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Comment by avianlyric | Hacker News Reader

> because you think USPS is more efficient than a private sector alternative would be?

What makes you think USPS is inefficient? If it wasn’t for the ludicrous pension constraints applied to them of funding all pensions out to 2056 upfront, a requirement that no other federal agency or private company has. USPS would be returning almost a billion dollars of profit every year.

I would call that pretty good going for a public service.

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The USPS has a legal monopoly and has its obligations guaranteed by the government. So take their profits with a grain of salt.

(You could auction of the monopoly to see how much it is worth. Though in reality, you would be better off just to abolish it.)

Excuse my ignorance, but what legal monopoly does USPS have? I was under the impression that any company is allowed to carry mail in the US.

Only usps can carry first class mail, or “letters”.

Google or Bing help a lot.

See eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service#C...

Surprising though it may seem, with some limited exceptions, it's illegal for a private party to deliver a letter to another private party without paying the US Postal Service.

The term to search for is "Private Express Statutes": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Express_Statutes.

This article (titled "Universal Service and the Postal Monopoly: A Brief History") goes into more depth: https://about.usps.com/universal-postal-service/universal-se...

Besides the monopoly on letters that others have explained the USPS also has a legal monopoly on the use of your mailbox.

The "monopoly" is the right to put stuff into your USPS mailbox. A lot of apartment communities have package lockers where private carriers can put stuff. And homeowners are used to receiving packages on their porches - so it's no big deal if letters are left there too. So that monopoly doesn't seem like much of an advantage in today's world.

The other legal monopoly is the one on first class mail. See the responses to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23963874

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