[quote name='UncleBob']
Aside from that, dohdough - you've mentioned that the USPS, as a private company, would be unable to survive if they had to provide service to small/rural areas. You've also pointed out that, without the government stepping in with this pre-payment into the pension system, the USPS would actually have made money these previous years. I'm curious how that works - the USPS doesn't get tax money or any other real money from the government (although they do receive some special treatment via legal matters and such). What secret formula do they have that allows them to provide the services they do - at a profit - that a private company would be unable to do?[/QUOTE]
Assuming that the USPS could make a profit without he pension mess, I'd guess they'd still lose money in small rural areas, and just make enough in the more densely populated areas to offset that.
Problem with private businesses is who would want to run a private mail system in small rural area where they'd lose money? Private businesses are all about maximizing profits, so if mail went totally private you'd probably have a lot of rural areas not getting home delivery and having to pick up mail at some central location (like p.o. boxes).
Where as the USPS has a mandate to deliver mail pretty much everywhere regardless of whether they can make money in that area or not.
So the only way a private system would work would be to subsidize companies to deliver in non-profitable areas. So it's probably just best to keep the USPS and make whatever tweaks are needed to make the system at least break even every year.
Aside from that, dohdough - you've mentioned that the USPS, as a private company, would be unable to survive if they had to provide service to small/rural areas. You've also pointed out that, without the government stepping in with this pre-payment into the pension system, the USPS would actually have made money these previous years. I'm curious how that works - the USPS doesn't get tax money or any other real money from the government (although they do receive some special treatment via legal matters and such). What secret formula do they have that allows them to provide the services they do - at a profit - that a private company would be unable to do?[/QUOTE]
Assuming that the USPS could make a profit without he pension mess, I'd guess they'd still lose money in small rural areas, and just make enough in the more densely populated areas to offset that.
Problem with private businesses is who would want to run a private mail system in small rural area where they'd lose money? Private businesses are all about maximizing profits, so if mail went totally private you'd probably have a lot of rural areas not getting home delivery and having to pick up mail at some central location (like p.o. boxes).
Where as the USPS has a mandate to deliver mail pretty much everywhere regardless of whether they can make money in that area or not.
So the only way a private system would work would be to subsidize companies to deliver in non-profitable areas. So it's probably just best to keep the USPS and make whatever tweaks are needed to make the system at least break even every year.