I think competition explains a lot of it. Using USPS instead of UPS or Fedex is a free-market choice, but I don’t have much choice where to get electricity for my home or where to get a driver’s license after moving to a new state.
Letter delivery is a legally protected monopoly (whereas package delivery and courier services are not), so there’s only some competition argument here.
I think the basic motivation is like the Obamacare mandate; the USPS is obligated to serve all customers, even if pretty remote, and so overcharge cheap within-city deliveries in order to subsidize distant deliveries. If you let discount private mail-delivery services compete, they would charge accurate prices for the cheap bits and not do the expensive bits, causing a lemons problem.
Except most people use email, SMS and various social media tools, and simply use phone services (for instances various IP-based cheap services or free calling via Skype, Messenger or Viber and others) for what first class letters used to be used for.
Legal documents can use the non-USPS carrier services or email PFD documents (or use one of the online secure tools for signing).
I would add, that while I still have to stand in line at the DMV (the very few times I need to be there) the service has gotten a lot better than say 20 years ago—both in terms of just attitude and time—and it offers an online service for a number of things as well.
Yes, a lot of the US policy and regulatory space has to balance the rural-urban mix and given the size of the country that probably means higher costs relative to most European settings.
I think competition explains a lot of it. Using USPS instead of UPS or Fedex is a free-market choice, but I don’t have much choice where to get electricity for my home or where to get a driver’s license after moving to a new state.
Letter delivery is a legally protected monopoly (whereas package delivery and courier services are not), so there’s only some competition argument here.
I think the basic motivation is like the Obamacare mandate; the USPS is obligated to serve all customers, even if pretty remote, and so overcharge cheap within-city deliveries in order to subsidize distant deliveries. If you let discount private mail-delivery services compete, they would charge accurate prices for the cheap bits and not do the expensive bits, causing a lemons problem.
Except most people use email, SMS and various social media tools, and simply use phone services (for instances various IP-based cheap services or free calling via Skype, Messenger or Viber and others) for what first class letters used to be used for.
Legal documents can use the non-USPS carrier services or email PFD documents (or use one of the online secure tools for signing).
I would add, that while I still have to stand in line at the DMV (the very few times I need to be there) the service has gotten a lot better than say 20 years ago—both in terms of just attitude and time—and it offers an online service for a number of things as well.
Yes, a lot of the US policy and regulatory space has to balance the rural-urban mix and given the size of the country that probably means higher costs relative to most European settings.