AT&T told me I can either get an unlimited Text Messaging plan or no text messaging plan and pay per text message.
Comcast told me that the 6mb internet service would be $50, and that I could only get the 20mb service, the service I wanted for $50 for the first six months, 60 for the next six months, and 70 for the next 12 months after that. They called it a "bundle" because it included local TV channels, channels which I get for free. The didn't offer me the choice of no free TV channels over cable.
Apple continually charges a ridiculous amount on memory upgrades.
Half the places I shop at want me to register with them in some capacity. No REI, I don't need a special card for the 2 annual purchases I do a year. You can keep the $2 I'd get back at the end of the year if I did have the card.
Amazon sells the same kindle at two different prices, depending on whether or not you like advertisements.
Are all these things stupid? Yes. The USPS is not alone, so stop pretending it's some government bureaucracy thing. People sometimes complain that the government should act more like a business, and get upset when they actually do.
"stop pretending it's some government bureaucracy thing."
You added the word "government". I checked. It doesn't appear anywhere in the original post, or as of this writing, anywhere in a comment not in a reply to you. I don't consider listing other failures anything like a defense for the failure at hand. I'm pretty happy to indict large bureaucratic organizations in general.
> so stop pretending it's some government bureaucracy thing
Yep, USPS is not a normal government agency. Also "The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters."*
If people point to USPS as example of government waste they do so out of ignorance.
Not necessarily. There's a big question facing the Post Office right now that becomes acute in the next few months, which is whether the US government will bail out its pension fund, which is utterly and completely unsustainable. Google "post office pension" for things like [1], in which it becomes evident that however they may be not the Federal government de jure they sure are a part of the Federal government de facto, just as trying to pretend Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac are fully independent entities whose actions are wholly their own and have nothing to do with the government is a complete joke. At the very least they have the same special Moral Hazard relationship that the Federal government does not extend to just any "entirely separate business entity".
(The only thing that would be any different if they were an officially recognized Federal agency is that instead of worrying about whether they might in the future cost us billions of dollars in pensions by act of Congress, they would have already cost us billions of dollars in pensions by act of Congress.)
I'm way more interested in de facto relationships that de jure. You can say anything you want legally, what matters is the actual relationships.
If you give me free access to monopoly powers (i.e. you guarantee me no competition), I'm quite sure I can suck the public dry without ever getting a direct handout.
The USPS is waste that endures solely because of government power. It just happens that it isn't government's taxing power that keeps it alive.
They run a deficit because the Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006[1] forced them to pay for the next 75 years of retirement and pension benefits within 10 years, the first downpayment of which they start making payments on Sept. 30 this year, which is why they've been running in the red for two years now.
In 2004, they actually made 4 billion in profit, in 2005, 2 billion, and in 2006 a billion. They've had to prepare to make 5.5 billion in payments each year since due to the PAEA, and will do so until 2016.
Huh? Every business example you provided are money based decisions. They are all unfortunate for the consumer and may or may not maximize profit in the long term, but profit is the basis for each decision.
The goal for the 3/4 inch minimum dimension regular for the USPS is based upon what logic or reasoning exactly?
It's so the carrier doesn't waste hours every day scanning every letter for a service that only 0.05% of them need.
The charge for a return receipt is also higher and the USPS takes advantage of this just like all kinds of businesses have higher margins from certain products.
The many savvy people who take advantage of the lower rate for parcel delivery confirmation are like people who bring their own soda to work because it's cheaper then the vending machine.
TLDR: angry mob on the street probably wrong about finer details of world again.
Does delivery or signature confirmation (DoSC, I made this up) service cost money? Is it profitable? If the answer is yes and yes then charging for and scanning 95.95% needlessly DoSC items is good for the USPS and the 3/4 inch requirement is seemingly stupid. If the answer is yes and no then a silly requirement makes sense, but is still silly. If the answer is no and no then the service should probably cost money.
It's big organization beauracracy thing. Businesses have a little more pressure to economize, and that's the biggest practical difference. Large groups of people get stupid. Also, businesses have more of an incentive to extract money from you, which alone explains many of your examples.
Even so, I think this example is exceptionally atrocious, and it's really hard to imagine a for-profit organization getting away with that for long. It's a matter of degree, and government organizations can go farther out before they die.
Comcast told me that the 6mb internet service would be $50, and that I could only get the 20mb service, the service I wanted for $50 for the first six months, 60 for the next six months, and 70 for the next 12 months after that. They called it a "bundle" because it included local TV channels, channels which I get for free. The didn't offer me the choice of no free TV channels over cable.
Apple continually charges a ridiculous amount on memory upgrades.
Half the places I shop at want me to register with them in some capacity. No REI, I don't need a special card for the 2 annual purchases I do a year. You can keep the $2 I'd get back at the end of the year if I did have the card.
Amazon sells the same kindle at two different prices, depending on whether or not you like advertisements.
Are all these things stupid? Yes. The USPS is not alone, so stop pretending it's some government bureaucracy thing. People sometimes complain that the government should act more like a business, and get upset when they actually do.