EACH box mailed by AMAZON gets $1.46 govt subsidy

Other companies, such as UPS and FedEx , compete with the Postal Service to deliver packages. Lawmakers, to their credit, wanted a level playing field between the post office and its private competitors. The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act made it illegal for the Postal Service to price parcel delivery below its cost.

In 2007 the Postal Service and its regulator determined that, at a minimum, 5.5% of the agency’s fixed costs must be allocated to packages and similar products. A decade later, around 25% of its revenue comes from packages, but their share of fixed costs has not kept pace. First-class mail effectively subsidizes the national network, and the packages get a free ride. An April analysis from Citigroup estimates that if costs were fairly allocated, on average parcels would cost $1.46 more to deliver. It is as if every Amazon box comes with a dollar or two stapled to the packing slip—a gift card from Uncle Sam.

I kind of figured something like that was going on at Amazon. Tesla can't be the only tech companies receiving billions in subsidies from the government. Notice this change in 2007 is when Amazon really started growing. Makes me wonder how much of this was due to government footing the bill.

The US postal service has separately raised 1st class postage rates almost every year for the last decade. I'm willing to bet a lot of that is due in part to subsiding these packages from Amazon. We've had many price increases in postage over the last 100 years but almost all of them are 3 or 4 years after the last one. Not year after year like we've seen lately.

The postal service has a big pension problem too. I bet if they charged Amazon that $1.46 it would put a big dent in fixing that problem.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-post-office-gives-amazon-special-delivery-1499987531