[skore]

True, but it would still be debatable to what extend the service would be as useful as the USPS if it was "economical". Today, though, it is more likely to be somewhat decent, so that is debatable as well, but not so when the postal system was first put in place.

And by the way: My perspective is that of living in Germany and having actually worked for two years as a postman for Deutsche Post after it was privatized and the monopoly was abandoned. I think it is highly debatable whether we're better off with the "free market" (also a debatable term in this case) solution right now. I was employed as a help because they needed more capacity to deliver advertising, which is - by volume - what they mostly deliver these days.