British Postal Service

[AlanM]

On Jan. 1, 2006, the British Postal Service will no longer have a monopoly on delivering mail. The British are opening the mail delivery system to competition. This could possibly be a useful example for the delivery of services previously thought to be the necessary "government" services. If they can do it, why can't we?
Amtrak is teetering on the edge of insolvency. Too much government control, too many subsidies. It is time it was released from government requirements and subsidies, totally privatized, and allowed to sink or swim.

[Russell Kanning]

Interesting

[Lloyd Danforth]

I, also, have to admit, that, inspite of the fact that the price of stamps is 10 times what it was when I was a child, I have very little problems with USPS service.
But, if one considers all of the wonderfull alternatives we have witnessed with package shipping in the privite sector, in the last 30 years, one has to think about what could become possible with first class mail, should it become competitive.

(I accept the award for Today's longest sentence)

[AlanM]

The USPS is about as close to quasi-privitization as possible.? As scary as it may sound the USPS may be the most efficient governmental system we have, even with a pending postage hike.

How do we know they are efficient? To what can we compare it to? Competition is always good. Maybe you haven't dealt with surly postal employees before.

[AlanM]

Big part of my business relies on efficient mail delivery. The USPS currently lacks instantaneous tracking.? I can stuff a complete 2lb file in priority cardboard with tracking on a Fri. and have it almost anywhere in the country for $4.35 on Monday morning.? UPS & FEDEX are at least five dollars greater than the $ 13.65 charged for express mail.? ?I'm not a raving fun but I save hundreds of dollars a year using USPS over its competition.? ? It isn't subsidized as much as you may think.? The whole operation runs off of the postage it charges.? I don't know another gov't operation that could even come close to that efficiency.

Here you show one of the benefits of competition. Would USPS be as cost efficient without competition? I remember the days when USPS packages took a long time to be delivered. This was pre-UPS/FEDEX.