Michael has written a great post on the new postal system under the destroyer himself, Louis DeJoy. We must never forget that tRump put the man in the job to destroy the postal system even though the constitution requires it, so it could be taken over by private business for profit. In the US profit is king, and all must serve the king. Hugs. Scottie
The Great American Postal System
Scottie's Playtime 
We’ve had a privatised and competitive postal system for going on 40 years and it amazes me that the US, a nation that almost worships private enterprise and competition, still has a postal system that is a government owned monopoly.
Another observation was that the author made bill payments by post! Really? Is that still possible in the US? Cheques were phased out completely here several years ago as everyone pays by credit card or more commonly by direct bank transfer. It’s much cheaper (as in free), not to mention quicker, to log into your bank or scan a QR code on an invoice and transfer the money directly from your bank account to the supplier’s bank account than it is to write a cheque, seal it in an envelope with appropriate paper documentation, attach a stamp and put it in a post box. The last time I sent a payment through the post would have been in the late 1990s, and even then most of my payments were by bank transfer. In my own small online business I only accept payments by bank transfer, and have done so for around 20 years.
Every invoice/bill I receive personally or for my business is via email. None arrive by post. Most businesses add a surcharge for sending an invoice/bill by post because it incurs additional costs above sending electronically, and I’m all for saving a dollar or two using electronic invoicing and payments.
It seems almost every Kiwi is of the same mind. The number of letters being delivered has been dropping by more than 10% annually since 2000 – down by 13% last year compared to the previous year. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the postal service companies phase out letter delivery in the next few years and become exclusively parcel delivery services, simply because the demand for letters is no longer there. Our biggest player, NZ Post, now delivers letters to residential properties in our town on only 3 days each week, although it delivers parcels and packages 6 days per week. I don’t think any of its competitors offer a 6-day letter delivery service either, although they all provide 6-day parcel/package delivery. The demand for letters is no longer there.
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Hi Barry, the problem with the US using a private for profit system for the US mail is the size of our country. Many people don’t understand how very vast our country is and how sparse some areas are. Sometimes there is so much distance between houses that they can’t get high speed internet but still have to use dial up. Amazon and other delivery services refuse to deliver to these places. If you listen to the republicans you would think the country is full, but in the middle of the country there is so much empty land that it is like going back 100 years in time. The sad point of it is those people have far more say in presidential elections due to the electoral college that uses land over population density. That is why we need the federal mail system and why what DeJoy is doing is so harmful. The people in these long rural stretches of land where they next home might be ten or 20 miles away or more depend on the mail for everything … including their medications being delivered and now they can’t get it. It is a travesty of our once great mail system. But that is the goal of the republicans about government, destroy it so private businesses can take if over for profit. Best wishes. Scottie
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I’m not convinced that the sparseness is all that significant. 80% of the South Island of Aotearoa (the largest island by land area) has less than 1 person per square Km (2.6 people per square mile) and the entire south Island has a population density of 6 people per sq Km (16 people per sq mile). Keep in mind that 1 in 3 Kiwis live in Auckland, which has twice the population of the entire South Island, and NZ as a whole has a higher percentage of urban dwellers than the US and around half the population density of the US. In many parts of the country it might be a 20 or 30 minute drive to the nearest neighbour and two or more hours drive (one way) to the nearest township. Keep in mind that the distance from top to bottom of mainland New Zealand is about the same as the distance from the Canadian border to the Mexican border.
Regulated mail services must deliver mail according to their terms of the regulations they operate under whereas unregulated mail and courier services have more flexibility in when and where they deliver. So having a private enterprise model does not necessarily mean that some people miss out on a mail service. We have a competitive postal system where competition keeps prices down and contestable contracted services where there is insufficient demand for multiple operators to be profitable. The best of both worlds.
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Ah Barry, you mentioned the difference. In your country the private mail system is regulated and forced to deliver to the far off places. In the US where companies profit is king the conservative courts often rule against any regulations forcing businesses to serve people and the the only thing stopping them was the more liberal US Supreme Court. But now … well the republicans and Rump stacked the court with unqualified pro-business judges that rule on conservative ideology rather than the laws as the congress passed most regulations on businesses are being rolled back. They are corrupt and owned by the wealthy big money and they want to return the country to the gilded age where the government had no control over what businesses did and the workers have no protections. Best wishes. Scottie
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We view them as social contracts. Typically the government pays the company to provide a social service. It occurs not only with mail, but with telephones, the internet, radio and television, the health system, private schools integrated into the public schooling system, as a few other examples.
In the case of mail, there are a few commercial advantages to being a registered (regulated) mail provider, but the price of that is accepting the government’s fixed fee for providing a mail service that would otherwise be uneconomic.
Another example is primary medical care, which in NZ is all privately run. Doctors are free to charge whatever the market will tolerate, but if the doctor chooses to take a government patient subsidy, then they must not exceed the maximum fee that the subsidy permits. For example, for the doctor to receive the subsidy for children under 15, they must provide free consultations for those children. In my case as a superannuant, I can chose a subsidised doctor who charges $35 per consultation or a non-subsidised doctor who charges around $115. Being on a fixed income, the choice is obvious. There’s no compulsion for the doctor to accept the subsidy, but let’s face it, if you have several children under 15 and you have a choice of two doctors – one that charges $70 per consultation and the other who provides free consultations, who would you choose all else being equal? Ultimately the market decides whether a doctor chooses to go it alone or accept government subsidies. And yes, in the most affluent suburbs of the biggest cities there are a few doctors who choose not receive any government subsidies.
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