This week the United States Postal Service will increase the price of its Forever
Stamps from 68 cents to 73 cents. Such an increase has occurred several times
during the past five years.
Why is that? The Postal Service said the increase in the price of stamps (in
addition to other items) is to attain financial stability.
Last year, the Postal Service failed to break even financially, suffering a $6.5 billion loss. In addition, its operating revenue fell by $321 million, while first-class mail was at its lowest level since 1968. Postal officials blamed the losses on inflation and decrease in mail volume.
Are these the reasons why the Postal Service is struggling financially? Email and the internet (e.g. online bill paying, social media) have led to a decrease in the delivery of first-class mail. Texting might also be another reason. Ironically, the Postal Service, like other government entities and almost every other organization for that matter, has a website. Meanwhile, marketing mail (a.k.a. junk mail) has become the bulk of mail being delivered.
Additional reasons for the Postal Service’s financial problems are more than 75% of its costs being for employee compensation (note: nearly 80% of its employees are union members) and its expenses being higher than its revenue.
So what should be done? The best solution would be to sell the Postal Service to
the private sector, thus easing the burden on taxpayers (note: the Postal Service
is a quasi-official entity of the United State Government). In addition, the
following changes can be implemented:
Eliminate the Postal Service’s monopoly on delivering first-class and
standard mail.
Abolish the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory
Committee.
Since the Postal Service is exempt from paying property taxes, keeping it
exempt after it is privatized might be a good idea until it is out of the red
(i.e. a grace period of two years, maybe five).
- The Postal Service is also exempt from receiving parking tickets. This
exemption can be done away with (or perhaps it can also be given a grace
period in that area). - Eliminate the Postal Service’s unions, which are partly responsible for it
being in the red. - Repeal the law forbidding the Postal Service from closing any of its offices
for solely economic reasons. Once that is done, the Postal Service can close
around 2,000 of its 31,000 + post offices (80% of them have lost money)
and continue to establish contract post offices. In fact, it can probably
consolidate some of its offices if necessary. - Replace any federal healthcare and pension requirements and replace
them with private sector options (which would be less costly). - The Postal Service has also suffered financial setbacks due to the digital age
(i.e. the internet, email). So the Postal Service needs to become more
technologically advanced, and that includes going digital. Doing so would
reduce delivery costs. - Like any private entity, allow people (American citizens only) to invest in
the Postal Service- i.e. put it on the Stock Market.
There is also the issue of whether or not the Postal Service should have its offices open on Saturdays. Earlier I have advocated it being closed on Saturdays, but if it is privatized then whoever owns it should make that decision. If so, then it would depend on which of its offices are doing well financially on Saturdays. If privately owned, the Postal Service might even be able to extend its hours on weekdays.
Now some will argue that privatizing the Postal Service would require an amendment to the Constitution. That is not the case. The United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8) authorizes Congress to establish post offices and post roads, but it does not require Congress to do so. Keep in mind the post offices in the early days of America were private entities, and would continue to be private until the big government advocates of the Twentieth Century came along. Thus, a Constitutional Amendment is not required in order to privatize the Postal Service. Government action is all that is needed. Call it the Postal Service Privatization & Reform Act.
