>Fedex works because people near you also need packages.
That's exactly my point. The more people who need packages around you, the less it costs to deliver a package specifically to you. Going off the grid in remote corners sounds great, but part of the reason we moved to cities is because sharing infrastructure costs makes things more efficient.
>Also, the US population density is ~100 people per square mile so chances are good someone within 1 mile of you also needs a package today.
The US's population density is 100 people / square mile, but that doesn't tell you the full story. We don't live all over America, we are clustered into cities and towns, mostly on the coasts. There's a lot of desert and Alaskan wilderness with no one around bringing down the average. NYC alone is ~6% of the US population. The Northeast megalopolis is ~17% on ~2% of the land.
There are less than 4 million miles of road in the US. At 1$ per mile you can send a truck down every one 6 days a week for 1.3 billion a year. (Note, there would be some backtracking but also some roads are avoided.) FedEx's revenue is 45 billion a year so the last mile is not a problem as long as the volume is there.
On top of that if you live in the middle of nowhere they simply don't deliver to you. So, if more people moved to the desert for whatever reason there costs stay more or less the same.
The drivers alone probably cost more than $1/mile, then you have gas and maintenance. FedEx had $45B revenue with $2B net income, not exactly huge margins.
Obviously there is more to package deliver than just the raw cost of getting a package from a local sorting center to the end of a rural driveway.
At the moment, a lot of the cheap rural shipping is being subsidized by the USPS.
That's exactly my point. The more people who need packages around you, the less it costs to deliver a package specifically to you. Going off the grid in remote corners sounds great, but part of the reason we moved to cities is because sharing infrastructure costs makes things more efficient.
>Also, the US population density is ~100 people per square mile so chances are good someone within 1 mile of you also needs a package today.
The US's population density is 100 people / square mile, but that doesn't tell you the full story. We don't live all over America, we are clustered into cities and towns, mostly on the coasts. There's a lot of desert and Alaskan wilderness with no one around bringing down the average. NYC alone is ~6% of the US population. The Northeast megalopolis is ~17% on ~2% of the land.