re: #362 PT Barnum

I wonder what postage rates would be if we turned the whole thing over to UPS and Fed Ex?

I would suspect that most people would be screaming to have the post office back in short order. Think of how much yelling went on when the PO floated a trial balloon about discontinuing Saturday service?

They scream because they have no other choice. I can stop by a Kinkos or (former) Mailbox Etc on a Saturday and conduct my business with them. The reason they want to drop Saturdays is that people are finding ways to do business without the post office and they are losing money faster than ever.

I also think there might be more unintended consequences in that the cost of mailing something would start reflecting where it was being mailed. It’s costs a lot more to deliver mail to rural america than it does urban america, in that you are moving fewer pieces at one time.

What’s wrong with charging more for delivering to more expensive places? I conveniently receive mail every day that I check every couple weeks—I’m a bit lazy that way. Have I ever received anything by mail that I couldn’t wait for, or that I couldn’t deal with electronically (in the past few years, anyway)? If you live out in the sticks, I bet you have to drive to town once a week to pick up your groceries. Why not pick up your mail at the in town PO box at the same time?

So under what model would private enterprise be able to provide service at a price that wouldn’t have a severely negative impact on the economy?

You assume the post office has anything to do with the economy these days. It no longer does.