USPS is just another socialist government program.Why should it cost the same to send a letter cross town as it does to send it across the country?

Because to build and maintain a system that charges varying rates for a letter would be expensive, very cumbersome to use and how would you, the customer, know how many stamps to use? Then you have the "what do we do with all of the letters that didn't have enough postage"? All adds up to more costs and higher postage rates not less. FEDEX and UPS have similar options now. Ship it anywhere for the same price. Airborne Express started that.

People don't see the big picture when they ask for the USPS to change it's methods. Some changes would require all of corporate America to also change. Most corps use a purchased software, or hire an outside company who uses the software, for processing outgoing mail. I think the most popular one is still made by Pitney Bowes called Finalist. It will do a best match on the address, add the +4 to the zip, can bar code and calculate rates based upon the weight and negotiated USPS rates which are based upon volume. The USPS produces updates of addresses and zips quarterly. Remember that all new development means new addresses and those are all added to a database. Also remember that via typos, etc customer accts aren't always created with an accurate address. So the software will do a best match for the envelope and produce a report so someone can rectify the acct. On top of that many businesses then send their mail out to a consolidator who then resorts the bulk mail with mail from other businesses consolidating into an even higher volume and an even cheaper rate with the USPS which they split the difference with each other. All this happens over night and requires lots of sorting and printing machines. It's a huge thing to change across the board.