The USPS has done a fairly effective job of self-destruction. I work for a utility company, and in the nearly seven years I've been there, I've seen the amount of misdelivered or late mail go up dramatically. Our company actively pushes people to use paperless means of getting and paying their bills, and I have to say, I don't blame them.

for instance, if the usps finds an old, undelivered letter the fell behind a machine years ago, it will proudly deliver the letter. they might even call the media. 40 year old letter finally delivered!

fedex or ups would sooner destroy it quietly so they can pretend that that couldn't possibly happen to them.

as a consumer, ups and fedex have botched deliveries intended for my house many times.
at my job, i've seem fedex and ups come to us trying to deliver stuff that clearly wasn't for us, it seems at least once a week.

First it is the only thing that delivers out here to my farm. Did you know that when you use UPS or Fed Ex, they give it to the US Post Office to deliver out here? Yup, UPS and Fed Ex use the post office to deliver and then turn around and charge You. So in affect they are taking credit for the US Post Office's work. So you probably are using the US Post Office a lot more than you realize and are giving the credit to some cheating corporation.

Also, The US Post Office is cheaper all around. If you are using UPS and Fed Ex you are spending more money for mail than you need to. That's why Fed Ex and UPS use the US Post Office because the US Post Office is Cheaper in price.

The US Post Office is banned by law from advertise their cheaper prices and from telling people that UPS and Fed Ex use them to deliver. The RepubliCONS put in those restrictions when they made the US Post Office pay 75 years in advance for all their employees health care. They didn't want the average Joe to know how inexpensive the US Post Office is or how overpriced both UPS and Fed Ex really are. Just another poison pill.

So if you get rid of the US Post Office who is going to deliver here in the rural areas? And you can bet UPS and Fed Ex will severely increase their prices because there would be NO Competition and no US Post Office to hand off packages to when the distance in rural areas becomes too cost prohibitive.

Corporatists who want to privatize everyhing hate that delivering mail is that important to democracy.

USPS have problems? Sure. But many of current ones, like leading to increased 1st class postage are a direct result of Congressional privateers forcing a very un-biz-like extended pension plan on them. No businessman would ever consider anything like it.

And BTW, doesn't UPS believe in competition?

they sell?

I know it sure as hell isn't a restaurant model, where drinks are wildly expensive compared to cost, and most of the cost of goods sold is in the paper cup and plastic lid, not the actual drink. If they tried to get that profit margin out of the food, no one would eat there.

There might be a few companies out there that do have equal profit margins, but they're probably in niche fields and few and far between. Almost ever business uses one segment of sales to 'subsidize' other segments. It's not illegal, it's not even unethical.

The post office has a monopoly on first class mail, so I do have a problem with them overcharging to subsidize other products.

As you said other companies may do it but they do not have a monopoly on their product.

The average person, especially those who can't easily get out of their houses, depend on the PO. They are the only company that picks up your package for free. UPS and FedEx charge $5.00 and up to pick up a package, and that's in the city. Try finding one to pick up a small package from a rural address.

Postal carriers are more than a person delivering mail. In some respects they have taken the place of the cop on the beat. They keep a territory for years and notice when something doesn't seem right.

When I ran my small company, I sent out thousands of packages, and only one got lost. They do a terrific job.

Z

Even more reason that they should not be padding sales on stamps to pay for other services. I'm sure lot of people would like to see the price of a stamp cut, if the post office is charging to much for stamps to subsidize other services.