On Thu, 22 Aug 1996, John Deters wrote:
At 02:55 PM 8/22/96 +0000, Vipul Ved Prakash wrote:
1. Junkmail requires the SENDER to pay for it, not the recipient. Internet pricing models are complicated and debatable, but you surely end up paying for snail-junk-mail. Not directly, but hidden in the high first-class mail costs. More mail, more infrastructure, higher costs. This could be quite true for the net also, if we consider bandwidth costs money.
I beg to differ. The USPS considers "junk" mail their bread-and-butter. Huge mailings of all manner of bulk mail (especially those that are PostNet barcoded by the sender) pay the bills around the Post Office. Your "more mail, more infrastructure, higher costs" argument is flawed. The post office has many fixed costs related to maintaining their huge presence, delivering to so many rural addresses. If we had to pay a per-letter basis *discounting* the value provided by the infrastructure already in place supporting the bulk-mail handling systems, we'd be paying roughly Federal Express 2-day letter rates for each piece of mail (around $6.00, if memory serves correctly.)
True in broad outlines, but I think this $6 is exaggerated just a tad. Depends whether you mean the marginal cost of an unsubsidized piece of 1st class mail given the current infrastructure, or the share of a hypothetical 1st class-only mail system, I suppose.
I do not say this to begin yet another "Privatize the USPS" rant.
Actually, if you're a consumer-scale mailer, it's a good argument for keeping the USPS heavily regulated. It certainly helps lubricate the flow of free speech among individuals and small groups. -rich