Going Postal

The model is pretty simple, albeit a little old-fashioned as a way of providing public services. Rather than having taxpayers directly finance mail delivery, Congress has chartered a freestanding entity, the USPS, charged with the legal obligation to provide low-cost daily mail service six days a week to all Americans at a flat rate?regardless of whether it?s cost-effective to do so. In exchange, that entity has a monopoly on ordinary mail delivery. The idea is that the lucrative monopoly over delivery to metropolitan areas will generate enough revenue to cover money-losing rural services without the need for direct taxpayer subsidies. The problem is that the monopoly isn?t nearly as lucrative as it used to be?and barring some wild technological shift, it?s going to keep getting less and less lucrative.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=952314797ae2687b3cc6bd7b94095460

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