You know what really grinds my gears?
The Post Office.
What a waste. I say we get rid of it. Private enterprise can definitely take care of our mail. UPS and FedEx are superior businesses that do everything except First Class mail already. But this is a double-shot of gears being ground today...
Here's my story...
I live in a teeny-tiny town in central Pennsylvania (for another two weeks). My post office is literally one block from my house. Now, I don't mind walking down to pick up my mail -- seeing as the office is so close -- but here's my problem: there are no mail carriers who deliver to my neighborhood. In fact, the only mail carriers that are employed by my post office are 'rural route' carriers. Those of us who live within two miles of the office are required to pick up our own mail.
Like I said, I don't mind so much because of my close proximity. But, don't I pay taxes to fund the U.S. Postal Service? Don't these taxes go to pay the salaries of... POSTAL WORKERS (i.e. mail carriers)? What's up with that?
Back on subject....
To be clear, I'm not a guy who constantly ponders the splendorous omniscience of the Free Market. I appreciate capitalism, but recognize that -- if unchecked -- it can get out of hand (I'm looking at you BearStearns, AIG, et al). However, in this case I think the Free Market can help.
The government should put the USPS up for sale. Seriously. Highest bidder gets every post office and distribution center in every municipality. All of the employees of the USPS will become employees of [INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE]. The government makes a pile of money that it can use to pay down the debt that the USPS has accrued (ugh), and [INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE] gets the ability to utilize offices and distribution centers that it likely got for 'a song'.
Or you could divide it all up and sell it off piece by piece. Either way is fine with me.
The bottom line is this: The United States Postal Service is a relic of early America. Our nation no longer needs a centralized mail system -- especially given today's technology. The Pony Express is a remnant of a by-gone era. Why should we continue to pay the government for a service which no less than three major companies already offer?
Like the penny, the USPS has outlived it's usefulness.
The Pajama Pundit - Founder/Editor
7 comments:
I'm not sure I agree with you 100%. Having a government run mail services ensures that FedEx and UPS compete to service as much area as they can. Privatize it all, which would have to be done piece mail (pun intended) to avoid a monopoly of sorts, and in tough times those companies could easily say, "Sorry, we aren't delivering to you until the economy picks up."
UPS employees are also part of a fairly big union, not sure about FedEx. A few years ago the company I work for had a short lived Union. They went on strike, and UPS refused to cross the picket line which forced us to take large quantities of shipments several miles to a drop of point.
The whole point of the postal service is that they have to provide you service of some sort or another no mater what.
The small town of Derby, IA (Pop @110) where I grew up had the same thing. Everyone in town went to the post office to get their mail. Everyone out side of town was on a rural route.
While I agree that with the advent of email the postal service has slowly devolved into a junk mail delivery service, I don't think we can privatize it and be stuck at the whims of come CEO that probably has people that go get his mail for him.
I need my junk mail... It burns great in the fire place during the winter.
I see what you are saying Vast. I do. But, can we agree that it seems somewhat ridiculous to have the government delivering our mail?
I'm not a huge universal healthcare guy -- but that seems to me to be a better use of taxpayer monies than the postal service.
Just a thought.
I'm no expert on the USPS but I always thought it was some sort of independent agency of the government not supported by tax dollars but by its own operating revenue. According to the 2007 annual report the USPS is an “independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States.” The report indicates that the equity of the government before the 1971 Postal Reorganization Act became the initial capital of the current USPS. From a quick review of the revenue reported it appears to be from different mailing services and not from a government (taxpayer)subsidy. But I'm also not an accountant, so maybe I am missing something.
This probably isn't going to help your gears PJ....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/13/us-post-office-28-billion_n_143651.html
@Anonymous:
If your assessment of the USPS is correct, then I will have to completely revisit my 'gears'. My thought is that if the postal service is indeed separate from the government's operating budget, then I really wouldn't have a problem.
Interesting.
It is separate. My father-in-law has been a carrier for 35 years, so I get to hear about this a lot. And seriously, the prices we pay for postal service are ridiculously cheap, considering that you can send a letter from one side of the country to the other for under fifty cents and it'll get there, 99% of the time, in 2-3 days. (Junk mail is what keeps it so cheap, by the way--they're the USPS's biggest customer.)
But the big deal, as Vast said, is that they deliver everywhere. UPS might be able to do it cheaper in a major metropolitan area, but you won't get private service, not at that cost, in a rural part of the country if it's private. Think about how long it has taken some parts of the country to get broadband service or even mobile phone service because there aren't enough customers to justify the capital outlay. The USPS doesn't have a mandate to turn a profit--it just has to break even--so it can afford to deliver to those places and do so at a cheap rate.
And let's not forget that USPS carries a *LOT* of UPS stuff. Yes, I have that in the right order.
Do you think you could send your Aunt Maisie out on the farm a letter for $0.43 if UPS/FDX were carrying it? (DHL maybe, but it would take several weeks and then they'd quit the country anyway.)
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