This is the 1% of the time I disagree with Dr. Sowell.
The founders, in establishing a postal service with uniform rates, recognized that there were certain benefits in encouraging its citizens to live in remote areas and, as such, minor subsidies (such as mail service) were not only permissible, but necessary.
People who live in remote areas provide valuable public benefits such as promoting road and infrastructure maintenance, services to travelers, a first alert system against invading armies or natural disasters and economic enterprises which provide food, fiber and natural resources to population centers. As such, minor subsidies such as a universal postal system, is necessary to tie them to the rest of the country.
This isn't to say that certain modifications to keep up with modernity aren't necessary. For example, ownership of motor vehicles is almost universal today and, as such, people living in remote ranches could be provided with post office boxes in a contract substation which they normally visit rather than right to their driveway.
FedEx, UPS or even a new startup company could bid for delivery sublicenses in a given area where it was profitable with subsidies to support delivery in other areas where it was not.
This way, the standard nationwide rate and universal service can be achieved with competition putting a downward pressure on rising costs rather than having a labor cartel (the postal union) working hand-in-glove with a government mandated monopoly to increase costs and resist reforms.
At present, nobody in the public wants to yield anything because the government monopoly-union labor cartel alliance won't yield anything to get the process started.
What may be needed is to reinstate the Postmaster General position as a cabinet level post and abolish or merge some of the money sucking minimally beneficial newer cabinet posts such as education, energy and homeland security theater.
Be provided with?
At whose expense? When I lived in the stix where the USPS
would not deliver mail I had to rent a PO box in town at my own expense. Its only fair that those who choose to live
off the grid ante up for a box.
Those days have long passed. People have communications now essentially no matter where they live, post office or not post office. In those days it was the only means of long distance communications and was essential - communications is still essential, but the post office no longer provides it.