>>The Post Office is a monopoly! A government mandated and operated monopoly. They do not compete with FedEx/UPS in standard delivery because they are a federally mandated and maintained monopoly.
>
>Wrong. If the private services were allowed to do regular mail, the USPS would have more problems because the private services would be allowed to skim the easy stuff (like they're doing now) while the USPS would still have the mandate to provide delivery everywhere. (I remember seeing a piece on TV about mail delivery to people living in the Grand Canyon.)

What exactly is wrong? The USPS is a monopoly.

>Why do we allow the private sector to get the cream while the public sector has to handle the hard stuff, and then complain because the public sector can't make money doing the hard stuff?

Why should the general public be forced to subsidize the mail delivery of people who choose to live in difficult to reach locations? They pay more for everything else that is delivered, gas, food etc. If I choose to live on the west shore of Lake Tahoe I expect to pay around $0.20/gallon for gas than Sacramento and $0.30/gallon than Reno. Why should mail have a special subsidy?

>Tamar