On Sat, 23 Sep 2017 18:08:58 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

Joerg actually made a significant point in that US export postage is
wildly inexplicably expensive compared to other countries. A medium
flat rate mailer to Macao now costs me $71.95. The return postage was
$6.50. This is typical.

In the past 100 years, the US Post Office has *not* lost money in 20 of
those years. FWIW. From the late 1940s until about 1990 it ran an
annual loss averaging about $5 billion per year; starting around 1990 or
so it had 15 years of profitability.

USPS is a weird hybrid of a not-quite-government department and a
not-quite-private business. IIRC that started in Reagan's 2nd term,
prior to that it had a Cabinet level director. There is a board that
runs it of political appointees- 9 of 'em, no more than five of which
can be from one party. They appoint the 10th who is the Postmaster
General. Weird stuff.

There are some money-losing propositions built in to the coft of
business for them, such as having to deliver surface mail to practically
every residence in the country including money-losing deliveries to
places like rural Montana or Wyoming at the same price as dense urban
areas. They have to deliver six days a week, which increases the number
of employees they have to hire (the only civilian employer that is
larger is Walmart). And its power to increase its prices to offset
losses is limited by being subject to government approval rather than
market forces.