If we didn't want them to do the most obvious thing they could to monetize their business, then we shouldn't have practically cut them off from public funding. Frankly, I'm on the USPS's side on this one.
We did. USPS doesn't receive any public funds, but it's still technically owned by the United States government. It also has near-crushing prepaid pension debt.
If you don't pay pension obligations as you incur them, you're going to run into trouble if there's any biz contraction. And, if it's a long-lived organization, you don't actually reduce your cash-outflow by not paying when you incur.
Run a scenario where you under pay by X%. When folks start collecting, you have to come up with the difference out of then-current revenues. Steady-state with stable revenues, you end up paying exactly the same amount, but you've got debt. Now cut the revenue (and current expenses) by 25% because the world changed. Your revenue can't pay the debt.
If anything, this is healthier for people's personal information.
Companies seeking such a service typically resort to purchasing homeowner information in bulk from other services. With such a USPS service, it decreases the demand for such databases, and with it the incentive to create such databases.
It is unlikely that the USPS will overwhelm homeowners. Presumably the USPS will limit received promotions to one per day. That can potentially give the USPS an additional $60/year in revenue per household, at marginal cost.
This is a pretty good product actually for those that have small businesses. Wouldn't you rather receive a flyer in the mail than have a dodgy flyer guy putting it under your car windshield?
Royal Mail (UK) has offered this for years and it's certainly less irritating than the flyering of takeaway menus and such I'd get all the time in SF.
Is there such thing as a "do not mail" list? If it is possible to opt-out of private (tele)marketing and block spam, then logically it should be possible to opt out of this service too.
There is: https://www.dmachoice.org/. It took quite a while (several months) until I noticed any changes, but my (very subjective) impression is that the (spam) mail volume decreased over time.
Another thing I'd suggest is https://donotcall.gov/. Registering there seems to have had a positive impact on the number of spam calls I receive.
I already get tons of fliers from nearby restaurants stuck in my door every week. Might as well be in my mailbox.
It should be a very effective marketing tool for local businesses and it helps the USPS stay in business. If they would just add opt-out there would be nothing to complain about IMHO.
