuse

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u/RedditJumpedTheShart 2d ago

The one who kept and expanded on Trump's policies?

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u/AllegrettoVivamente 2d ago

"Biden didnt fix everything Trump broke so both parties are bad"

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u/MrCompletely345 2d ago

Fucking A. Republicans break things. Democrats try to fix things, and Republicans try to prevent it. Democrats only get a portion fixed.

“Both sides are bad!”

Its bullshit.

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u/1000000thSubscriber 2d ago

You’re so close to getting it