Weena wrote:
USPS is fine so long as it's break even or better. Because that means... wait for it... it's paid for by those using it.
There also isn't an explicit or side-effect monopoly. I'm not required to use USPS if I do want to mail or ship something.
The question is: Does USPS break even?
Quote:
It's an obligation of government.
I disagree.
Actually you are. FedEx/UPS have license to ship packages, and courier service can do 1:1 shipments, but the USPS has a legal monopoly on mail service for damn good reasons.
It's most definitely a responsibility of government and has been since the Bronze Age. Nothing has changed. Do you want a private company that can do whatever they want, whenever they want, accountable to no one but their shareholders having power over your mail? What if someone doesn't like you and opens your mail or redirects it? What if they decide they don't want to do coverage to your area because they don't think it's worthwhile? What if they decide they're "okay" with losing 5% of your mail? What are you going to do, who are you going to appeal to?
Postal service, like the military, is run by the state because even if you don't need the police, or firefighters, or the justice system, or anything else, right here, right now, it is in our collective interest that those things so important to our way of life be within reach of political and legal accountability. That is what constitutional government is all about.
If those things become private then you will see just how bad it is living in a world where "whoever has the gold makes the rules".
And if you think "the market will fix it", in the exhibit corner we have the video game industry, Comcast, gas prices, the airline industry, healthcare costs, and everything else the "free market" doesn't fix, blaming regulation all the while operating in one of the least regulated environments in the civilized world.
But what this is really all about is the greed and arrogance of the American people. The fact that the USPS has done its job, reasonably well, better than most things in our society or the world at large, for over a century now, JUST ISN'T ENOUGH for some people. It's NEVER enough. We always have to have more, cheaper, better. That is what is dragging this country down.