Does it matter? They would only pay taxes on profits. If they were losing money, it wouldn't change anything. If they were making money, they'd just make slightly less.
There's no question that FedEx doesn't even want first class mail. Nobody does, because it's not designed to be profitable. A private service would not be obligated to deliver mail all over the country, no matter how inefficient or how few people live in a town - and thus, they wouldn't because it's a huge money loser to have a post office in a town of 500 people in middle of nowhere. The USPS is so inefficient in large part because of the mandate they are given by Congress to serve everyone. That's the nature of government vs business - it wasn't designed primarily to be profitable, but to serve all of its citizens.
While on the surface, I might agree. Without competition, innovation does not occur. Take a look at Google and look at the many products they offer free. Im certainly not advocating that we allow competition in postal delivery as its just too important to allow it to fail, but innovation is also needed.
I agree that USPS isn't innovative - but I'm not sure it's really meant to be. I think that's the role of UPS/FedEx/etc. USPS is just supposed to provide a minimum baseline of service such that all people in the country have access to mail. They could certainly do a better job, and things like Priority Mail are the result of competition with FedEx/etc. But unless FedEx/etc plan to open FedEx Post Offices all over the country and deliver mail to everyone's homes, I'm not sure it's going to result in much innovation in the basic USPS first class mail service. With the decline in mail volumes due to email and e-billing, it's not a growth industry that I would think private companies would want to get involved in - and with the infrastructure they would need to built, I can't imagine them being willing/able to deliver a letter from a rural town in Alaska to a rural town in Hawaii for under $0.50.
So this is about the third time where I checked the delivery confirmation on a particular order and said it was delivered to my mailbox but never was... I can dispute the guy but he'll use the excuse that he shipped it to the right address using the tracking system which I think he manipulated it and either sent it to another house on purpose or took it himself... Sick and tired of this bullsh!t...
Ooh goody, are we complaining about the post office? Let me, let me! When I moved to Claremont to start my PhD program, I shipped a couple of big boxes of books USPS. Two of them apparently popped open on the truck or something. Problem was, there were apparently boxes of other people's books that popped open as well, because when I received the boxes, not only were there seven or eight of my books missing, but there were also three books in the boxes that weren't mine. So apparently the postal worker just took blind guesses in re-packing them. Thanks, guys. It was only my copy of Whitehead's Process and Reality with all my notes. It wasn't like it was important or anything -- Whitehead's only my primary research focus. Grrrr.
I'm in the minority I guess, but I have no complaints about the post office. They are the cheapest, and my mail always gets there in a reasonable time. Outside of holidays, I don't find it overly crowded, though I use online postage or the kiosk more often than not.
Signature Confirmation is always on option. Just like you pay a little more for Delivery Confirmation, the same is true for Signature Confirmation.
Your not in the minority!!! If you think about it the mail service we recieve in this counrty is leaps and bounds better then any other mail service in the world. For under .50 you can send a letter anywhere in the U.S. That's a bargin compared to the rest of the world. Now I know most of us here are computer savy and have no problem paying bills on-line but there is a portion of the population who still uses the Postal Service to send letters, pay bills, etc. I would not be so anxious for a privitized postal service. You can expect alot higher prices and a good portion rural US would see there service go way down. You ever heard the expression....."you don't miss it till it's gone". And I know The USPS is an easy target but believe me UPS and FedEx make just as many mistakes as the USPS. It just seem like more from the USPS because they handle more volume then UPS and FedEx combined. There has only been one perfect person to ever walk the face of earth and I doubt your mailman is him....so give'em a break ever now and then.
I love the Postal Service. I enjoy going to the Post Office. I hope they hire more workers and open more Post Offices. They should also give everyone a raise. Now, does anyone know where I can find some stamps?
