Regarding the discussion about USPS and fedex/UPS, they are different beasts to some extent. While the mere fact that they exists and are so profitable is proof that the USPS is riddled with problems. But UPS and Fedex also don't have to deal with making deliveries to every single house everyday regardless if the mail is just a crappy flyer from the local Chinese take out place. Government agencies and commercial businesses also are driven by completely different factors. I personally would be worried if they moved regular mail deliver to the private sector without making sure the proper provisions and laws are put in place. Just by drawing a comparison to the digital realm, with all the crap ISPs with the internet, cable companies, and wireless provides put us through and how much they over charge, screw us over, are farther behind some other nations, not improving with technology because of current profit margins being so high provide them with no incentive to change, etc. I can see SOO many ways that could turn out to be a bad thing even if it saves the US some money in the short term. But done right, who knows, maybe it would be for the best
I agree with most of what you are saying here....
but...
USPS has already contracted out quite a bit of its mail service.. FedX is already moving hundreds of thousands of packages and parcels around the country for USPS... USPS got wise and found out that FedX can do it faster, and cheaper than they can internally.. so they awared them a $70B contract to do it for them....
Most of the military mail is now delivered by private firms... there are still a handful of postal units in the USAF.. and there might be a couple left in the navy.. but thats about it.... when you send a letter to "the troops".. whether they are in Afghanistan, Germany, or Korea... that letter or box ultimately gets handed off to someone that works for one of a number of different private firms.. who then conducts all the final processing, and makes sure it gets to the right person in uniform... when one of the troops sends a letter or a package home, the reverse is in effect.. he goes to a private company, that conducts all the initial processes.. everything from putting postage on the package, to inspecting its contents for customs violations, to sorting for initial distribution.. before handing it off to the post office for the final steps required to get it to your door..
Most of the mail carriers in rural America are not postal employees.. its independant contractors that are responsible for delivering the mail to individual homes outside of our metropolitan areas..
and most of the mail is moved from region to region by independant trucking companies that are hired by the post office to move the mail.. those guys are postal employees either.. but they are entrusted with getting your box or letter from Philly to Oakland, before USPS picks it back up again and sorts it for final distribution..
Your mail is already getting touched by dozens of people that are not postal employees.. laws are already in place to protect you and your mail...
Cant see that it would be all that difficult to move the rest of the people over to the private sector and just kill the beast that is the USPS.. the infrastructure is already in place, and is already both efficient and profitable..
whats killing USPS is the bureaucracy and inefficiency of the "rest" of the organization that moves your mail around (the government end)...
