If everyone used the post office to send each other first class letters instead of sending emails or text messages, the post office might even break even. My neighborhood letter carrier told me that about 85% of his mail volume is bulk rate junk mail. As he put it, “Without the junk mail I wouldn’t have a job”. And bulk mail rates are way lower than first class.
Time to just disband the post office. Person to person communications have moved on to other technologies. Want to send something physical? Then pay FedEx, UPS, or someone else to deliver it. Delivering “thoughts” via email is cheap. Delivering real tangible stuff isn’t.
It’s my understanding that the junk mail is highly profitable. Bulk mail doesn’t only cost less to send — it also costs the post office a lot less to deliver. For one thing, no sorting is necessary.
There’s also a limit on what the post office can charge to deliver bulk mail. Inserts in newspapers — especially “free” community papers are an alternative service. That’s pretty stiff competition. The newspapers deliver these inserts (a major component of bulk mail) profitably; or they wouldn’t be doing it.