GRRR - that post above didn't work properly... it was MY comment, not a quote! When the Australias are prepared to subsidise the losses of Australia Post to the same degree as the US enonomy bails out the US Postal Service, then prices will drop. Australia Post makes a small profit each year ($300 million or so) The US Postal Service ended its third fiscal quarter (April 1 – June 30) with a net loss of $5.2 billion That means that they are on track to be losing something like 20 BILLION DOLLARS THIS YEAR Not all of that was because of postage, but you ned to understand that it is not a fair comparison, eh!

I will not comment on the economic side of it as I would have no clue on I am talking about there, particularly for US. Although government subsidies for postal services sound like a good idea if that's what's necessary to make australian on-line business competitive on the world market.

what I am not getting is why millions of dollars are spent on advertising campaigns such as these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amq84J4nWwY

for an organisation which has no competition. is that fair on consumers? Why is that money being thrown away? why is this spending not being regulated?