[Dr. Sivana]

and one of those sets was subsidized by the fedgov?

Te USPS has not been directly subsidized in many years. That's one reason why they keep on raising rates.

You could say they are indirectly subsidized because they are granted a monopoly on not urgent letter mail.

In other ways, they have the worst of both worlds. They have to pay, through our postage, for a bunch of remote rinky dink post offices, pensions from the subsidized era in an era of declining mail volume, special rates for media mail and blind postage that have to be made up for by other classes, franked mail from congress-critters, delivery to AK, HI, APO and a number of far-flung territories for the same 42 cents, and other impositions that FedEx and UPS don't have to deal with.

Frankly, I think they do a pretty good job. If you ever tried to mail a letter to, say Italy, they do an excellent job by comparison.

[litehaus]

"In other ways, they have the worst of both worlds. They have to pay, through our postage, for a bunch of remote rinky dink post offices, pensions from the subsidized era in an era of declining mail volume, special rates for media mail and blind postage that have to be made up for by other classes, franked mail from congress-critters, delivery to AK, HI, APO and a number of far-flung territories for the same 42 cents, and other impositions that FedEx and UPS don't have to deal with."

Sorta like AMTRAK, Huh ???

[muawiyah]

Just a minor correction ~ the Private Express Statutes give the Postal Service a monopoly on LETTERS, not just non-urgent letter mail.

The statutes also provide for exceptions ~ permanent ones in fact ~ for instance, checks.

In this way the Congress did not give an inch on its right to control the mails.