Total sense

I figured out how to get my food with NO delivery fee: I get off my fat ass and get it myself. Novel approach, I know.
- And sometimes you're too tired for that or want something you can't reasonably make at home. There's nothing wrong with ordering food.
  
  Nothing wrong with it rarely or if you’re disabled, but paying $30 for McDonald’s or whatever on a regular basis is insane
  
  "Nothing wrong with ordering food" - correct
  But there is something wrong with paying double to have it delivered - it's called wasting money. Do y'all have a lot of money to waste?
  
  there's nothing wrong with it but it's a luxury service so you shouldn't complain about it being expensive
- DoorDash is a hell of a lot cheaper than catching a DUI charge tho
  
  Yeah, but the DUI also buys you 3 meals a day for 6 months or so.
  
  Normal people have a stocked fridge and are not constantly drunk.
  If being drunk seriously affects your shopping schedule, you have an alcohol problem.
- Me who is physically disabled and can’t leave my house: 👁️👄👁️
  
  https://sh.itjust.works/comment/16489196
- I'm happy that you are physically able, that you have places within walking distance to pick the food up from, or if not that you own a vehicle and are not vision impaired or afflicted with some other ailment that would make driving impossible. I hope you reflect on how fortunate you are.
  
  I do, all the time.
  My point was that most people are able to procure their own food without paying exorbitant fees for it; in their case, I consider it lazy and wasteful. That’s also my opinion, and people are free to apply their own judgement.
  
  Jesus christ. When you piss does it come out like a corkscrew?
- Novel approach, I know.
  In digest form, I presume?
- I get off my fat ass
  But the entire point of having it delivered is so you can keep sitting on it.
- It is not that easy for everyone. I for example can't afford a car. And restaurants aren't exactly around the corner. So if i want to get food like that, i have to have it delivered.
  
  What about public transport?
  
  How about, you know, a grocery store?
- If I'm bothering to go out anyway I'll just get ingredients from the store and do it myself.
  
  From one extreme to the next. Interesting.
  
  An even better idea.

USPS should not focus on profitability and fuck Uber and the gig economy.
- yes! it is a SERVICE Americans already pay for in taxes, the need to make a profit on it makes no sense.
  
  No we don't. The USPS is not tax funded, it is self funded by shipping costs and stamp sales.

This is a perfect illustration of why we should not privatize essential services.
- We probably shouldn't, but this is a terrible example why.
  https://youtu.be/YmK24VAaZrg
- Thankfully food delivery isn't essential, therefore it should be privatized (preferably by a restaurant that delivers to places hundreds of miles away by plane)
- "Essential" is your criteria? To be clear, you're saying that anything that's an actual human need, should be state run?
  
  The mail is, yes.

Economies of scale and different expectations of timely delivery... Both of those prices are much more than I deal with here in the NL though
- Yes. Everyone in the US tells me that people get so much more money there than here in Germany because of the taxes and everything. And then you have to pay $30 for a simple food delivery?
  
  It's part of the propaganda. Richest country in the world, they say, but you pay a lot more for basically everything because there's few government regulations keeping prices in check, and a number of things that are done by the government in other countries are run by for profit corporations here (healthcare).
  Although, $10.50 for the mail is pretty pricey. That's no letter that they're sending. I run an Etsy shop and frequently send stuff in padded envelopes through the post office, and those cost me like $4 to send across the country.
  
  Don't forget the 1000x American markup for anything health related.
  
  The real trick, I’ve heard, is to work remotely for a U.S. company. Get all the benefits of a civilized country but they pay you the bigger salaries(if you work in a field that isn’t 100% rat-fucked yet).
  
  I thought they were taking the piss with the $30, is that for real?
  I used to live in Morocco and I paid about $3 a month for free deliveries with their local equivalent.

And somehow USPS can still pay their couriers more.
- Shhh, Musk might hear you and destroy it.
  
  Don’t worry they already have a plan

the postal system is significantly more efficient

One is not designed to generate profit. Nor should it be for that exact reason.
- Yyjj9y

I'm sure the food is cheaper if you ordered it more than 24h beforehand
- If there was a service like this, I'd probably buy there every day. I can plan 1-2 days ahead what I'd like to eat, but more is harder. This would be perfect.
  
  there are like subscription services that deliver partially prepared meals to your door
  
  one of the food delivery service I used tried to offer this, but that is extremely limited in availability and does not cover my address so I never get to use it.
- I'm offering budget food delivery. 3 day delivery guaranteed.

If most of that went to the driver I would be OK with it. I never use those services, they exploit workers
- I only do when my daughter is staying somewhere and doesn’t have food to eat. That’s rare, but it has happened a few times.

One of these is a government service and subsidized.

Don't worry, they are already trying to get rid of the USPS so we can be charged ridiculous amounts for mail delivery.
- Don’t worry, it’s been just two weeks. Elon and his minions are coming for it.
  
  A lot of USPS offices are in prime locations in many cities. The real estate alone is worth hundreds of billions, at least.

Government vs private.
It's the same with healthcare believe it or not.

