Public Goods

 

Return To Sender

Return to sender, address unknown
No such number, no such zone
We had a quarrel, a lover's spat
I write I'm sorry, but my letter keeps coming back

Th US Postal Service will return to sender, but an email site?

I have an email address that my family ghosted. It was so inundated with spam, etc., that it became easier to just move to another company and another email address. But that original email address is still active all of these years later. And it is the email address that is on file with my college. I only found this out when I had to go back to that email site (I had to be verified by the company offering that email that I was who I said I was). In doing so I found hundreds of old emails from my college.

The college knows my post office address. When I move or change that address, mail gets forwarded for a time and then eventually it is retuned to sender. I am well aware of this because when my late father moved to a nursing home, he received forwarded letters for a time, but the sender eventually received a return to sender note.

And that is the difference between a public service, as provided by the US Postal Service, and a private company providing an email address. A public service can attempt to notify both parties when it is unable to complete a transaction, even when it makes no profit on that notice. A private company can not be expected to notify either party unless it is getting a profit for providing that service. Email addresses provided by a private company may look and feel like a public good, but they are still private goods, and unless those private goods make money they will not be offered. So no incentive to return to sender,