Welcome to the hobby John!

And thanks for your PO insider experience-based contributions.

I do have to counter these statements. "Besides there are other ways to deliver your packages and nobody is putting a gun to his/her head and saying you have to use the postal service(at least not yet anyway)"

UPS or FedEx cannot legally deliver a bubble envelope to my home address mail box, the can with a front-opening door mounted on a post next to the sidewalk in front of my home. The other delivery services require a signature upon receipt, notice of attempted delivery or notice of actual signed-for delivery to a neighbor.

When UPS or FedEx or any other non-governmental entity can provide personal mail service to my home mailbox will be the day that I have a viable choice (nobody is putting a gun to my head as you put it) in how I send or receive letter-sized packages. Until that happens, the USPS is a government supported monopoly.

Bob