The difference is that, although the Postal Service is technically a private business, its income doesn't cover all its costs — and taxpayers are on the hook for the difference.
I am as great an admirer of Dr Sowell as anyone else, and I agree that he, or one of many exceptional men should have been our first Black president. That special label has been stained irretrievably.
But I am surprised that prof. Sowell is unaware that the U.S. Postal Service was intended as a political privilege since its inception, cost no object. That includes franking propaganda as well as eternal reelection campaigns. That other "deserving" non-government entities jumped on the freebie wagon is no great surprise, such that the "constituency" is now gigantic.
Bottom line, its original purpose of essential communications for a huge new dynamic expanding country is even more obsolete than its contemporary, the buggy whip.
The history of the USPS is open for all to become informed. Just buy and read this small book...
The USPS is not the biggest drain on the US treasury, but a significant and unnecessary one.
It should be abolished.
Imagine a world without junk mail. Imagine the magnitude of the reduced waste.