Those of us of a certain age – born before about 1970 – have fond memories of the mailman (yes, that's what we called him, not "postal carrier") dropping off a pile of letters and cards into the mailbox down the driveway six days a week.

But those days are long past. Now, if we have something important to say – "I love you," "I hate you," "happy birthday" – we text or email or hop onto Instagram. Even most bills are paid electronically, so that mail function is also close to obsolete.

Yet here we are, on our nation's 250th birthday, still hanging on to the 19th- and 20th-century idea that the government should deliver the mail – even though there's less and less of it every day. Mail volume is down by half in the last 20 years, and its total demise in 10 years is a near certainty as everything goes digital and the United States Postal Service's market shrinks to near zero.

Let's face it: The USPS is now about as relevant to everyday commerce as........

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