Things that are like sand in the shoes of life
First of all, I think the Post Office does an excellent job – where else can you pay someone less than 50 cents to take a letter to California from Boston?
Second, why doesn’t junk mail pay full price to have someone deliver their mail? It would solve 2 problems: Get rid of unwanted junk mail and add money to the Post Office.
Third, there are some services that aren’t meant to make money, we pay taxes to provide services: example, trains and commuter rail, the post office, the IRS, etc.
Go to your local “warehouse club” and you’ll pay a low price for a big “bulk pack” of cookies, soap, or whatever. Direct mailers get a discount because they buy postal service in bulk.
If you go to the store and buy produce that’s been washed, packed, and weighed in a nice package — and you’ll pay full price. Pick your produce off the farmer’s field, weigh it on your scale, pack it in your box, and you can often pay less. Direct mailers print, weigh, sort, pack,and deliver mail to the USPS in ready-to-go condition with all of the inbound sorting done. That’s why they pay less, too.
As for taxes, no taxes have gone to the USPS for decades and decades now. However, most of the restrictions placed on the USPS by Congress are still around.
Erik:
Perhaps, I’ve misread the Post Office Quarterly Report (http://www.usps.com/financials/_pdf/Quarter_II_FY10_10Q_Final.pdf) but it seems they do get between $85-225 million dollars which they definitely use pretty wisely.
Also, the Post Office is only of the only organizations authorized by the Constitutions thus restrictions.
