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

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.