• Elon Musk said he wants to privatize the US postal service.
• The government "should try to privatize everything we possibly can," Musk said this week.
• In comparison, Denmark is shutting down its own letter-delivery service, citing a drop in demand.

Elon Musk wants to privatize the United States Postal Service.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference on Wednesday, Musk said the government "should try to privatize everything we possibly can," including the USPS, according to audio reviewed by Business Insider.

Musk acknowledged that privatizing it would likely require congressional approval.

Yet, while Musk envisions a private US postal system, another country is taking an entirely different approach — shutting down its traditional letter-delivery service altogether.

Denmark phasing out letter delivery

Denmark's state-run postal service, PostNord, announced in a recent update that it will stop delivering letters at the end of this year, and would focus heavily on parcel deliveries.

It said the decision came as the volume of letters handled plummeted by 90% from 2000 to 2024.

As e-commerce booms, the company said it's prioritizing the "growing need" for faster and more reliable parcel deliveries.

"Danes have become more and more digital, and what was once sent by letter is now received digitally by the vast majority of people," it added.

According to the BBC, the decision ends 400 years of letter deliveries. PostNord said it would start to remove its 1,500 post boxes in June.

In a separate statement on Thursday, PostNord said it would cut about 1,500 jobs in 2025 in the process, reducing its workforce by nearly a third.

Denmark isn't alone — Germany's Deutsche Post said on Thursday it would eliminate 8,000 jobs in 2025, calling the move a "socially responsible" reaction to declining mail volumes.

USPS privatization

While some European countries are moving away from traditional letter delivery, President Donald Trump has floated the idea of privatizing the USPS.

In December, Trump said privatizing it was "not the worst idea I've ever heard," and in February he said that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick "will be looking" into it.

USPS has already undergone significant restructuring in recent years.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told a House Oversight and Reform Committee in December that it had reduced its overall head count by about 20,000 employees and cut 45 million total work hours since he took office in June 2020.

However, longtime employees have expressed concern about DOGE's interference in the department.

In November, an operations manager who has worked there for 27 years raised concerns to BI about people stepping in to make suggestions without having the "tribal knowledge" of the service.

The White House didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

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