With America's national debt at almost 17 trillion dollars currently, many are looking for ways to reduce that number by any measure, as they rightly should. After all, the restless American people continually insist on new and often expensive government projects. I would like to suggest one source of money possibly going down the drain -- the national, federal-run postal service, USPS. While numbers vary, the U.S. Postal Service announced in May of this year that they lost 1.9 billion dollars over the latest quarter, as reported in The Hill. Currently, the postal service is mandated to remain revenue-neutral, in other words, cover the costs of running and not make a profit. However, this system is obviously not working. Something must change.
Title 39 of the U.S. Code -- where most of the U.S. Postal service's regulations are set -- says, "The costs of establishing and maintaining the Postal Service shall not be apportioned to impair the overall value of such service to the people." Let us ask ourselves then, is the overall value of USPS 1.9 billion dollars?
In 2009, Gallup asked the question, "How important is it to you, personally, that the U.S. Postal Service continues to stay in business?" 76% of those polled said they found it very important. Since this was 5 years ago, numbers could've changed, but perhaps I am still part of the minority who would say that no, it is very unimportant and, in fact, harmful that USPS stays in business. If you are one of the majority opposing me, if you would, allow me to try and convince you.
USPS first began moving the mail on July 26, 1775 -- 239 years ago. It was created because a national form of communication was so large a project, only the national government could take it on. Obviously, since I am not mailing this to you, we seem to have reached a different way to provide written communication. Between the internet, SMS text, and telephone, national communication is not quite so large a project anymore. What about written communication? Since 1907 when UPS was founded, and then 1971 with FedEx, it has been shown that not only national but international written communication can be effectively delivered by a privatized company. While it does cost a little more to mail a letter or package by a private company, both UPS and FedEx runs much more cost-effectively because it is required to compete in the market and produce a profit.
The U.S. Postal Service delivers 212 billion packages, letters, etc. annually. In contrast, UPS delivers only 5 billion packages a year and FedEx 1.2 billion a year. That's quite a difference. However, since UPS also delivers to over 220 countries as opposed to USPS's one, I suggest that with proper transition, private corporations might be up to the challenge. With that much of a difference in current delivery, a transition from governmental to private shipping and mailing would be hard and carefully orchestrated but not impossible.
I only addressed a few of the many roadblocks in a transition to privatizing the US mail, and I would be unreasonable to suggest that government involvement will not be needed at least at first. Many also project that with the constant flailing of USPS, in a matter of years, it will shut down on it's own. Perhaps we might consider possible solutions, including privatization, now, before we are forced by its inefficient squandering of federal money.
2 comments:
In Susana Hootman's interesting and informative article "America the Inefficient', she firmly she convinces the audience that mail falls short by pointing out the inefficiency of the US postal service.
Overall the mailing industry cannot compete with the global market of technology. Hootman's initial approach targets the socio-econionic factor for why the mail exists and highlighting the reliability society faces towards it. The US mailing industry is seemingly based off tradition, yet with more reliance on technology the future for the mailing service is in question. Ultimately Hootman asserts the notion of a faster, efficient, and easily reachable way off traditional communication.. While I do agree that technology based mailing is very easy to give into, large leaps of completely cutting mail off would indeed hurt the economy in a slight degree and break away too fast from cultural tradition which in turn would be difficult for public interest.
Posted by TheLiberator1776 at 9:35 PM
In Susannah Hootman's article titled, “America The Inefficient,” she explains how the USPS reported a 1.9 billion dollar loss this quarter. I had no idea that this old type of communication was becoming such a national money pit. Most of the way I communicate is though e-mails, texts, and phone calls. While I like the internet more as a communication device, I can't help believe that my P.O. Box is a safer place to receive confidential information. I would not mind paying more for postage and P.O. Box rental if it meant getting the USPS out of the red.
I feel that the USPS should be preserved. America has been using and spreading USPS since 1775. The system, set up by Benjamin Franklin, was one of the only government agencies explicitly authorized by the U.S. Constitution. It currently provides 8 million jobs, processes 158.4 billion mail-pieces a year, and handles 40% of the world's mail. I don't believe private corporations would be able to handle the mass amount of mail the USPS processes. Private carriers would have to spend a lot of money to match the infrastructure and employees of USPS.
In the end the only thing keeping the USPS in the red is Congress. They can't agree whether to prevent facility closures or to reform the USPS processing network. Either way disagreeing is just wasting time and money. Congress needs to quickly come together and decide how to resolve this situation.
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