> where it's implemented

So how does mail cross the boundary? Assume the US has the system but Canada does not. How will someone from Canada send mail to a US address? More specifically, if you buy something from Amazon, and it's actually delivered from a Canadian shipper, how does the shipper know the address if you've only given Amazon your alias?

Does that mean this system would restrict Amazon, eBay, etc. to only work with places which are party to the new system?

> I already have to go to Easypost to determine shipping cost

I assume you rarely ship things. I used to help send book around the US. It's media mail. We had a scale, and a price list. We weighed the books, put on the right number of stamps, and dropped the mail off at the post office.

There was no "API". There was no need to go elsewhere to weigh the books.

How many similar systems will break with this proposal?

> _much_ easier

No, it doesn't. Right now I only need to know the address to have people send things to me. With this proposal, I have to register my mailing address.

To give a case in point, last December I did a lot of traveling. I went to CA, NM, OK, and FL. I live in Sweden.

In NM my friend in CA pointed out I left my coat there. I asked her to send it to me in OK, where I would be visiting family, as there might not be time for the coat to get to me in NM. I knew the address of where I was driving to in OK, so it was easy to give her that address. Add it's easy to find zip code for an address.

Otherwise, I either 1) need to get the special shipping code for my relative in OK, or 2) register a one-off mailing code with the USPS. (Because I do not want any of my other addresses updated.)

Both are more complicated than putting c/o along with the street address.

> I just update the USPS address.

Again, my case was a one-off event. Consider a different problem, which is the question of how to disentangle addresses.

Suppose I've been married and living in the same place for 25 years. We've registered everything on the same mail code, including Amazon, eBay, credit card notices, bank statements, mortgage statements. Now me and my spouse have decided to celebrate our silver anniversary by living in Hawaii for two months.

While in Hawaii, we still want to use Amazon. But our son, who lives next door, will handle any bills or other things. So we want to change the address for Amazon ONLY.

How do we do that? I can't just update the USPS address because everything will be routed to Hawaii, which I don't want.

Nor can I tell USPS that when Amazon sends to special code XYZ then to instead ship to an address in Hilo.

> I'm not clear on why that gives cheaper rates these days

You don't have to be "clear", only accept that it's true. A DuckDuckGo for "presorted mail" points me to http://pe.usps.com/businessmail101/sorting/presortingMail.ht... which says "Many mailers choose to presort their mail because it results in lower postage. Because you're doing some of the work, it costs the Postal Service less money to process and deliver those pieces of mail. We pass that savings on to you in the form of commercial postage prices. Basically, "presorting" means grouping mail by ZIP Code."

> the USPS should be able to mass sort

Your beliefs about the postal system do not appear to be correct, nor have been correct for decades.

> this is specifically a system of snail mail aliasing

And a system which introduces a lot of headaches for little gain.

How do I change an alias? Do I go online? What if it's been 10 years and I've forgotten the account details? Do I go to the post office to get access again? Can my spouse change the information? Can I designate someone else, like my lawyer, to change it? How safe is it from identity fraud? What is the legal method of recovering from fraud?

What level of privacy will there be on the alias? Can companies share or sell the information? Can the alias-to-physical address be subpoenad? Is the subpoena filed in state or federal court? Does the other side get to file an objection before that information is released?