USPS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

our main story tonight concerns the US Postal Service the organization that would have delivered your Mother's Day card for today if you hadn't forgotten to mail one like an ungrateful sack of the USPS provides valuable services from delivering mail and packages to brilliantly ruining tip-top videos that is excellent from the wave to the laughs to the how you doing every single part of that is great I want that woman to interrupt every tick-tock video in fact take this one of an orange cat involved in it interspecies orgy already very good right exactly hard to improve upon but watch this it's just instantly better that's a cake on a cake right there keep crushing tic TOCs you national treasure the Postal Service has a rich and storied history actually predates the founding of this country and it has an obligation to bring mail to every single household even transporting it to the bottom of the Grand Canyon by MU over the years Americans have relied on it for a surprisingly wide variety of needs country children often watch for the mailman just see what has come today a big box with many holes in it the box is full of baby chicks baby chicks don't have to eat or drink for a whole day after they're hatched so they can travel safely through the mail it's true you used to be able to send live baby chicks through the mail and guess what you still can the Postal Service will transport all kinds of live poultry for you including chickens ducks and geese and turkeys which actually raises the question why the would I ever send a greeting card again when I could mail someone a birthday turkey or a thank-you doc or a sympathy goose who wouldn't want a sympathy goose I mean sure your Nana's dead but now you have a small goose which is and this is true better but the current pandemic is obviously making things very difficult for postal workers right now as you probably know from seeing stories like these I am very worried very worried where I mean to the point that I worry about coming to work every day I don't want to contract to bring it back to my family do you feel like you're at risk every time you go to work yes and say that it's not in the back of everybody's mind there is a joke amongst the office are we essential or sacrificial holy that is a dark joke most office humor is just on the level of working hard or hardly working or someone's microwaving fish again not will any of us die today LMFAO and those fears are not misplaced over a thousand postal workers have tested positive for Kovac 19 and more than 40 have died for both in addition to and because of the ongoing pandemic these workers are also having to grapple with another existential threat the postal service may be about to go broke the outgoing Postmaster General recently asked Congress for a total of 89 billion dollars and without financial help the USPS may not make it past September without significant service interruptions which is upsetting especially during an election year a census year and a pandemic that has people housebound and I know people do love to complain about the post office but the truth is it does very important work and many people really rely on it not just to receive packages but in rural areas in particular a post office can be a community hub that brings people together just listen to this postmaster in rural Colorado tell a heartwarming story with a bit of a twist postmaster burger says neighbors who live far apart run into each other at the post office that's how everybody keeps in touch including him it's provided me the opportunity to to know these people in this town more than I ever thought I would know even a degree where sometimes on my lunch hour I find myself helping a neighbor Barry's dog okay first what second excuse me it's just a circle back the also you just said sometimes you help bury a dog that's plural meaning you've done it more than once helping someone do that once is a courtesy but when it starts becoming a regular thing you have to wonder why the neighborhood dogs keep dying and why you're always there the point is at the worst possible time this American institution is on the brink of collapse so tonight we thought it might be worth asking why that is and what can be done about it and let's start with the fact that despite being part of the federal government the postal service is actually a self-funded entity it operates independently and is meant to pay for itself with the money that it makes from services and postage that might help explain why over the years it's often tried to encourage stamp collecting with commercials like this [Music] first that song can get it and also to dos on featuring all the stamps that kids love from those slamming dino stamps to the dank get well stamped with irises - my personal favorite the one that simply says lace-making and I think I speak for cool kids everywhere and I say there's simply nothing doper than a totally bitchin laced stamp I'm just worried it might be too cool and you might think that you know why the Postal Service is in so much trouble that the internet and email mean that people just don't use it as much but that's not actually the main reason in fact experts believe it would still be turning a profit we're not for a 2006 law called the postal accountability and Enhancement Act now one of the things that it required was for the USPS to prepay healthcare benefits for retirees on a 50-year schedule starting with an aggressive obligation to set aside over five billion dollars a year for 10 years that in itself was a massive burden to put on the Postal Service but the law also limited its flexibility to raise money by putting price caps on major products like first-class mail so they had massive new obligations to meet even as their income was basically locked in place now in hindsight he seems like a pretty clear death Center Twitter makes it so strange that it passed largely unnoticed at the time and with bipartisan support and the effect was almost immediate because the Postal Service went from reporting a net income of 900 million dollars in 2006 to a loss of 3.8 billion just three years later and good luck selling enough dope-ass lace stamps to get yourself out of that hole so the truth is the Postal Service's problems aren't entirely from the fact that we started using email or even the 2008 recession in fact it's been estimated that the stipulations of this one law have accounted for approximately 74 percent of their net losses since it passed and that is despite them shedding over a hundred thousand jobs and the fact they were so badly hobbled by an act of Congress makes it a little infuriating that some like former Fox News commentator John Stossel hold it up as a sign that government agencies are just naturally bloated and incompetent another myth government can run the post office like a business but real businesses can't lose billions every year 16 billion last year FedEx UPS and others make billions because they innovate and cut costs okay there's a lot wrong with that but he is right that FedEx is pretty good at innovating for example you've probably seen the arrow hidden in the FedEx logo but did you know that for years they're also used to be a swastika hidden in the D yeah once you see it like the arrow you can't unsee it but they took it out because businesses have to innovate now what's docile is advocating for their and what many conservatives would prefer is for the postal service to be privatized but there are some huge drawbacks to that idea for starters as you may have noticed FedEx and UPS charged are of a lot more to deliver than the Postal Service does also those remote addresses that they are obligated to deliver to aren't just difficult to get to they're not profitable and in all likelihood companies would cut those routes off meaning a lot of people would lose access and to his credit john stossel fully acknowledges that although basically says in response tough the Constitution says Congress has the power to establish post offices it doesn't have to and it doesn't have to do liver mail to all of America who says there needs to be universal service if I live way out in the boondocks I could get email now it's hard to decide what I like least about that his dismissive attitude towards rural Americans the incorrect assumption that email is a decent substitute for the postal service conveniently glossing over the fact that an estimated 42 million people