USPS is the most underappreciated thing in the world. In the shittiest areas I've ever lived it's still been fairly reliable. In a nice area, forget about it, perfect.

Look at that money on the table! Of course we should privatize the USPS!
(/s of course)

the economic ignorance in this thread is astounding

Post takes days, weeks, even months. Food delivery is minutes, and point-to-point.

Today we are learning about economies of scale, kids!
- See the giant bag? He's got multiple orders in it.
  Not as efficient as driving to every mailbox in a row, to be sure.
  But it also doesn't cost Uber probably more than 25% of what they charge for an order, to pay the delivery driver.
  
  A lot of it is about latency too. You're paying to have someone go get it right now and take it to you right now. Post services pick up stuff daily and get it there over the course of a week or so depending on where exactly it's going. If you were paying someone to come to you, pick it up, drive it straight to where it's going, well, it'd be faster, but cost a ton more.

I don't care if my mail is still warm when they put it in my mailbox.

How much is same-day courier service though?
- Not just same day, same hour. That 1/3 cost comes with a 50x delay.

I think that if food delivery was treated how my last postal package was treated, then all food would be arriving as a soup, or maybe as a goulash.

You pay 30usd for the food delivery? In the UK it usually is few quid.
- It's all a racket here. The cost off the food is typically higher than the restaurants menu price, then there's an upcharged service fee, separate delivery fee, and tip. So, by the time you're done, you just paid double for that $12-15 item, and Uber eats is the worst of the bunch.
- We don't, unless it's alot of food. So much food in fact that the equivalent sized package would cost more than $10.50 for USPS to take 3+ days to deliver.
  I love USPS but this whole thread makes people look like they've been huffing markers all afternoon.
- Here is a real order from DoorDash recently. The post is exaggerating, but it is definitely a lot once you add all the cost of the fees and tip (spare me snide comments about American tipping culture and just view it as another weird fee we have to pay).
  
  If it's anything like bolt or uber, they take 30 percent from food price also (which is hidden from the final consumer)

And yet, it won't keep you from ordering food.
The issue is that there's still demand for it at that price.
- You know that product pitch, "if you sell just one to every person in the world you'll be a millionaire." Well, Uber eats is a similar approach, but they can sell a lot of food deliveries until the food arrives cold or it's the wrong order or the myriad problems food deliveries encounter.

Wow you could almost cook your own meals at home for that. But uh-oh, it would be inconvenient.

Sometimes, people really want their taco order to ride on its own private taxi.

Cooking, the lost art.

Er do people actually pay that high of fees for Uber eats? Maybe in NYC or something? I don't really use it if I can help it but I've never seen fees that high.
- I've had high fees but things are hidden, like, increased prices, tips, fees and stuff? I got my license last year so now I can drive on my own to get stuff but being in the burbs without transport in these poorly designed towns blows.

Well one is a service and one is a business so...

And yet you still keep ordering.
- Well I deleted my Uber account ages ago so, no.
  
  Oh that was more of a royal you instead of the singular

The post office looks cheap because they get paid to deliver those 300 pieces of junk per week.

I honesty don’t understand how they are still a service. Who pays for that?
- From personal experience living with a roommate that makes good money... People that can't cook, but have good money.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_mile_(transportation)

A letter doesn’t cost as much as overpriced food.

75 cents a mile is the actual cost of driving a car.
- Good thing the standard payout is $0.655/mi.

And guess which one gets paid more.

It's a service offered in exchange for currency. No one is forcing anyone to request food delivery service over Uber or whatever. It's pure and simple convenience
The other is a state service, which might surprise some but manages quite a lot of citizens private information. Certainly nothing as banal as food

One is an essential service paid for mostly by the government, another is a profit-focused, privately owned company used to enrich the owners and pay the minimum amount to employees.

Imagine not making new emails to get the new customer discount

No disrespect for the delivery people, but these apps need to tone the fuck down.

The main delivery app in my country has a section for places that currently have no delivery fees, and often have deals like 20% off your order ontop of that. I don't order often at all, but I always use that when I do.

One is a service paid for with tax money, the other a for-profit business.
Wonder if the postal service could be for profit somehow, seems like a lost opportunity
- In North America, USPS and Canada Post both are solely self funded. They are not (ordinarily) funded through tax money. USPS has had bailouts, but that’s not really different from a for profit company, sadly.
  
  Crazy, our postal office is tax funded
- UPS and FedEx cost the same though.
  
  They don't unless you have a good contract with them and even then it's dependent on zones and package size.
  Fun fact: USPS acknowledges that our US territories are domestic while UPS and FedEx treat them as international. So its a little more of a chore and cost to ship to Puerto Rico and the like through anyone but USPS from the 50 states.

In essence this is Socialism vs Capitalism.

I mean, the one on the left side is subsidized?
- It's not
- No, ironically the one on the right was running at a loss for ages. If you were the only driver in a town, you could get UberEats to pay you to deliver food to yourself.
- It used to be, but it isn't anymore.
- Even if it is, private companies cost the same