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Comment by gnarbarian | Hacker News Reader

do we need the USPS anymore?

Do you still want mail? USPS is obligated to provide mail to every place in the USA no matter how far away or small the communities might be. So yes we still need them.

Honestly, I don't know that I really do want mail any more. It's pretty mind boggling that for <$1 I can send an envelope anywhere in the country in a matter of days. That's cool and all, but I can't think of the last time I even thought that would be necessary. Important bills are electronic now a days, and I haven't received a holiday/birthday card with $5 from relatives in decades. I frequently forget to even check the mail box, and when I do, it is filled with traditional junk mail and the random politician solicitations. Oh, and the random mail for previous residents at this address.

I think this is an extremely bubbled view of how mail works in the United States and the relative access of the internet. A good chunk of the United States doesn’t have reliable internet, but will have consistent mail service.

The question posed: Do you still want mail?

I responded no. You come back with some out of scope non-sense about thinking outside of me. That's not the question.

If the question was "should the mail system be abolished", we can have the discussion you want, but maybe you should ask that question. The original question as actually posted followed with "yes we still need them".

Wow cute response.

I love when people ask me a question, and then someone tells me that's wrong because I had a different response than theirs. It's not a "what's your opinion" type of question. It was a simple yes/no question directly targeted to the reader. My no response in no way suggested that nobody else anywhere ever should no longer receive mail. The response I received was just trying too hard to twist things.

The problem is that rural USPS is _not_ reliable (source: have lived in multiple rural locations). USPS is reliable in cities. Internet is also reliable in cities.

Most people have phones. For those who don't, alternate infrastructure that leverages the internet could easily exist, and would be way more efficient than the USPS network.

Watch this get downvoted, because people really emotionally _care_ about USPS.

'Provide mail' can mean different things and its certainly not ever 'place'. It is very common in mountain towns to not have mailboxes at least not residential so you have to go to a post office 5-15 miles away. Meanwhile Fedex & UPS will deliver to your door.

That said the USPS is certainly an essential service and probably does serve certain niche locations better than UPS & Fedex.

USPS charges the same, low (55¢) rate to send to these remote locations.

FedEx won't tell me the cost without an account, but for UPS a domestic, ground letter (<1 lb) costs between $8.76 and $11.01, or $32+ for Alaska/Hawaii etc. Added to that, "remote areas" have a surcharge which is about $4 in the 48 states, $10 in Hawaii and $32 in Alaska.

https://www.ups.com/assets/resources/media/en_US/daily_rates...

https://www.ups.com/gb/en/shipping/zones-and-rates/area-surc...

It's amazing how passionate some people are about the mail service. Any question like this _will_ get downvoted.

I always hated USPS when I lived in the US. Service at the post office was usually terrible, clerks were clearly coasting on the fact that they were hard to fire (customer service was poor), and delivery rates were hit and miss (whereas somehow the private carriers always managed to delivery.)

Now I live in a country with no mail service. It's fine. I do everything online. If I need to order something, I pick it up from the DHL store in town. The one time that something was sent via certified delivery, a motorcycle messenger delivered it.

How would we deliver absentee ballots without a postal service?

you'd go to the polling location and vote

This would disenfranchise many disabled and those who must travel for work.

My grandmother passed a few months ago, after a nearly year-long illness that left her bed-bound. There was no way she was getting in the car, load her into a wheelchair or gurney or something, then sit in a queue, in the middle of a pandemic, to vote. But she sure as hell was able to exercise her civil rights at home.

So somebody like her would have a very valid excuse to vote my mail (and could send it via FedEx or ups), but an able bodied person should walk to the polling place, show their ID, and vote. You get 4 hours off by law to vote

Uh no I don’t.

not really. Everything they offer, private industry offers a better version of. Who sends letters? Email is way faster and cheaper Sending a package? Amazon, ups, or fedex Need a passport? USPS shouldn't handle this, since they're so incompetent at handling passport applications

Private couriers have no obligations to provide service to anyone. One of the important things about the USPS is that they have an obligation to support the continued operation of basic public services, and they’re organizationally held accountable through their governance structure.

Public services that our government provides are done so without regards to people’s ability to use email, electronic banking, or drive to the nearest FedEx/UPS store in the closest city.

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