[Mooncatt]

I just heard about this app called Open the Books.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...e.openthebooks

Looks to be interesting and the goal of this group is to make easily accessible every publicly listed government (including state and local) expense for increased transparency. From the interview, it sounds like this is still a work in progress. I.e. California apparently flat refused to provide them access to any of their spending records, even when a FOIA request was used, without giving any reason for the denial.

I've been tinkering around with it. Some interesting numbers for my area, but I haven't seen anything really pop out at me yet. I think part of that is it doesn't list why some group got paid or what certain contracts were for. It simply lists who got what money, and how the money was classified. It does also provide access to the salaries/wages of every federal employee. In that, I did notice it looks like letter carriers for the post office make pretty dang good money in my area.

I figured I'd throw it out here in the politics section since the app is about government spending, and see if anyone else discovers some noteworthy numbers or what they think is wasteful spending.

[palandri]

... I did notice it looks like letter carriers for the post office make pretty dang good money in my area....

Maybe they should privatize the Post Office. A private corporation could come out to Chicago and hire people from Anytime Day Labor at $8 an hour. Make them provide their own transportation for letter delivery and make a profit. That's what America is all about.

Of course, this will hurt McDonald's, since their workers may just abandon ship for the higher wages, but that's what America is all about, competition.

...or maybe the private corporation could petition the U.S. Department of Labor and have Letter Carriers added to the tipped employee classification. Then the private corporation would only have to pay the Letter Carriers $2.13 an hour.

[Mooncatt]

You know, I probably wouldn't mind them being paid so much if I could trust that my mail won't get lost. It's a massive problem for me, both incoming and outgoing mail. I use FedEx or UPS when feasible, but that's not always an option.

[palandri]

You know, I probably wouldn't mind them being paid so much if I could trust that my mail won't get lost. It's a massive problem for me, both incoming and outgoing mail. I use FedEx or UPS when feasible, but that's not always an option.

There are published studies on USPS performance and it's quite good.

Service Performance Results

[Timelessblur]

You know, I probably wouldn't mind them being paid so much if I could trust that my mail won't get lost. It's a massive problem for me, both incoming and outgoing mail. I use FedEx or UPS when feasible, but that's not always an option.

usps has a better delivery rate and fewer loss packages per 1000 than the private guys by a healthy margin. All while being cheaper.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Mooncatt]

I've had the USPS loose things from an entire stack of two dozen outgoing birthday party invites and bills, to incoming tax forms and court papers. So we're talking serious stuff (for a toddler, a birthday party IS serious business). I don't know what it is about our area, but our offices and tracking info are a joke.

[Timelessblur]

I've had the USPS loose things from an entire stack of two dozen outgoing birthday party invites and bills, to incoming tax forms and court papers. So we're talking serious stuff (for a toddler, a birthday party IS serious business). I don't know what it is about our area, but our offices and tracking info are a joke.

Me usps has been by far the best. Ups ship stuff and deliver stuff not only to the wrong address but wrong state and city. Fed ex just lost stuff.
Usps I have shipped the most with and only lost one item and it was a letter. I was expecting and even then it could of been on my end where it got misplaced.

Ups by far the worse usps the best.

Sounds like your area is not normal.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Mooncatt]

Sounds like your area is not normal.

I live in Wisconsin, so you could very well be right about that. :beer::beer::beer: