US thing I’m guessing? Here in Sweden, we don’t get much spam mail in the first place but you simply put a “no ads” sign on your mailbox and then only get the stuff you need. The 8 years I’ve lived in my current apartment I’ve gotten like 3 things that weren’t bills and stuff I need.
In the US, conservative lawmakers have been waging a quiet war against our postal system for a while now.
Highlights: They forced it to be self-sustaining (cut federal funding), then when that didn’t kill it they forced it to, in a very short time frame, pre-fund retirement benefits ahead of time for all current and former employees.
The postal system is more or less dependent on the funds it gets from spam mailers.
I recently got denied for a public housing program in the US.
I did not find out about this until I was at the local public assistance office for another reason, where I just randomly happened to be told that I was denied by the person who was apparently my case manager.
She said she mailed it a few days ago and was surprised I didn’t get it.
2 weeks later and the actual denial letter never arrived.
…
Keep in mind, almost all government assistance programs in most of the US will correspond by you via mail only. If they email or phone call you, well you still need to show up in person or mail them for most important applications.
And… if they mail you something, they’ll often give you maybe 10 days (not business days, even though everything they do takes business days) to respond and have your response be received by, or they’ll permanently bar you from whatever you are applying for and file it as ‘refused to provide documentation.’
So if your shit gets lost in the mail, fuck you, nobody cares!
…
I have said this in various places on lemmy at other times and people seem to think I am joking, but I am not: If anyone from a functioning country wants to do a sham marriage for tax benefits and I can immigrate there, please let me know. Living off of disability payments alone fucking sucks here.
Previously I assume it worked like any government program worked - they get a budget set by Congress and they collect fees which function as taxes, and the whole system may-or-may-not be balanced.
Nowadays USPS makes its real money on packages for online commerce. Junk mail is kind of a relic that hasn’t gone away.
Does Norway have a digital mailbox run by the government, or just lots of private options? No, I don’t want Kivra data mining all my mail… so I only have MinMyndighetsPost, but doesn’t cover anything except government mail.
Most people might think that any e-mail provider is good enough, but a digital mailbox is a bit different from an e-mail. The Norwegian digital mailbox is tied to your identity, and much more secure than an e-mail inbox is.
US thing I’m guessing? Here in Sweden, we don’t get much spam mail in the first place but you simply put a “no ads” sign on your mailbox and then only get the stuff you need. The 8 years I’ve lived in my current apartment I’ve gotten like 3 things that weren’t bills and stuff I need.
holy shit a irl spam filter
The US’s junk post is mostly ADR (addressed direct advertising) just like Sweden, no?
In the US, conservative lawmakers have been waging a quiet war against our postal system for a while now.
Highlights: They forced it to be self-sustaining (cut federal funding), then when that didn’t kill it they forced it to, in a very short time frame, pre-fund retirement benefits ahead of time for all current and former employees.
The postal system is more or less dependent on the funds it gets from spam mailers.
I recently got denied for a public housing program in the US.
I did not find out about this until I was at the local public assistance office for another reason, where I just randomly happened to be told that I was denied by the person who was apparently my case manager.
She said she mailed it a few days ago and was surprised I didn’t get it.
2 weeks later and the actual denial letter never arrived.
…
Keep in mind, almost all government assistance programs in most of the US will correspond by you via mail only. If they email or phone call you, well you still need to show up in person or mail them for most important applications.
And… if they mail you something, they’ll often give you maybe 10 days (not business days, even though everything they do takes business days) to respond and have your response be received by, or they’ll permanently bar you from whatever you are applying for and file it as ‘refused to provide documentation.’
So if your shit gets lost in the mail, fuck you, nobody cares!
…
I have said this in various places on lemmy at other times and people seem to think I am joking, but I am not: If anyone from a functioning country wants to do a sham marriage for tax benefits and I can immigrate there, please let me know. Living off of disability payments alone fucking sucks here.
would be so cool if the government did cryptography
Canada as well. There’s been pushes to privatize the postal service so they can race to the bottom for profit.
It’s very saddening that people fall for this and delude themselves into thinking companies will compete to provide a better service.
Yep, look at phone companies, healthcare, prisons and ISP’s in the US to see how privatizing these things shakes out. It’s not pretty.
It’s one of the only things in the constitution they are required to have. I don’t understand how privatizing it was ever constitutional.
The Constitution hasn’t mattered for a while, only the parts of it the Court likes… Which is increasingly little of it.
I mean… We’ve always had just as much spam mail.
Where’d all the funding go previously then if it’s now all used to support themselves?
Previously I assume it worked like any government program worked - they get a budget set by Congress and they collect fees which function as taxes, and the whole system may-or-may-not be balanced.
Nowadays USPS makes its real money on packages for online commerce. Junk mail is kind of a relic that hasn’t gone away.
Yeah they have to respect it by law, same in Norway
Everything important is by digital mail now though, not to be confused with email …
Does Norway have a digital mailbox run by the government, or just lots of private options? No, I don’t want Kivra data mining all my mail… so I only have MinMyndighetsPost, but doesn’t cover anything except government mail.
Ran by the post office.
https://www.digipost.no/
Important mail from the government usually just comes in the government portal.
Now you’re just rubbing it in:
https://thenorwayguide.com/digital-mailbox/
That’s it, start the bidding