3/04/2013

The Postal Service, and The Lie That Will Not Die

The Motley Fool financial site has a good rundown on "How The Postal Service Is Being Gutted" .   I hope most people here already know about the poison-pill legislation passed by Congress (and pushed by pro-privatization lobbyists) in 2006, requiring the USPS to pre-fund their pension benefits seventy-five years in advance, for hypothetical employees not only not hired yet, but for employees not even born yet.  The Fool article also goes into other factors and efforts by big-bankroll financial predators and lobbyists meant to push the Postal Service into privatization and/or dissolution.

But in the comments, I see, yet again, numerous people insisting, against all evidence and numbers, that the Postal Service is "wasting taxpayers' money".  The Postal Reorganization Act of 1971 reformed USPS into a "quasi-governmental" organization with the ability to operate (within Congressional limitations) as a business and with a mandate to be self-funding.  They've operated under that mandate for more than FORTY YEARS, and yet there are still numerous people utterly convinced that "my tax money" pays for mail delivery.

What's up with these people?  Even when provided with facts and numbers, they literally refuse to believe otherwise. You can't convince them, you can't educate them, you can't change their minds. What benefit do they get out of believing a lie, denying a truth?  They will not let this lie die.

Well, this blog post won't convince them either.  I'm just venting my frustration.  This shit just gets old.  Very, very old.  In this case it's literally an old lie. 

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