The USPS-Fed Ex/UPS analogy makes the argument for one.

In his Sept. 26 Star Tribune commentary, "Profit motive makes the world go round," William Shugart II had his facts correct (to echo his critique of President Obama) but his conclusions wrong.

Shugart rejects Obama's claim that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and Fed Ex and UPS shows that the public and the private sectors can coexist. He points out that the private businesses do well while the public entity -- USPS -- runs in the red. Proof, he says, that USPS cannot compete effectively.

That USPS loses money is true -- but not for the reasons Shugart gives. Fact is, the public service and the private ones serve vastly different markets, and both are needed for successful commerce (just as a public health care option would supplement private health insurance companies). USPS provides Americans with an inexpensive, convenient way to deliver mail and packages anywhere in the world at low, and admittedly subsidized, prices.

For 44 cents you can get your letter picked up, delivered probably in a day or two, and brought directly to the respondent's home or business. Conversely, the cheapest Fed Ex delivery is $4.57, but most Fed Ex packages cost between $10 to $15.

Thus each service provides consumers with a choice.

What's more, if Shugart is concerned with profitability, the USPS offers businesses a highly cost-efficient way to deliver such things as statements, advertising and commercial correspondence that Fed Ex could never replace. If Shugart wants the public service to concede to the private ones and leave the scene, the first complainers would be his profit-motivated corporations. USPS also picks up a lot of the dirty jobs Fed Ex and UPS choose not to service -- like junk mail and Rural Free Delivery (RFD). So Obama is correct: The private and public services can and do coexist quite comfortably.