lack access to broadband internet or the unfortunate fact that john stossel looks like what would happen if someone tried to queer I Geraldo Rivera but it didn't really work and again the postal service is a literal lifeline for many Americans it reportedly delivered 1.2 billion prescriptions last year including close to 100% of prescriptions from the VA and while you might be able to buy medicine online you can't actually download medicine from the internet to clarify you can download the medicine Jeremy Renner's collection of music like noises from the internet button this is very important you shouldn't do that and then there's the potential business impacts of privatization small businesses would immediately be affected if service was reduced like this rock engraving company in rural Kansas Fisher Rock is another company that uses the local post office to ship some of their smaller products just about every day we mail out something I hate to see them lose our post office in in-home shitty it's handy for businesses like myself just to run in there and get postage and and and mail out rocks yeah it would be a real shame if that business couldn't mail out its rocks like this one that says real women heart little wieners or this one that says the grass is greener under my wiener I mean that's a perfect Rock right there if the Postal Service stopped delivering gutbusters like that it would be a tragedy although not for me to be honest since I already bought mine and I've got to say it's definitely funnier in person one of the funniest things about it is how genuinely heavy this is and look it's not just small businesses companies like FedEx and UPS often hand off their packages to the Postal Service for the last leg of the delivery especially in rural areas amazon also contracts many of its deliveries out to it and that weirdly enough brings us to one of the biggest things standing in the way of the USPS getting the federal assistance it's so badly needs right now because this guy has strongly opposed giving it sufficient aid and many believe that that's because of its relationship with Amazon owned of course by Jeff Bezos who also owns the Washington Post whose political coverage is hated by the president who as we know makes policy decisions based on his never-ending game of six degrees of how is this about me just watch him try and explain why the Postal Service should not get federal help the Postal Service is a joke because they're handing out packages for Amazon and other internet companies and every time they bring a package they lose money on it a post office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times because they don't raise them for some reason these people have been in there a long time but for some reason they're very cozy with some of these companies and they don't raise the price of a package okay first the Postal Service is not a joke it delivers jokes yes and they are as we know absolutely hilarious but it's not in itself a joke greener under my wiener this is the funniest rock of all time Jesus Christ but second if the Postal Service quadruples prices on companies those package delivery costs will almost certainly be passed on to the consumer because their companies they don't give a and third it isn't cutting sweetheart deals to lose money on every delivery because in addition to everything else we've already discussed that 2006 law made it illegal for the USPS to price parcel delivery below its cost so in summation here Trump is absolutely convinced that the Postal Service's biggest problem is one of the few things that he's not actually one of its problems and that's not just annoying it's really worrying especially as just this week he replaced the outgoing Postmaster General with this guy Louis to Joy a major Trump donor and that appointment has worried worried many many people the Trump may now able to bend the Postal Service to his will presumably meaning that by next year every stamp in America will feature one of Jeff Bezos his dick pics and the thing is there are absolutely solutions that would enable the Postal Service to help themselves but for all the reasons that we've discussed their hands are tied when it comes to pricing on their main product which may actually help explain some of their very weird side hustles for instance you can go on their website and buy this costume for your dog which is a great way to make your dog look like it's performing a postal themed rendition of dick in a box also a few years back they entered into a bizarre partnership with forever21 to unveil a postal service themed fashion line although as this youtuber will tell you there were a few issues with their garments oh my gosh why why is any of this happening it's like yes I am the priority my boobs are the price I'm gonna give it a three and a half out of ten yeah when you're wearing nothing but the word priority stretched over your chest it's a little weird to realize that the answer to the question why is any of this happening is at least in part the postal accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 but look branching out into fashion clearly won't save the Postal Service that is why it is so important that they're given much more flexibility not just on pricing but also on the types of services they can offer now experts suggest that the post offices could expand their services to issue things like hunting and fishing licenses and perhaps the best option is something called postal banking where the post office doesn't so much act as a bank as provide some very basic financial services like savings accounts and check cashing that wouldn't just generate revenue it could also help the estimated 25 percent of people in this country living in unbanked or underbanked communities who are often forced to turn to alternative financial services like payday lenders which can charge up to 400% in fees and interest and this wouldn't be completely out of the postal services Lane not only did I already provide some services like selling money orders money transfers and prepaid cards but up until the 1960s they were already doing it's though 90% of its income is derived from the sale of stamps the post office is also the largest Savings Bank in the country and the largest agency for the transfer of money it takes you in more than one-and-a-half million dollars annually you know it's depressing that the weirdest thing about watching old timey clips now isn't that they're in black and white or that people are wearing hats it's that everyone is standing next to each other in a public place with no fear of dying honestly at this point I have such severe quarantine brain I could wake up in the Jurassic period and my first thought would be holy those stegosauruses are standing way too close together but look postal banking is clearly more of a long-term solution it won't get the USPS out of its current mess what they badly need is an infusion of funding as soon as possible and not only should we be demanding that they get that Congress should also take a look at undoing some of the more onerous terms in that 2006 law and until then there might actually be something small that we can do here because the purchase of stamps is still a key revenue generator for them and and you can actually get stamps made TV shows have done this in the past American Idol sold stamps and veep and full-frontal recently did giveaways and while it will not come close to raising the ninety billion dollars the Postal Service badly needs we've actually been working with stamps.com for weeks to not just do a giveaway but to produce a run of stamps that are available for you to buy right now if you go to stamps com slash last stamp tonight you can find postage featuring Qi John a Bolivian zebra mr. Nutter Butter and our personal favorite and now a stamp you can buy sheets of these for the next month and I would really encourage you to do that they are the perfect way to mail a card that supports the USPS in its time of need while also saying I like last week tonight and I'm sorry I forgot Mother's Day which you did your piece of if you liked this segment please buy a stamp and support the Postal Service if you hated it buy one anyway and mail me a letter about how much I suck it's all the same to them you'd be doing a really nice thing that's our show thank you so much for watching we'll see you next week good night it's new I know you bye-bye you're very good interrupting things you very bad [Music]

