In a free market, any business that loses productivity and efficiency but increases prices, will not stay in business. Precisely why the gubment makes no effort, they know they don't have to. They lose mail, they deliver it to the wrong house, and as you said, they make little to no effort to fix their issues when brought to their attention. In any other business, it would not last.
What do you think UPS or FED-EX would charge to handle a first-class letter. I'm guessing a hell of a lot more than 49 cents. You know, the Postal Service receives NO tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. It's to a regular government agency any more. And yet they stay in business and deliver service at a fraction of the costs of the private services, even with parcels. The decline in first-class mail service due to email does make it difficult of them to pay the government the $5.5 Billion they receive annually to pay for Postal pensions. So changes will continue. They are saddled with Civil Service employee regulations and it is hard to fire anybody without jumping through a lot of hoops, but I suspect that will change over time as the USPS is gradually privatised. They are saddled with Congress forcing them keep open tiny post offices in every tiny village the country, whereas UPS and Fed-Ex cover large territories from far fewer central locations. This will also have to change, but it will take Congress bucking its constituents who feel like they should have a full-service Post office everywhere.
Probably so. Although economies of scale would likely allow them to charge less than you might think and of course they provide superior levels of technology and service compared to the USPS. I rarely use the regular mail anymore anyway. So much business can be handled online. On any given day, I simply go to the mailbox to remove all the junk mail, coupon crap that I didn't ask for. They do a great job of delivering that. And yet they never attempt to make improvements or increase operational efficiency other than cutting service. Just "staying in business" isn't enough IMO. Imagine a company with that as their slogan. What UPS and FedEx have said they plan to do is create a tiered level of service whereby the top tier will get a package to your door, the lower tier will get a package delivered to a regional center where you can go pick it up.
You are lucky.. There are still a few areas that have the mailboxes attached to the houses and the carrier walks the route. I was a a friend's house recently in the Delgado area and the walking mailman was a white man in his early 20's, ironically about the same age I was when I took the postal test. He must have had some powerful connections to get the job. Where I live the mailboxes are on poles on the side of the road and the carrier drives up and puts the mail in the box so you don't ever get to know them like you do in your 'hood. My mailbox is on a wooden stand that also has the mailboxes of my next door neighbor and for the house across the street. I have to check all three boxes every day because as often as not the carrier has mixed up the mail and put it in the wrong box. There is a house on a street about two blocks away that has the same house number address as mine. Several times a year I get mail that is addressed to them. A couple of month ago I got a letter address to somebody on Eugene Street which is a lot closer to where you live than where I live. The address numbers were not even close to mine. There have be a number of times when I never got important mail, including checks. Once I mailed a check for a bill (I pay all my bills online now) to an address in Dallas. The letter ended up in Scotland. I only know that because I got a letter from the nice people in Scotland telling me they got it and remailed it to the correct address. Yes, it still only costs 49 cents to mail a letter. You get what you pay for. On the rare occasions when I have to send a physical document anywhere I use FedEx or UPS. The USPS slogan should be "When it absolutely positively has to be there on time, Faggeddaboutit."
Do they come to my porch without fail every day to pick up anything I wish to leave? Nope. Junk mail is what subsidies your 49-cent letters, not tax dollars. What could be more free-market? I just toss it into the recycle bin, grateful that they subsidize my postage. If you don't want mail, you can always remove your mailbox and tell the post office to stop delivering mail to you. It is a free country. But why should anybody refuse a cheap and dependable service like that? Hell the USPS delivers packages from UPS to me including Saturdays and Sundays, which UPS will not. They use the USPS because they can be cheaper for local deliveries. You mean, like than making deliveries for parcel companies, adding thousands of automated kiosks, online postage you can print yourself, intelligent trackable mail, or an online service that allows business mailers to reach customers by neighborhood, city or ZIPcode? All of that has happened. And they are still merging of all the tiny rural post offices that Congress will allow. It's a non-profit organization. That's what they do. And we don't have to pay corporate profits just to mail a letter. Don't forget the Parcel Select tier, where both UPS and FedEx utilize the Postal Service for 2 to 7 day local deliveries. Because it is the most cost-effective way that they can deliver. Amazon and Ebay have huge arrangements with the Postal Service for quick delivery of packages. Things do change and evolve.
