Ragnar
<--- Pic is not me
Yeah, well if Burger King was funded at the taxpayer trough and got to make all the rules about what is and is not a first class burger, told every other fast food outlet where they can build, who they can hire, what they can pay, what hours they can operate, how much they can charge, (and on and on) the fast food world would be a whole different beast.
the PO does not set the rules up Rag......your Congress does.....and nobody tells UPS or Fed-X where they can build, who they can hire, what they can pay, what hours they can operate, or how much they can charge.......certaintly not the PO....
I'm not anti-PO just to be anti-PO. The problem is the Federal government getting in the way and you've noted some specific ways it does that above. The problem is the USPS being the governments sock puppet. (and not for nothing but the Feds do regulate all of the above areas I mentioned and then some)
If there are good people who could run the PO like a smart private business, as you claim (and I have little reason to doubt) then more power to them. If the USPS can ditch big brother without the help of FedEx or UPS or most importantly the US taxpayer... then that's fine too. The whole point is to make it a private, stand alone business.