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 8,019,570

Keywords:

Id: IoL8g0W9gAQ

Length: 18min 14sec (1094 seconds)

Published: Sun May 10 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Hawk_015]

For me John's longform political videos was a gateway to a lot of other leftist channels. I think I've even been direct linked by YouTube to philosophyTube.

[u/rwhitisissle]

Military spending? "Pump those numbers up." Child size cages? "It's in the budget." One of the few things that allow some of the most disenfranchised Americans to remain connected to both their local communities and the nation at large? "TRIM THE FAT REEE."

[u/DotaGuy12]

If he thinks that weiner rock is the funniest thing ever he obviously hasn't seen a certain pickle

[u/divingreflex]

John Oliver is the only late night host I have any amount of respect for

[u/cheesy_wosits]

What was the video about because it's not available in the UK?

[u/BriskEagle]

John Oliver has introduced me to many issues that I previously didn’t know about. He truly is the only good late show host nowadays

[u/[deleted]]

Americans having heated debates about things that most other countries, rich or poor, have settled for decades (abortion rights, gun ownership rights, the value of public services, universal healthcare) is absolutely exhausting to watch and must be even more exhausting to live through.

I'm sorry you have to go through that fellow American BreadTubers.

[u/Zecon365]

i was hoping he'd mention the "starve the beast" conservative strategy of cutting public service funding and then pointing the finger at the service's management instead of themselves for its failures, all so they can justify further cuts or outright abolishment, especially when he played clips of that fox news guy going over the usps's numbers after the bill was passed

[u/cloake]

Without the audience reaction it lacks that little umph (reminds me of Renegade Cut's Wrestling video), but otherwise top quality from our centre left lib.