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I must admit that I haven’t written a real letter in years. I suspect that is true of many folks as well and is one small factor in the financial woes of the USPS. Of course, more significant factors in the USPS’s woes are corruption, waste, mismanagement and all the usual woes that afflict business and government. While the USPS is technically not run by the government, many folks like to point out that it is run like the government and this is part of the problem. Because of these problems, some folks have suggested that the USPS either be subject to a major overhaul (perhaps becoming truly private) or that it be dissolved.
While I do not write letters anymore, I still use the the mail to send in race entries and pay bills. I also get my magazines (National Geographic, Scientific American, Newsweek, and Smithsonian) via the mail.
Of course, now many races offer online registration and I actually pay most of my bills online. When I send packages, I almost always use UPS or FedEx. I can also read most magazines online. As such, even I am beginning to wonder if the USPS’s days should be numbered.
On one hand, the mail services offered by the USPS can be handled by other means-either electronically or via private companies such as UPS or FedEx. Aside from my magazines and bills, about the only thing I get in the mail is junk. I certainly would not miss that.
On the other hand, the USPS handles a massive volume of material and if it were to go belly up, the truly private companies would be hard pressed to handle all this. Of course, they could scale up to handle the load; but this might simply serve to transform them into versions of the USPS and they could well suffer the same problems. Also, it is not clear that anyone would step in to handle daily mail deliveries and pickups. This would be a rather significant loss to businesses and individuals.
My considered view is that we do need the sort of services that the USPS provides. However, the constant financial woes and other problems of the USPS need to be addressed in an effective manner. This might require fundamentally changing the USPS. Actually, it probably will.
Of course, I am willing to consider that perhaps the USPS has almost outlived its legitimate lifespan. Perhaps the USPS is like the telegraph: once an essential communication tool, but no more. I don’t think we have reached that point yet, however.
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Due to the amount of people the USPS employs I doubt that it will be allowed to fail anytime soon.
We still need the USPS, at least for now.
The problem with the USPS is that the people who work there are not exactly “customer driven.”
Yeah, and that’s what will happen with healthcare, too.
As opposed to private sector insurance companies that currently are customer-driven 🙂 (and not driven by the bottom line)? Now who might they be?
Article I, Section 8:
“To establish post-offices and post-roads”
Bio you saying that if the post office were to close its doors that it would be unconstitutional?
Just putting it out there: Over 230 years have we completely privatized anything else in Art. I, Sec. 8?
How do you think the originalists in our midst would react? Do you think they’d be as upset about removing one of the powers the Founders’ specifically gave to the legislative branch as they are about any perceived attempt to expand the *original intentions* of the Founders?
I’m in agreement with Biomass here. Of course it could be run better but that is another discussion.
Okay. Just be clear that I didn’t really make a statement about the constitutionality of closing down the United States Postal Service. Nor did I say that strict originalists always have the right answer (or make sense, for that matter). I just posed some questions.
Actually, I think it would be constitutionally acceptable to get rid of the current USPS. It would just have to be replaced with another post system. There is no specification of a specific institutional type or how it is to be implemented.
I can imagine a successful effort to eliminate the old system followed by an eternal partisan battle centering around the privatization issue. And you think the health care debate is taking forever! Is this an issue our impartial Supreme Court would weigh in on?
By the time the issue is resolved, Kansas (having been designated the official storage facility for undelivered mail soon after all the PO’s were closed) will be the proud site of the World’s Tallest Pile: junk mail stacked into the stratosphere, blocking all transcontinental flights over the state and thus making it impossible to view the state from its only interesting angle. No apologies to Kansas or Kansans; it’s flat-out the most boring-as-hell state in the Union to drive through.
Very little of Art I, Sec 8 could be privatized without serious structural changes being made, the post office is not one of them.
I asked about the meaning of the statement because of how vague it was.
What I posted:
Article I, Section 8:
“To establish post-offices and post-roads”
“I asked about the meaning of the statement because of how vague it was.”
Don’t blame me; blame the Founders. 🙂
The USPS is badly mismanaged. They’ve created incentives for management to meet certain goals, and personal greed has led to an artificial quest to meet the numbers rather than do what’s best for the service.
On the local level, we have plant and office management not purchasing equipment that would save time on the streets because it would hurt their budget numbers. Equipment that is mistakenly thrown away, and management is to inept to stop.
At the top, how does the Postmaster General get over 1 million in bonuses while many buildings are in need of repair? They take care of themselves not business.
But we need the USPS. Can’t send a vaccine to every household in an email attachment. Financial commerce over the internet is going to be attacked in the future. If hackers have some success, the USPS could mean business close to usual. It’s kind of like keeping stairs in a building with elevators.
As I recall from a History Channel show on the USPS, this sort of problem is nothing new. The USPS went through a period of modernization and reform that fixed some of the problems, but there has been some serious backsliding (and many problems were never actually dealt with). In many ways, the USPS mirrors the problems that other corporations have created (such as big CEO bonuses that are unmerited). Like some of these companies, the USPS is able to keep going because the federal government keeps enabling its bad habits.
I do agree that we need the services the USPS offers. However, it is going to need serious reform to be able to stay in operation. It could be a self-sustaining business; but doing so will require some serious housekeeping.
Nice analogy.
“The USPS is badly mismanaged. They’ve created incentives for management to meet certain goals, and personal greed has led to an artificial quest to meet the numbers rather than do what’s best for the service.”
I am not saying that there are problems but personal greed has to have a slight bit to do with why we choose a career or get employment in the first place. To say that we work to just to give ourselves and our families the essentials is just questionable. It requires extra income for all of us to have computers and have time to talk and discuss on blogs. I know greed is bad in its essence but whom here would not take a bonus from there work if it were given to them?
“The USPS is badly mismanaged. They’ve created incentives for management to meet certain goals, and personal greed has led to an artificial quest to meet the numbers rather than do what’s best for the service.”
Cripes! It’s already been privatized! The second sentence can be summed up in three words: the bottom line.
Hmm, what happens if they privatize it again? Would that be like a double negation?