Government Thugs Are Coming to Close Your Post Office!

The United States Postal Service. Is it an efficient example of government management at its finest or a leech sucking on the taxpayers teat? The whole debate has gotten rather pedestrian.

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Since 1971 after the passage of the Postal Reorganization Act it has not received taxpayer dollars with minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with disabled and overseas voters. It pays its bills out of operational revenue, meaning the products and services it sells. It does have a monopoly on first class service, but must compete on package delivery and expedited service, and it cannot raise rates anytime it wishes, as UPS and FedEx have the freedom to do. It cannot impose 'fuel surcharges', as both of the private companies did in 2008 when gas skyrocketed to $4 a gallon. It must receive approval from the Postal Rate Commission, in a long and tedious process, before any rate changes can go into effect. 
The US Postal Service also essentially subsidize private companies like UPS and Fed Ex because these guys do not deliver directly in rural areas. They deliver to central post offices, which then deliver in rural areas. It subsidizes rural service so that these areas can be served. It's why the postal service loses since it must charge a uniform rate and must serve high cost areas.

The problem with the USPS is the same as Amtrak, it isn't profitable to run in rural areas that have few customers. There was a time when the post office delivered multiple times a day in cities and towns. The USPS should have adjusted their pricing to match the cost of delivering a letter to different areas of the country, like telephone service before. 

To wrap things up, this is how I would handle it:

1) Triple the cost of bulk mail/junk mail that you charge advertisers
2) Reduce costs to everything else to be cheaper than UPS/FedEx
3) Offer more options like insurance and tracking for cheaper
4) Offer bigger bulk discounts to businesses to get them to use you instead of UPS/FedEx
5) PROFIT! (or, "keep your jobs and retirement")

Here's what you don't do: The same thing you have been doing.

Sincerely,
~Me