a rather simple question about USPS

[handmade34]

In light of the fact that the U.S. Postal Service is closing up to 1,000 offices - Why is it that they still continue free rural delivery when I have to pay $60.00 for a box in the Post Office and have to drive myself there to pick up my mail? It seems as if people are still being rewarded for living miles outside of town...

[stevedeshazer]

1. Why can't you have free delivery to your home address like everyone else?

Who is forcing you to pay the sixty bucks?

[Lasher]

3. If you live close to a post office you don't have that option.

You have to get a PO box and pick up the mail there.

Our PO burned a couple of years ago and the USPS refused to reopen it. Before I had a PO box and now I have a roadside mailbox. I wish we had our post office back. It sucks driving to a distant post office when I have to do anything besides send and receive ordinary letters and such.

[Greyhound]

6. Thank Idiot Frat Boy and his boy, Potter.

There has been a campaign to actively kill the USPS going back through the Clinton/41 administrations to Raygun. Rural routes started being contracted or eliminated in the 90s.

Potter, whom Obama has chosen to retain, is a major architect of this movement.

I would ask that you remember this when there is no more USPS and mailing a letter costs you $10.

[handmade34]

9. since I don't get mail

I have become somewhat out of the loop. I mail a lot though and always use USPS for my personal mailings. I would encourage use of USPS, just don't understand inconsistencies

[handmade34]

4. hypothetical question at this point

I am homeless so I don't get mail at all, but I have lived where some did not get home delivery and you had to have a box at the post office. I travel throughout the U.S. and find this situation quite often throughout the country.

[ohheckyeah]

5. I've never lived anywhere I was forced to get a p.o. box.

And I've lived in lots of rural areas. Why would someone be forced to get a p.o. box?

[SleeplessInAlabama]

7. Well it's not so much a matter of "force" as it is, either do it or don't get mail. n/t

[Davis_X_Machina]

11. How 'not get mail'? There's RFD in villages in Alaska...

...where mail comes in on snowmobiles and floatplanes -- maybe not every day, but in it comes.

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. They don't have rural free delivery where you live?

You may want the box at the P.O., you may find the box there more convenient, but it's not the only way you can get your mail unless you live in very unique circumstances.

I would jettison our commitment to universal postal service very reluctantly.

[handmade34]

8. I like the USPS

and I did not intend to disparage the service. I just see inconsistencies in the way they deliver service and I wonder sometimes...

[HopeHoops]

10. WTF? I pay $22/year for a box.

There's no reason to pay for anything but the smallest size unless you get a LOT of large packages and they complain at you.

I have home delivery. The box is for a business.