this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
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Why are we still paying a fuck ton of money and wasting a shit ton of paper delivering unsolicited commercial mail - can we please deal with that first and realize that a post service is a public service and doesn't need to be profitable?
To the actual question... no - the mail exists for bills and rare correspondences, I don't think anyone would notice if, for instance, we switched to Friday only deliveries.
You're not paying a fuck ton of money. Canada Post is a separate entity from the government and is a self-sustaining business that receives no money from the government.
Unsolicited commercial mail is paid for by the company sending it. All mail is paid for by the people sending it. It doesn't cost you anything to receive it. And when it really matters, like those "rare" correspondence that contain your drivers license, or insurance slips, or your health card, or your doctor's appointments, or even your small parcels from eBay, I'm sure you want those as soon as they come in. You should care about regular mail delivery. Because once you lose it, it's never coming back.
I pay for commercial mail by needing to constantly empty my overflowing mailbox and trying to make sure I don't lose any important mail in the process. And we, collectively, pay for spam mail because of the externalities on our society including having all that waste paper collected and recycled (and recycling isn't free or 100% effective).
Externalities are a cost we can't ignore - I'd rather pay tax dollars to support a good service than subsidize a shitty service with advertisements.
If you don't want unsolicited commercial mail, you can always contact your local post office and request to be added to the no flyers list. Just because you don't like flyers doesn't mean that mail delivery isn't important when it matters.
I'm not arguing for or against daily delivery, I just don't think it's a good idea to have our mail service tied to a profit motive. If we, as a society, decided on once weekly mail I don't think it'd impact most Canadians... but we should make that decision independent of considerations around profitability.
Edit: on re-reading my comment I definitely agree I could have been more clear.
At first you were complaining that you were paying money for a service, and now you're complaining that you'd rather pay money for a service. If it's a government service, you'll have politicians trying to defund it just like they are with health care, or sell it off like Ontario did with Hydro One. If it's a government regulated private service, it doesn't have to deal with that, but it needs a way to fund itself. Pick your poison...
Public service along with us working to address neoliberal fud that is perpetually underfunding our critical services. Ask someone if they want to pay higher taxes - they'll say no... ask someone if they want better services - they'll say yes. Especially on the topic of healthcare and housing affordability this issue is really coming to a head and, as far as my conversations have gone, most Canadians don't mind paying more income for more social safety nets and services.
Yes, most Canadians don't mind paying for more services. Tell that to the politicians actively defunding health care while introducing private for-profit clinics that cost more than public health care both to the province and to the patient, just like Doug Ford is doing right now. Public services only work when we elect people willing to make them work. Remember this the next time you go to the polls.
(Un?)fortunately I live in a strongly NDP district so I always get to vote my conscious and approve of my mp's stances in general. So I can't threaten to vote for the NDP but I also get to enjoy not holding my nose to vote against a conservative.
Do this! Years ago a very nice post lady asked me if I wanted to get flyers in my mail. I said "hell no." And, now I don't! Now I just get junk mail from companies that send their junk as actual mail. So, 100% my credit card company.