# 50,000 reasons not to trust the USPS **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 28, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768 "2014-10-28T15:58:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768/41 "2014-10-29T16:29:32Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > For years now, all that I have gotten in the mail is junk advertisements, a few magazines, a small number of Xmas cards and a yearly birthday card from my Mom. All of my bills and banking are on line and I haven’t gotten an actual letter in over a decade. I’m surprised that this is even useful anymore. Yeah, I’m pretty distrustful of anyone using mail for anything beyond this - seems fishy. ---
**Author:** ![JesterX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@JesterX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JesterX)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768/42 "2014-10-29T17:04:46Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > For years now, all that I have gotten in the mail is junk advertisements, a few magazines, a small number of Xmas cards and a yearly birthday card from my Mom. All of my bills and banking are on line and I haven’t gotten an actual letter in over a decade. I’m surprised that this is even useful anymore. It’s reasonable to assume that a county executive, such as who Arpaio wanted to get the info on, would be receiving more relevant mail. Especially if it was for mail delivered to her business office. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768/43 "2014-10-29T17:58:53Z")
> [@JesterX](#): > > It’s reasonable to assume that a county executive, such as who Arpaio wanted to get the info on, would be receiving more relevant mail. Especially if it was for mail delivered to her business office. True. That’s a good point. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768/44 "2014-10-29T19:00:51Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > When “looking at the big picture”, singling any one thing out can be made to look silly, but I don’t think focusing in on one aspect of the bigger problem is a bad thing-otherwise the conversation just becomes another “Government am bad, but whatcha gonna do about it?” circle jerk. Also, I believe I mentioned **tightening up** the program, not **curtailing** it. 😕 Umm, don’t those both pretty much mean the same thing? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768/45 "2014-10-29T19:02:30Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Why are you blaming the Post Office? Congress won’t give them enough money to deliver the mail, do you think they have a bank of lawyers available to deal with these ‘requests’ from law enforcement? JFTR, Congress doesn’t give us any money at all. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768/46 "2014-10-29T20:08:48Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > JFTR, Congress doesn’t give us any money at all. I was aware of that, but should have worded my post to reflect that, none at all is more informative than just saying not enough. I’d also say that in addition to no private company being able to deliver mail at the rates the USPS does, if they tried they’d probably end up with a worse record of undelivered and misdelivered mail. And I expect they’d cave to law enforcement faster than the Post Office did. Even though I’m often critical of government ineptitude, and the postal service has plenty of problems too, I’ve always felt it’s one of our great government successes, and I just received a response today to a letter with that statement that I sent to President Kennedy. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768/47 "2014-10-29T22:03:35Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > How many people have received letters over the years saying, “We received a package addressed to you that contained an item that is illegal to import” (almost always translated as, “Did you really think you could import a counterfeit DirecTV card that would let you get all of the channels for free?”)? Did they have a warrant to inspect all of those packages? The government doesn’t need a warrant to inspect things that are being imported. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768/48 "2014-10-29T22:16:13Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > The government doesn’t need a warrant to inspect things that are being imported. Does that include mail? Can they open mail from outside the country without a warrant? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768/49 "2014-10-29T22:23:19Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Does that include mail? Can they open mail from outside the country without a warrant? Yes they can in my experience. A friend of mine went to Amsterdam some years back and tried to mail a small amount of hash to a bunch of us. We all got opened envelopes with a little piece of paper inside that said that the contents had been seized by customs. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768/50 "2014-10-31T01:09:51Z")
For the record: 1. Reading the OP without opening the article left me with the impression that law enforcement was \*opening \*mail. That could have been written better. 2. Tracking senders and receivers – the outside of the mail, essentially – doesn’t bother me that much. I’d like for better oversight if Joe Arpaio is using it to target political opponents, but other than that I don’t mind if law enforcement has wide latitude to use this method. 3. I’ve sent and received lots of packages via USPS and have never had a problem. Actually going to the post office tends to be unpleasant in the way most government offices are, but other than that I think they do a bang-up job. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768/51 "2014-10-31T01:48:31Z")
They can read your postcards, too! ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768/52 "2014-10-31T05:42:45Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > They can read your postcards, too! I keep putting my post cards in the mail slot on my computer and they never get there. I must write really good for them to steal them. Must be reading them all over the office. I may be famous… 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-000-reasons-not-to-trust-the-usps/702768.md?page=2)