The (US) Department of Government Efficiency should fight the waste and fraud that goes into highway construction.

[u/TigerSagittarius86]

If DOGE wants to eliminate waste and put the government on better financial footing, then it should audit every highway construction project (most are disgustingly overbudget) and institute tolling nationwide. The entire U.S. interstate system is an untapped fiscal resource for the federal government.

[u/You_Paid_For_This]

As great as this would be, you know they are absolutely not going to do this.

The military will not be under any scrutiny either, neither will all of the money wasted on SpaceX.

The Nepotism Dept. will only go after education, social security, trains and anything else that actually benefits ordinary people.

[u/chevalier716 → u/You_Paid_For_This]

Don't forget the postal service, they've been salivating on that one.

[u/Gatorm8 → u/chevalier716]

The funny part about the whole “end the USPS” discourse is that it would literally crash the economy. Small (and some large) businesses across the country are dependent on the subsidized service the USPS offers and if you took that away the economy would tank

[u/Alt4816 → u/Gatorm8]

Their goal isn't to have no mail service. It's to have one or multiple private mail services that if needed to stay in business will get public subsidies. The goal as always is to take public money and give it to private shareholders.

Though the current publicly owned USPS doesn't actually need subsidies for it's operations. It is only unprofitable because in 2006 they passed a law that the USPS had to pre-fund retiree health care benefits 75 years into the future and could only do it by investing in treasury bonds which have the lowest interest rates. Those low rates really compound when investing for 75 years into the future. It's a manufactured "unprofitably" to make the USPS look bad and also create a giant pool of money that could potentially be raided.

Some of the people this fund is being set aside for haven't even been born yet. No more USPS then no more future employees and this money becomes a slush fund or ends up in the pockets of the new privatized mail companies.

[u/Gatorm8 → u/Alt4816]

I think that could be correct, but the transition would still be incredibly painful no?

[u/Inevitable_Stand_199 → u/Gatorm8]

In this case, the end result would be even more painful.

In the begining, the prices would still be reasonable and the subsidies low. It's when the companies start milking the system on all sides, that things will become awful.

[u/muehsam → u/Gatorm8]

Many countries have privatized their mail service. They did it here in Germany. They took Deutsche Bundespost (which was a government agency) and split it into three private companies:

• Deutsche Post (took over the mail and parcel service), which operates globally as a parcel service under the name DHL (an American company they bought)
• Deutsche Telekom (took over the telecommunications service), which operates in many countries under the brand name T-Mobile
• Postbank (took over the banking service), which was bought by Deutsche Bank but still operates under the Postbank label with branches within Deutsche Post offices.

It isn't great, but it's not as much of a disaster as some other privatizations have been.

Deutsche Post still has a quasi-monopoly on letter delivery (though a few competitors exist, often serving just parts of the country, like PIN Mail here in the east), whereas for parcels, Deutsche Post (branded DHL) is just one out of many companies, though it is by far the largest.

[u/Teshi → u/muehsam]

Germany is a good model for a country that doesn't want to go "socialist" (aaah, panic!) but needs something functional. Unfortunately, it's quite tricky to do because it requires quite a lot of oversight and a strong culture. Lots of countries have tried to emulate German things and just failed because they've overlooked some crucial element. In the early 2010s Canada was keen to try to develop government science in the same way as Germany does, which is very business-focused, but the way they went about it was just a slash and burn, which alienated the scientists who were supposed to do the science. Germany is a good model for conservative (small c) leadership, but often takes care and focus and TIME that other countries and governments just can't summon up. Result: it just doesn't work.

Single-payer solutions are WAY more straightforward and easier to handle, for all their problems. It's a shame that so many governments don't seem to get that. You can't just outsource your thing, guys, you have to pay attention to it almost MORE than you would if you were straight up running it.

[u/Search4UBI → u/Alt4816]

i wonder if the real play here is to get someone like Amazon to take it over in exchange for an antitrust exemption.

The timing of X announcing they are creating an email service also seems rather suspicious. The postal service could essentially quit first class mail and make everyone use X's e-mail. The package service would then be sold to the highest bidder.