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The fact that this startup exists simultaneously excites me and also makes me lament the monumental failure of the postal service in the US. Is anyone else pis

The fact that this startup exists simultaneously excites me and also makes me lament the monumental failure of the postal service in the US. Is anyone else pissed that we're paying tax dollars to support the US Postal Service while we're now slowly having to pay the private sector to deal with the mess that has become our mail? It seems like such a waste of resources. EDIT: I stand corrected. The USPS is not funded directly by tax payer dollars. I still lament the fact that either it's underfunded by us, or constrained by laws and can't offer a level of service similar to what Outbox provides!

jemfinch 13y ago
First, we're not paying tax dollars to support the US Postal Service; the recent USPS budget shortfalls are a congressional fabrication [0]. You're uninformed on this matter. Second, even if we were paying for the USPS, a legally protected postal system is the price we as a society have chosen to pay to preserve complete freedom of the press and ultimately of speech. Freedom of the press and of speech means much less in a world where privatized means of delivery can refuse to carry unpopular opinions (compare the ToS of various domain registrars with the completely unrestricted content of newsletters mailed via the USPS). [0] You can read about this anywhere just by searching "congress usps pension" but http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/the-u-s-postal-service/11433/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/the-u-s-pos... is a good start.
milesskorpen 13y ago
The postal service operates, largely, as a private business which is massively constrained from certain changes due to Congress. For example, they _can't_ shut down many post offices, since Representatives complain when it hits their district. They're trying to remove Saturday delivery too — that's causing major problems. DESPITE this ridiculousness, they're not utterly hemorrhaging money. They've got an extremely impressive automated system ... and talk about an audacious business model: They'll move your piece of paper acros the country with incredibly reliability for <$0.50! Not to mention packages — their flat rate pricing is brilliant. I'm generally deeply impressed by the USPS, and I think you should be too. Clearly they can do some more automation, and maybe that's in the works, but it's very hard to change people's behavior, and big systems move ponderously ... what's easy for a tiny startup is hard for a service which delivers mail to a few hundred million addresses daily.
- hkarthik 13y ago
  Well put. I stand corrected. So why is that junk mail and unwanted mail is so hard to get rid of? Clearly it seems like something people are willing to pay to opt out of.
  - bobwaycott 13y ago
    Maybe cos they make money off it?
r00fus 13y ago
I think the problem is that we're not paying enough in stamp fees and costs to keep the USPS running. Instead, spammers and mass mailers essentially have bought out your mailbox (you can't turn this spam off). Regarding taxpayer funding, the USPS is a fully self-funded organization that can be cheap because it happens to have exclusive access to your mailbox. It's only running deficits because GOP congress decided to ask it to pay it's pension plans for workers not even hired yet [1]. You can question why only the USPS can deliver to your mailbox, but your tax dollars are most certainly not funding the USPS.
boas 13y ago
The US post office is amazing. They can deliver a letter cross country, door-to-door, for 46 cents! In my experience, USPS and Gmail's spam filter lose important mail at similar rates, < 1%. This is based on how frequently my credit card bills are lost.

jemfinch 13y ago

First, we're not paying tax dollars to support the US Postal Service; the recent USPS budget shortfalls are a congressional fabrication [0]. You're uninformed on this matter. Second, even if we were paying for the USPS, a legally protected postal system is the price we as a society have chosen to pay to preserve complete freedom of the press and ultimately of speech. Freedom of the press and of speech means much less in a world where privatized means of delivery can refuse to carry unpopular opinions (compare the ToS of various domain registrars with the completely unrestricted content of newsletters mailed via the USPS). [0] You can read about this anywhere just by searching "congress usps pension" but http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/the-u-s-postal-service/11433/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/the-u-s-pos... is a good start.

milesskorpen 13y ago

The postal service operates, largely, as a private business which is massively constrained from certain changes due to Congress. For example, they _can't_ shut down many post offices, since Representatives complain when it hits their district. They're trying to remove Saturday delivery too — that's causing major problems. DESPITE this ridiculousness, they're not utterly hemorrhaging money. They've got an extremely impressive automated system ... and talk about an audacious business model: They'll move your piece of paper acros the country with incredibly reliability for <$0.50! Not to mention packages — their flat rate pricing is brilliant. I'm generally deeply impressed by the USPS, and I think you should be too. Clearly they can do some more automation, and maybe that's in the works, but it's very hard to change people's behavior, and big systems move ponderously ... what's easy for a tiny startup is hard for a service which delivers mail to a few hundred million addresses daily.

hkarthik 13y ago
Well put. I stand corrected. So why is that junk mail and unwanted mail is so hard to get rid of? Clearly it seems like something people are willing to pay to opt out of.
- bobwaycott 13y ago
  Maybe cos they make money off it?

r00fus 13y ago

I think the problem is that we're not paying enough in stamp fees and costs to keep the USPS running. Instead, spammers and mass mailers essentially have bought out your mailbox (you can't turn this spam off). Regarding taxpayer funding, the USPS is a fully self-funded organization that can be cheap because it happens to have exclusive access to your mailbox. It's only running deficits because GOP congress decided to ask it to pay it's pension plans for workers not even hired yet [1]. You can question why only the USPS can deliver to your mailbox, but your tax dollars are most certainly not funding the USPS.

boas 13y ago

The US post office is amazing. They can deliver a letter cross country, door-to-door, for 46 cents! In my experience, USPS and Gmail's spam filter lose important mail at similar rates, < 1%. This is based on how frequently my credit card bills are lost.