“The Post Office is one of the very few constitutional things the Feds actually engage in. It was meant to be subsidized from day one.”
There is no constitutional guarantee that every citizen has a post office conveniently located around the corner. In case you don’t believe that, have a look:
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html
If the gentleman is perturbed about the nearest post office closing then he has a number of options available to him - he can switch his mail to online delivery, he can suck it up and go for a 10 mile drive (the horror!) or he can move to a community which has much greater mail traffic. I will not tolerate my tax dollars be blown on maintaining folks’ lifestyles.
That's your strawman. You wrestle him by yourself.
I will not tolerate my tax dollars be blown on maintaining folks’ lifestyles.
"Blown" is subjective. But taxes, that's what they do. They maintain lifestyles that are generally agreed upon by society that they wouldn't get through the market.
This isn't an anarcho-capitalist site.
Fine with me. Consider that the people served by these offices will be driving considerably more and that will affect the price of fuel.
Pay your gasoline dollars, then.
Increase the overhead for the ranch/farm, and you'll pick up the cost down the line, too.
The tax dollars you should worry about go to people who aren't producing anything except more non-producers, not on some Constitutionally authorized expenditure.