The problem is the "flat rate". No other company can make a profit or stay in business by charging the same rate for something going 2 miles from home or 2000 miles from home.

That's a good point. Is there a reason it's like that? Surely even charging 4 different rates would help a ton.

Actually UPS Contracts through USPS. They use the US Postal service to carry ground package to the further away areas. It's the UPS basic service.

Part of the problem with USPS is that they have to serve every where. UPS and Fedex do not and can save money by not serving the more far flung parts of the nations.

Or perhaps a better idea might not be requiring the Postal Service to fund 100% of their pension liabilities for the next 75 years, unlike any other organization on the planet. In 2005, the USPS was profitable. In an effort at busting the postal workers union, decided that the Post Office would have to fund their pension fully for the next 75 years within a ten year span. That's 5+ billion a year that must be categorized as a loss.

"Would it be possible to contract through companies like UPS/FedEx, who are clearly not losing millions upon millions of dollars?"

UPS or FedEd would not want the responsibilities of the USPS. Basically, its what Celtic points out. The USPS loses money left and right because they have an obligation to run everywhere, such as rural areas where the cost is high. UPS and FedEx avoid these problems. Its not a question of the USPS having bad structure and losing money, its that they have less freedom in business decisions that the other two. If FedEx had to do what the USPS does, they would be losing money as well.

I don't know if there is a solution to making money. One can simply only cut down the costs, like by cutting Saturday delivery or charging more via taxes to people in rural areas where the cost of deliver is high (not that that would go over well.)

Bob hit it on the head. It's bizarre to me that rural people would vote for a party that wants to crush universal service. Good luck having Fed Ex deliver your mail. Ditto the military.

I guess i'd happily see the postal system dissapear. 3 printers in every home and fast broadband access along with open source products whIch you can download and print; at what point will the postal service be abandoned? At what point will rural inhabitants travel to their local distribution point to deliver or collect whatever they need?

"printers in every home and fast broadband access along with open source products whIch you can download and print; at what point will the postal service be abandoned?"

About the same time as when the middle class realizes that their technological prowess & financial privilege isn't shared by the entire planet. So, never.

Eh, next tuesday? (like the reverse of last thursdayism, where i assume the ideal utopian state - and thus end of history - will be achieved next tuesday...)

Or the trends towards the obsilessence of the post office will continue for as long as this golden age of technology (and oil) continues. The question should be, when do we give up trying to make the post office function?

Obsolescence. Sorry to be a pedantic dickhead, but that might be the single worst misspelling I've ever seen.

I'm pretty sure the i/o was a typo, and spelling it with a double s in the middle was a mistake which didn't prevent you from getting the essence of the message, n'est pas?

Nope, not at all.