The USPS is poorly managed, and destroying itself. The in-the-red statistic that they've been operating under since 2006 is nearly identical to the GM too-big-to-fail fiasco. Except, in this case, the only thing they're protecting is themselves. GM was lambasted for that, so, too should be the USPS.
When I was a kid, I remember reading an article where it was cheaper for a guy to mail bricks to Alaska than to have the most-local source deliver them. He built a house with the materials. Bricks, by fucking airplane?? Rather than one truck from Anchorage?
And for the record, they don't need a warrant to open mail. It happens all the time at customs, when mail is being placed into the custody of the USPS. Similarly, it can be opened domestically if a number of criteria are (or are not) met. It is also subject to x-ray scanning, sniffing by dogs, sniffing by detector, a "flag" on the shipper or recipient, a visible leak, "accidental damage", the absence of a return address, improper tape, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Operating under the incorrect presumption is fine if you have "nothing to hide", and you're mailing legitimate stuff.
The fact is proven by some very old-school methods. Simply pick up an old copy of Hustler, and flip through the back pages. Discretely packaged smut, which doesn't leak, rattle or stink, is commonly refused to be sent to certain states. How would the USPS know if locally prohibited materials are contained within the package, from strange and common-sounding return addresses?
Famously, Tommy Chong was jailed for mailing new, clean glassware to certain states, an entrapment sting which used postal regulations and law enforcement to slam-dunk him into prison.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pipe_DreamsThey've been a lot more on-point than you think, for a really long time.
I admit I'll use USPS when I feel like it. Thats my
choice. But I don't have to. I could easily avoid USPS in most cases, and if I really wanted, I could be more diligent and probably never use them again for packages.
I will admit UPS and FedEx can be a little wonky sometimes. But it always arrives. And I don't feel like I'm sending up major red flags when I use UPS's tracking. (personal preference)
Currently, the most recent ad campaign for USPS is bulk mail. They're paying top-salaried employees big money to stop by every single house and drop a 2c item in their porch slot. Thats just fucking ridiculous, especially when you consider that piece is probably handled by five different people before it arrives at its destination.
You don't see the competition doing that. They'd never consider it. They probably laugh themselves sick at the board meetings, its "life support", and as long as the USPS is subsidized to continue that, the so-called free market will never adjust.
..and yes, they are subsidized. They don't exist in the same competitive realm. As a government agency, they don't pay fuel tax, buildings aren't taxed, they have federal security protecting their infrastructure where others have to pay private security, they enjoy a collectors market for their postage (which is a scam unto itself, people buy the postage and never use it when they sell commemorative series).
There are very few modern jobs where a guy can get employed and retire from it, and the Post Office is one. The others are cops and prison guards, feds, and the log-jam of clerks at the court house. There are very few privatized jobs where a person can get hired and expect to retire from it, in our generation. Especially now.
Name one other pretty decent job where a guy could get hired in 1990 and expect to retire with 30 yrs in 2020, at age fifty. I'll betcha can't name one.