this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
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United States | News & Politics
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The Belgian Post was half privatized (50% minus 1 share) about 20 years ago, so that it could modernize without direct political meddling and so that there would be external (non politicized + professionel) oversight. That modernization was really needed and it worked out well enough. The company hasn't been without controversies, but it's not a disaster either.
Since that time, they were still given lucrative government subsidies/contracts to provide certain services that were deemed impossible to be made profitable (according to them), but on which they secretly made billions of euros of profit. Hidden subsidies basically, but still far less than what they used to cost the Belgian state before the modernization.
This isn't that far off from the USPS model, but USPS isn't protected from republicans out to destroy it.
Yeah, the political background is completely different, I would not trust the present day usa republicans at all either.
One other very large difference is that, as I understand it, Usps does not get any outside government funding at all, even for their uneconomical activities. On the other hand, the Belgian post did get direct government funding before the partial privatisation (probably lots), and afterwards they've still been receiving subsidies (relatively less) to continue doing uneconomical things. Which means that even if the privatisation of Usps is done in an orderly and conscientious manner, afterwards they will no longer self subsidize those uneconomical activities, leaving the bill to be picked up by the tax payer, or those activities to be cancelled. Either way, the usa public will be worse off than they are now.
So, far, far more corruption and inefficiency than before.
No.
You just said yes but okay bro
I said "That modernization was really needed and it worked out well enough. The company hasn't been without controversies, but it's not a disaster either."
That you conclude from that, that the company is now less efficient + more corrupt than before, has 2 possible explanations:
Idk if anyone told you this but gullible is written on the ceiling
?
Edit to add: the insult makes no sense in the context of the discussion, so what the hell?
Oh, you're a bot, my bad.