Here (Canada), "passports, birth certificates, bearer bonds", etc. all get sent as registered mail with receiver identification required for release — which means they get held at the nearest post office for you to go pick up, rather than coming to your mailbox. (Instead, a notice card gets delivered to your mailbox, telling you to go get the thing.) Surprised that's not a thing in the US(?). Is that why long-term identity fraud is so common there? Birth certificates and other legitimate primary identity documents just being stuffed into insecure outdoor mailboxes where anyone could grab them?
Also, while many parcels are just purchases from companies, a parcel could very well be a priceless heirloom sent by a relative. Or, say, a live reptile.
The postal system bakes old assumptions into it, where ordering goods for delivery didn't used to be nearly so common, so a much larger fraction of parcels used to be of this personal variety. Which makes it even more curious that they're generally handled in such a blasé manner.
My only guess is that shipping parcels is expensive by itself, so almost nobody bothers to pay double to have their parcel handled securely as registered mail.
Also, while many parcels are just purchases from companies, a parcel could very well be a priceless heirloom sent by a relative. Or, say, a live reptile.
The postal system bakes old assumptions into it, where ordering goods for delivery didn't used to be nearly so common, so a much larger fraction of parcels used to be of this personal variety. Which makes it even more curious that they're generally handled in such a blasé manner.
My only guess is that shipping parcels is expensive by itself, so almost nobody bothers to pay double to have their parcel handled securely as registered mail.