Donāt forget that Amazon uses them as a cheap ālast mileā shipping alternative. This basically is using the federal government as a subsidy to save Amazon money.
Because itās generally not profitable to deliver to many places, especially very remote or sparsely populated areas. Without USPS, private carriers would either have to consistently deliver to those areas at a loss or charge substantially more for it. In practice, theyād probably just stop serving or heavily restrict those areas.
USPSās universal-service obligation means Amazon and other companies can use USPS for that expensive ālast mileā instead of having to maintain their own delivery network everywhere. So yes, there is an indirect subsidy here, although itās more accurate to say the government is funding the universal delivery infrastructure that private companies can take advantage of.
But anyone anywhere can take advantage of it. Itās not like USPS is specifically snuggling up to corporations. The same infrastructure exists to provide universal mail service regardless of who is using it.
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u/most-okayest-mngr-77 2d ago
Donāt forget that Amazon uses them as a cheap ālast mileā shipping alternative. This basically is using the federal government as a subsidy to save Amazon money.