Good morning, Pat. The USPS is the deliverer of last resort. By law, it must provide service to everyone no matter where they live. UPS and FedEx can drop packages into the USPS rather than spend money to deliver to these costly, distant, rural destinations. It is cheaper for UPS and FedEx who are, in effect, being subsidized by the USPS (read taxpayer). The USPS loses money on every delivery. It must change.
First class mail is declining due to the internet, electronic bill payment, etc. The USPS must come up with replacement revenue thru increased rates, new services, etc. and greater efficiency. And remember that the US population is rapidly increasing. We had 281 million people in 2000 and will be over 330 million this year, i.e., close to 50 million increase.
Yeah, my rural subdivision would be screwed without USPS and we are packed compared to real rural areas. However I would point out that the sorting machines which are in the news have been centralized. Our local mail is sorted 50 miles away in a giant sorting center. If you go to the local PO and hand them a local letter, it will get sent 50 miles on the truck to the sorting center. There all items will be sorted by route and bundled by box (house). Then the carrier just drops each bundle into each box without any hand sorting. Very efficient use of employees.
In contrast, as you imply, package handling by the USPS is terribly inefficient and unproductive, yet they charge very litle for it.