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We all the know the United States Post Office doesn’t turn a profit these days and relies on tax payer funds to operate. Since it performs an important public service? I’m not complaining.

We live in digital world where people pay their bills online and communicate through email or text. Gone are the days of postcards, hand written letters and the like.

I admit to missing that… but that’s another blog entirely.

Last week I drove to our local post office and mailed a box of books to North Carolina. Since all that was in the box were books, the clerk told me it would cost $9.59 instead of the normal $28.65. This started a conversation on how expensive it’s become to mail things which led to me uttering a statement I was told in no uncertain terms is completely and utterly wrong.

I said, “It’s a good thing Amazon ships their packages with the USPS, it’s probably the only thing keeping them afloat these days.”

Which is when the postal clerk gave me an extremely dirty look.

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She pointed to the box I brought in and told me if Amazon was shipping a $28 package they would pay the post office roughly a dollar for shipping.

What?

When I asked how that was possible she said the U.S. government signed a contract with Amazon when it first started shipping books back in 1994. Since it was mostly envelopes, the rate was low but… are you ready? Though the contract was renewed in 2013, the price wasn’t raised…. and we all know Amazon ships a lot more than books these days.

So basically, tax payers are subsidizing Jeff Bezos.

The third richest man in the world.

Anyone else see something wrong with that?

😡

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