88
votes
Why is the USPS not privately operated?
Not being run by the government will not make the postal service "consistently profitable". In itself it will change nothing. What could make it profitable is to make some kind of sacrifice: ...
- 959
48
votes
Accepted
How did the mail become such a sacred right in the US?
Secrecy of correspondence isn't unique to the US. It is actually a fundamental right in many European countries (in Germany, it eg goes back to 1690, in France to 1742, and it was also part of the ...
- 36.1k
36
votes
Accepted
What will go on new post boxes when Prince Charles becomes king?
Royal Cypher
The "E II R" is known as the royal cypher. In this case, it stands for "Elizabeth II, Regina".
The design of the royal cypher is not fixed; it doesn't have to take the ...
- 2,428
33
votes
Why is the USPS not privately operated?
There are several reasons why the post office isn't privatized. For starters, in the U.S. the Post office is an enumerated power of congress, they essentially have full control over locations, allowed ...
- 13.9k
31
votes
How did the mail become such a sacred right in the US?
The US constitution provides for few national enterprises: A military, a mint, a justice system, and a post office.
This is in contrast to most governments in Europe which have extensive public ...
- 115k
22
votes
Why is the USPS not privately operated?
There are several reasons why the post office isn't profitable and they are all out of the control of the post office itself. It should also be noted that the post office is self funding.
Honestly ...
- 15.4k
16
votes
Accepted
Why is the USPS not privately operated?
There have been certainly been proposals in the U.S. to privatize the postal service, mainly from the "small government"/libertarian-leaning faction of the Republican party. (The Democratic ...
- 1,310
13
votes
Accepted
Has the U.S. Postal Service ever suspended services for a “National Day of Mourning” before?
Yes. Since the State Funeral for President John F. Kennedy and for every former President following (with exception to Nixon) a National Day of Mourning is Declared for the day of the funeral (or ...
- 16.1k
10
votes
How did the mail become such a sacred right in the US?
The story about the prison is suspect to me. Depending on the security level of the prison, inmates’ internet usage, phone calls, and mail are routinely monitored and inspected. Prisoners do not have ...
- 12k
10
votes
How did the mail become such a sacred right in the US?
Postal services have always been sacred in the US, even before the actual founding of the Union. Before the time of the Revolutionary War, many colonists relied on the British postal service, which ...
- 727
8
votes
Accepted
Does the USPS post office lose $6 billion per year and require taxpayer bailouts every year?
Why does it need a bailout every year?
As usual with accounting, because the income is less than expenses. Specifically, expenses related to paying its liabilities.
Income is obvious - advent of ...
- 91.9k
8
votes
What will go on new post boxes when Prince Charles becomes king?
The cypher of King Charles III has been announced.
It features his initial C, for Charles, R, for Rex, the Latin for King, and the Roman numeral 3.
It has a Tudor Crown above the letters. There is a ...
- 1,944
6
votes
Why is the USPS not privately operated?
Beyond costs, if the USPS was privately operated, it could choose what mail to deliver and what not to (votes, census data, taxes, etc.). Oversight would be limited to a board of directors at best, ...
- 245
5
votes
How did the mail become such a sacred right in the US?
Mailboxes are very vulnerable, usually unattended and often not next to the house. Since it is so easy to tamper with someone's mail, and difficult to enforce, the penalty has to be very high to ...
- 159
5
votes
If the US Postal Service is self-sustaining, why does the Federal Government choose to retain full ownership?
Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution explicitly gives the United States Congress the authority to establish the postal service and its requisite infrastructure. It's one of the few ...
- 16.4k
5
votes
What will go on new post boxes when Prince Charles becomes king?
That symbol, the royal cypher stands for Elizabeth II Regina. This is the made up of the monarch's regnal name, including a regnal number if necessary, and the latin word for king (rex) or queen (...
- 21.1k
4
votes
Accepted
Was US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy "approved by both parties"? To what extent can the board's voting be established as bipartisan?
If by a bi-partisan commission you mean one that has 4 republicans (5 if you count DeJoy) and 2 (1 of which joined the commission after DeJoy was picked) Democrats all of whom were appointed by Trump? ...
- 15.4k
3
votes
Accepted
Does the US postmaster have the power to decide by themselves to whom to award a $6.5 billion contract?
Does the US postmaster have the power to decide by themselves to whom to award a $6.5 billion contract?
Probably yes, in fact for the rest of the government the person who ultimately approves a ...
- 6,570
3
votes
Would the US postal service be open on election day were election day made a legal public holiday?
You have to dig around a bit in the text of the bill, but it contains this requirement:
Same-day processing.—The United States Postal
Service shall ensure, to the maximum extent practicable, that
...
- 115k
2
votes
Why is the USPS not privately operated?
It's a tradeoff between cost and universal coverage, and universal coverage has been determined to be more valuable than cost.
It's mission statement:
The Postal Service shall have as its basic ...
- 3,176
2
votes
Why is the USPS not privately operated?
The post office is public because the ability for the federal government to create the post office is written into the constitution. Initially this was to have a government agency that could perform ...
- 21
1
vote
Did USPS grant a preferential treatment to Amazon?
Depending on the location the postal service will deliver for anyone on a Sunday provided you pay for the service. This is not a service that is only available to Amazon but a deal to expand what they ...
- 15.4k
1
vote
Why is the USPS not privately operated?
The short answer is that the USPS is not a private corporation for exactly the reason you state; delivering the nation's mail is not a profitable enterprise. So, nobody else wants to shoulder that ...
- 176
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible