Will this stock market madness affect cards?

[Chuck9788]

The customer service (almost universally) with the post office is incredibly slow and poor. This is a core reason why the post office is in such massive debt. The president doesn't want to continue to bail them out and I agree. All mail should be handled by private entities. The post office should be something of the past, we should just let it die off organically.

[packs]

My portfolio has never been worth more. I left my money in and fed my account the whole pandemic and I'm sky high as a result. If I'd listened to everyone panicking and pulled my money out on March I'd want to cry.

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by Chuck9788

The customer service (almost universally) with the post office is incredibly slow and poor. This is a core reason why the post office is in such massive debt. The president doesn't want to continue to bail them out and I agree. All mail should be handled by private entities. The post office should be something of the past, we should just let it die off organically.

My postal service experience has been by and large pretty good, covering several post offices over the years. A core reason the postal service is operating at a large deficit is that it was ordered by Congress in 2006 to pre-pay much of its retirement benefits owed to its carriers/workers for 75 years beginning 2006--an onus faced by very few (read none) businesses. Prior to that date it was operating at a profit. Oh, and the 2006 law also prevented the Postal Service from offering most non-postal services--we wouldn't want them trying to get innovative or competitive with our corporate big business friends.

The Internet, with email, phone texts and online payments has of course greatly reduced the amount of mail that once generated revenue for the USPS. It is also arguable that it could extract more from Amazon and similar online retailers by negotiating more favorable terms--although the current ones are not necessarily so burdensome to USPS as they are advantageous for the private companies. But no, I really doubt you want to see privatization of the mail service. The costs associated with starting and maintaining a carrier service of that scale, and of course you expect nothing but top notch customer service, would drive the prices way out of proportion. As for our beloved hobby, you now and always have had the option of sending your cards by USPS, Fed Ex or similar courier. The many threads I've read here over the years tells me that those options are not always foolproof either.