[CaptainHaplo]

Never one to just say no - how is this for a solution?

The postal service loses money due to its need to transport weighty objects long distances. But the need of the consumer to get that "hard copy" is not nearly what was today.

So the mail needs to change the way it works. 1 day a week delivery of hard copy, true "mail". Keep its specialized delivery service (for large packages) if it is viable, else spin it off to UPS or FedEx or another private entity.

This will result in a drastic downsizing, but also decrease the crap you get in your mailbox. Saves trees, saves tax money. Not the greatest for jobs, though some would remain. The key here is it could then offer an electronic mail delivery service.

A company wants to send you a bill, they send the bill, electronically and encrypted, to you through the electronic USPS. The USPS accepts the mail, insures its delivery (via you having to certify its delivery electronically), and it would only cost a penny. That choice of going electronic - which granted not everyone will have, will save the consumer money (since the costs are passed on to you) and will save the biller money. Sure they could just email it to you, but then they can't show you got it. Return reciept? Pfft, my kid opened my email and clicked stuff, I never saw it. But logging into the USPS e-delivery service? No deniabilty there.

Course, they would need alot of technically skilled people to pull that off. Probably have to hire alot of them, or maybe retrain the sorting machine folks.... Tech jobs pay pretty well...

No - this isn't a perfect plan, it would need alot of tweaking, because it could be grown into the USPS certifying the security of epayment data, etc.

Properly done, the USPS itself would never be able to see the raw data, since it SHOULD be encrypted, PGP style. That protects everyone. Creates skilled jobs. Saves people money.