Trump Wants Postal Service To Charge 'Much More' For Amazon Shipments (reuters.com)

President Donald Trump said the U.S. Postal Service should charge Amazon more to deliver packages, the latest in a series of public criticisms of the online retailer and its billionaire founder. From a report: "Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!" Trump wrote on Twitter. The president's tweet drew fresh attention to the fragile finances of the postal service at a time when tens of millions of parcels have been shipped all over the country for the holiday season. The U.S. Postal Service, which runs at a big loss, is an independent agency within the federal government and does not receive tax dollars for operating expenses, according to its website. The U.S. president does not determine postal rates. They are set by the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent government agency with commissioners selected by the president from both political parties. That panel raised prices on packages by almost 2 percent in November.

Comments

Fake News

[Frosty Piss]

While they probably should, Trump feels this way because Jeff Bozo, who owns Amazon, also owns the NYT - or as Trump says "Fake News"...

Re:I'll go against the Slashdot groupthink

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Let Amazon use UPS or FedEx.

First, Amazon does use UPS. UPS, FedEx and DHL outsource the non-profitable part of their deliveries to the USPS. Honestly, that's the subsidy Trump ought be railing against. (From a technical point of view. It may be better politically/rhetorically to choose one high profile customer like Amazon).

Second, subsidizing some things (like roads), even for megacorps like Amazon, is important. It makes it easier for those megacorps to start up, and their competitors to start up as well. However, the typical payoff for that is supposed to be corporate tax dollars over and above the subsidy from the successful megacorps.