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The USPS is largely funded by the direct-mail advertising industry, all the "junk mail" that ends up in your favorite mail receptacle. It's sad but that's the state of affairs Congress has forced them into. Switching to electronic delivery makes it much easier to avoid those promotions and also removes the primary revenue source for the USPS.

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>It's sad but that's the state of affairs Congress has forced them into.

I'm not sure what's being asked here. So direct mail is a source of profits for the USPS that effectively subsidizes first class mail (and perhaps other things). Personally, I'd not be in favor of a sharp price increase to mail a letter as the price for getting rid of direct mail. (Which, in any case, covers a fairly wide spectrum of "junk" from stuff I throw away unopened to catalogs that I'll at least flip through to offers that I'll at least consider.)

Among unsolicited contacts, direct mail is pretty far down the list of things that annoy me.

USPS is forced into this arrangement by Congressional mandate they pre-fund pension agreements. We could fund the USPS as a social good, if people would realize what is actually good in their lives and worth funding.

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