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Comment by mojoe | Hacker News Reader

I think what parent is saying is that in the US a disproportionate percentage of USPS budget is spent delivering mail to extremely rural areas (far from both cities and small towns).

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My parents live in rural Australia and their postwoman just drives a regular 4wd pickup truck, not some special mail van. She delivers on a lot of dirt/mud tracks and has to traverse small rivers, I don't think the special USPS van is built to do that.

The USPS delivery vehicle in the rural, mountainous neighborhoods outside my city is an older Chevrolet Suburban. I am assuming this is a private vehicle, contracted to delivery mail in a certain area but its possible that it is government owned.

That makes my point. The 3wheel bike doesn’t work in that case.

I remember being at the post office and thinking it was dumb that the clerk thought Micronesia was part of the US and they could charge domestic rates.

Only later that I discovered I was the dumb one.

IDK how you can possibly economically send mail to places like foreign barely habited deep pacific islands for the same price as mailing to your neighbor.

You can't, but the USPS is legally obligated to have a single flat rate for domestic deliveries, which is extended to certain former territories as a goodwill measure. They attempted to charge international rates many years back, but the effect it had on the affected countries' economies was so significant that the change was immediately rolled back until they had a viable alternative, which hasn't emerged.

Back in the 70s I tried to send a letter to San Marino and the local post office guy did not believe there was a country so named. We (he) had to go to the post office reference manuals.

First, the post office is not a company but a government service so it can LOSE money and that's fine. Second, they don't they make a little on local delivery and bulk and lose a little on long distance. It's not rocket surgery.

I don't think it's fine we're subsidizing domestic shipping rates to mail to foreign citizens on foreign soil, save maybe a few rare exceptions like they're acting in an official capacity on behalf of the US.

Are American citizens not entitled to send mail to other citizens overseas? I would argue that most mail that is sent abroad is between American citizens and their families (military care packages, Xmas cards for expats, etc).

Well, we could have a government policy of subsidising international mail sent from the US.

China does that, for example - which is why you can get a $3 widget on AliExpress sent from China with free shipping.

However, right now congress doesn't act like they're doing that intentionally. That doesn't seem to be the policy they're aiming for.

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