Of course no one would want to do this, but supposing I deliberately signed myself up for every mailing list on the planet, replied “yes please please” to Publisher’s Clearinghouse, solicited Readers’ Digest, the whole thing.
Would the Post Office eventually end up sending a whole truck just for my junkmail? Or is there some “natural” process that would limit the total amount?
There was a rather amusing case where a group of slashdotters found out the RL address of a email spammer and subscribed him to every RL catalog they could find. I’m not sure how the PO handled it.
The only thing limiting junk mail is the willingness of the mailers to pay the postage. You theoretically could get a practically limitless amount – for a time. Eventually, the junk mailers will stop sending things to you if they don’t get any return.
The PO is obligated to deliver the mail addressed to you, so they might eventually send a truck. Of course, they’re getting paid to do so, so the large amount of junk mail will also mean more income for them.
[slight hijack]
If, on any given day, I get more mail than what my mailbox will hold, the mailman will put a key to a locker in my mailbox and I’ll retreive that day’s mail from a nearby locker.
Now, I note that business that expect a lot of mail are expected rent bigger mailboxes than what Joe Citizen rent. So what if Joe Citizen starts regularly getting more mail than what his mailbox can hold. Would the PO eventually try to make him rent a bigger mailbox?
[/slight hijack]
<complete hijack>
You don’t even have to sign up for mailing lists to get voluminious mail.
Back in the 70s, a story ran in our local small town newspaper about a man who had requested a phone card(then simply a paper card showing account number).
The first day he got a few envelopes, each indentical from our telephone company containing a phone card. The next day his rural mailbox was crammed with additional cards. Later in the week, simply a receipt, asking him to come to the post office.
When he went to the post office, he discovered there were two large mail bags waiting for him, filled with the cards.
</complete hijack>