The demise of snail mail

Or sell it off?
USPS is another business. The Fed uses it as an employment nursery.
It really sux when your laid off from the postal service..

I really do not see this, as commented on with examples above.
A study by anybody else but the USPS or government groups may get my attention.

Never thought about this before and you have a great point here.
Maybe time to raise these rates. By tons of similar and non-essential mail fee.

Why would you raise the rates on the profitable business. Seems you would raise the rates on the non profitable instead, first class postage.

Profitable business or less lose of income with these mailings.
Trucks of junk mail moved for pennies per ton makes me wonder.
Are there any real number$ available for USPS profits, losses and expenses?

Did Ben Franklin for-see the junk that the USPS would be moving these days?

junk mail is the only thing they make money on. Nobody ships priority mail anymore because it gets lost or takes two weeks.

USPS Financials.
All in billions

Revenues 2020
-First class 23,778
-Marketing mail 13,909
-Shipping and packages 28,537
-Other 6,899
Total 73,123

Now in 2020, the marketing mail was down from 16,359 in 2019 while shipping and packages was up from 22,783 so a huge shift in business.

Net loss was $9.176 billion versus $8.813 billion in 2019.

It's difficult to separate elements of profit and loss. For instance, the incremental cost of marketing mail is very little since they are already delivering to all those homes. What one can prove, given detailed finances is that first class mail costs considerably more than charged for, at least 50% more. If the first class charge was the same as the next cheapest country, it would be profitable. First class mail in the US is $0.55 while the next cheapest countries, Estonia, Portugal and Spain are around $0.80. Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, Slovakia and Romania are between $0.90 and $1. Most countries are between $1 and $1.20 with Denmark, Finland, and Italy all above $3.00.

Thank you for the numbers.
Given these numbers and compares, why has not adjustments been made to be profitable?
If USPS was sold off, could it be made profitable? Maybe not an employee nursery would help?

Congress has refused to allow changes to be made and then the most recent head of the Post Office was all political and had no management skills.
If it was sold and allowed to pick and choose what it offered and raise prices, it could be profitable, but then if it was allowed to raise prices and reduce some services, it could be profitable without a sale.

They have to cut down on some services as mentioned like saturday delivery and possibly cut one day like wed.

personally I don’t even remember the last time I mailed something out. All payments, personal or for the boat, are electronic incl PayPal and Zelle... so no check writing and mailing. All bills and all paperwork comes by email. Heck thru could even cut deliveries to Mon Wed fri and few would notice. That would drastically cut costs. But it would also cut jobs so this isn’t happening...

And every lost amazon delivery I ve had, has been when they use USPS which thankfully is pretty rare.

I disagree. By volume and weight the mail I receive is 90% crap that goes straight into the recycling bin. (Yeah, that's another story). There's a cost to hauling all that weight. Bigger trucks, more miles, more square footage in the facilities, more man hours and so on. My vote would be to price ALL mail at an appropriate rate, this would reduce volume and we would be left with a sustainable model.

Your junk mail is easy. It's handled as one piece and it's only once a week. It all goes to places they have to deliver to anyway. It requires a little work and space in the sort facility but virtually nothing on the route. It's sorted before ever reaching the post office. Pays generously compared to the work, definitely profitable compared to first class. If first class didn't exist then direct mail would be cost prohibitive.

The only mail not being priced at an appropriate rate is first class mail, one piece at a time.

There is about to be a huge shakeup in the delivery business as Amazon pulls their business from FedEx and UPS, etc. Their trucks have been disappearing from the roads here on L.I. as more and more gray Amazon trucks appear. How long before they undercut the competition's prices to take their other customer's business. Who owns FedEx, UPS, Amazon and the rest of the delivery services and who do they owe their loyalties to? I know who owns the USPS; My country. I also know who they pay salaries to; Americans. We gave up our manufacturing abilities to other countries. What happens if we also give up our ability to deliver what we need?
Electric vehicles are the future. Does anybody think they can stop that from happening? If the electric grids have trouble handling that then here's a simple cure: Cut off power to marinas since they only serve non-essential toys. Or just triple the costs to them since people who can afford million dollar toys could certainly afford to pay more for the electricity they burn.

No... our country doesn’t own the USPS. The politicians who get donation from the unions own the USPS and are in charge.

as to your socialist rant... there are 600+ boats in my marina, out of which no more than 6 are worth over a million dollars. The rest are owned by hard working people who enjoy being out on the water with their family ot with their buddies finishing.

I guess you forget how many people make a living because of people who can afford expensive toys. Didnt you use to be one of them?

Some people are just too easy.

some retired old farts are so bored with their lives in winter.

And I just finished 8 hours of plowing snow around the homestead. So nope, not bored.