The Post Office

that needs to happen, as well.

 

The USPS has a large liability the other carriers don't--they are required by law to deliver to every US citizen the same sized parcel at the same price.

It's probably extremely cost-efficient to have a postal carrier deliver mail to an apartment complex in New York City. 3000 stamps delivered to a single location will cover a lot of overhead. Huge economies of scale.

It's when they have to deliver a single stamped envelope to Rural Route 79 in Bumfuck, Red State, is when they are fucked. They lose shocking amounts of money on every delivery.

UPS and FedEx adjust their rates based on profitability. USPS can do this to a small extent, but for the vast majority of the parcels they handle they are required by law to charge a ridiculously low flat fee.

 

My solutions:
1. Allow UPS/Fedex to deliver to mail boxes/po boxes. That's just a retarded, inconvenient, anti-competitive law.
2. Allow USPS to establish separate pricing for rural vs urban vs suburban delivery.
3. Reduce number of days delivered, especially in rural areas.
4. Allow USPS to charge for non-delivery of junk mail. Basically junk mail right now subsidizes all their other mail. The USPS absolutely needs it. So why not allow the end consumer subscribe, for say $9/year or whatever, to a service that ensures you get absolutely no junk mail.

 

It probably is. But why? I mean, other than it being a regulation. Why should rural postal delivery be subsidized by urban delivery? A smarter way to run this would be to make the pricing of each reflect the true cost of each.

If you choose to live in rural America, what is so magical about you that allows you to get a cut-rate deal on postal delivery? The current system makes about as much sense as if the government subsidized gas prices in rural areas and charged an added tax in urban areas. You know, because people in rural areas have to drive farther, so government (and people living in cities) should subsidize that. It's absurd.

If you wish to enjoy the benefit of rural living, you (and not somebody living in NYC) should pay the price for it.

 

The inside workers at Fed-Ex are non-union, as well.

As for UPS, the part timers are gauranteed 3.5 and full-time gauranteed 8. But, they ALWAYS go over. Most package car drivers work 10 hour days on a regular basis and up to 12 hours during peak season. I've been with UPS over 5 years, its a great company to work for with everything it has to offer. I'm about a year out from being a package car driver.

 

So how come when we ship a 5lb product to Miami via USPS the postal service charges us (and we therefore charge the customer) twice as much as when we ship it to Utah? Isn't that also a violation of the clause by the same reasoning?

They engage in price discrimination right now, just not on standard first class mail.

 

I don't actually disagree with you, but would you support the same logic applied to government healthcare?

 

How so? Do you mean paying the exact same amount per patient Medicare in Wyoming as in Atlanta? That might mean there's only a part-time clinic in Wyoming, but a massive medical center in Miami?

I suppose that seems reasonable. Such health care delivery would encourage, say, the elderly to concentrate themselves closer to get better health care for their needs. Which is more efficient. Grandma can take her chances in Cheyenne and enjoy the rural life for as long as it lasts, or move to Miami and probably live longer (but maybe not exactly how she'd prefer).