For the people.
Not for profit
Privatizing the Postal Service hurts America
By: Evan Lee
Dec. 21, 2024 |
Opinion
About a quarter mile down a narrow dirt path in the Town Forest of Ashland lives an old blind woman. Her address long predates the paved cul-de-sac of the neighborhood that now borders the treeline, where most would think the street ends to curl back around. But look twice, and you’ll notice how the asphalt unassumingly continues into dirt.
The first time I delivered her mail, I drove right past the dirt path thinking it was just one of the other house’s driveways. But pulling up to the next address, I became confused over why her letters didn’t match its mailbox. So I doubled back to check on the previous box, which wasn’t it either, and then finally noticed the very small sign pointing her way into the woods.
Guess I’m going off-roading today
It does not matter how rural, remote, or off the beaten path Americans may live, the basic and fundamental public service of the US Mail will always provide a way for them to remain connected to the rest of the country.
This public service is so fundamental that the founding fathers thought it important to enshrine its creation into the Constitution of the United States - Article I, Section 8, Clause 7, to be exact.
Unfortunately, not all of our leaders today hold the Constitution with the same regard.
Earlier this week, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he is considering plans to privatize the Postal Service, which has repeatedly drawn his ire for being unprofitable in its mission to provide affordable six-day delivery to every American in the country.
Trump and other critics of the service have pointed fingers at USPS for operating under a multi-billion dollar “loss” each year, and how privatized alternatives could save taxpayers the expense by being more “efficient.”
Firstly, let’s just get it out of the way that USPS does not receive taxpayer funding to operate. It’s a favorite comeback among postal workers to tell off the critics by informing them that “no, your tax dollars don’t cover my paycheck.”
USPS is an independent and self-funded organization within the government that relies solely on the sale of postage, products and other services to cover its expenses and loans.
For fiscal year 2024, it reported a total operating revenue of around $79.5 billion as well as a total operating expense of around $89.5 billion. So yes, it did indeed run a deficit of close to $10 billion this year, but that will be paid off by loans it borrows from the US Treasury rather than tax revenue.
Now let’s compare this to other public services, like Medicare and National Defense, which actually are taxpayer funded. These services cost Americans $848 billion and $820 billion respectively in 2023, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
Yet nobody uses the same language to say doctors and soldiers are “losing”
money. That’s because we all (should) understand they are essential to maintaining a functional society, just like your local letter carriers.
The Founding Fathers have spoken.
While it is true that USPS can and should be improved to cut down on its deficit - a topic for another post perhaps, the fact of the matter is that the Postal Service is just never going to have a profitable business model. Nor should it.
It’s not profitable to deliver a Christmas card from Ashland, Massachusetts to Anchorage, Alaska for 73 cents, which is the current price of a first class stamp that guarantees delivery to any address in the United States.
Nor is it profitable to deliver medicine at a uniform rate to the elderly who live in town or miles away on back roads of rural countryside. Same zip code, same rate, same dependable service.
But the Postal Service delivers it all anyway because it’s not here to make money. It’s here to provide a service to the people.
Which is exactly what Trump and those surrounding him on the bandwagon of “efficiency” refuse to acknowledge. The problem with the privatized alternatives they desire to replace USPS with is that they will have no interest whatsoever in carrying over its same mission.
Try sending a birthday card via any for-profit delivery company, it’s gonna set you back dollars rather than cents. And without the Postal Service setting the bar for affordability, other shippers are liable to jack up prices even further as they no longer have a public option to compete with.
Think healthcare insurance but for your package.
Private companies are also much less incentivised to deliver to those living in remote locations. They will either charge an exorbitant price to do it themselves or pass it on to the Postal Service for last-mile delivery at a subsidized rate.
That’s something a private postal system will have no desire to continue offering. Without the Postal Service, expect a near complete loss of rural door-to-door delivery as it’s simply not profitable to reach those addresses. Paychecks, prescription medications, and other vital mail will instead be held in some centralized place for pick up.
Beyond the inconvenience, this is an especially worrisome thought for elderly and disabled Americans who would now be forced to travel miles away to get their mail. That or pay an exorbitant surcharge for the same direct service they once relied on for significantly less.
Such diminished service is already the goal of Trump appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy - who happens to also be a mega-donor of his. The DeJoy plan towards “efficiency” includes a scheme to consolidate local post offices into centralized mega-facilities.
That is despite the fact that centralized facilities are clearly not more efficient to the people vs their current post offices right in town. Missed a package that needed a signature or want to pick up your held mail after vacation? Guess you’ll have to drive half-an-hour into the city to get that now.
Same goes for the letter carrier who now has to make the same drive back just to start delivering. And that’s not even to mention the thousands of American jobs that will be lost as smaller post offices and mail processing plants are shut down to be consolidated.
So this “efficiency” is not for you, the customer, or me, the employee. It’s for those at the top who want to cut essential services at our expense and line their own pockets with the savings.
But we see through the scheme. Affected Americans overwhelmingly opposed DeJoy’s consolidation efforts, leading to a bipartisan coalition of senators urging him to stop. This succeeded in forcing him to delay the plans till next year, when Americans will be back to oppose it further because nobody wants that inefficiency.
Any ideas the new president or his buddy Elon Musk over at “DOGE” come up with will likely face a similar backlash.
Privatizing the Postal Service is a terrible idea that will only make it more difficult and expensive for the people to receive vital mail, packages, and other goods while staying connected with the rest of the country.