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US22 - Close the Postal Service
| Establish an end date for the United States Postal Service | |
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Description
The Postal Service has become an expensive and unnecessary department.
- People are able to communicate adequately via electronic means
- Most of what comes in the mail is advertisements
- The private sector (e.g., UPS, FedEx) can step in to provide required services
The government should establish an end date 2-3 years away for the Postal Service to wind down operations. This will allow a smooth conversion to electronic / private sector solutions.
Counterarguments
In addition to providing a much needed service, the United States Postal Service provides quality, middle-class jobs to over half a million Americans. Closing the postal service would devastate these people and their families. Moreover, replacing the postal service with FedEx would be a huge mistake. FedEx is absolutely one of the worst employers in the country and regularly denies its workers basic workplace and civil rights (see americanrightsatwork.org, for example).
Right now is not the time to kill jobs.
Right now is not the time to kill jobs.
Closing the postal service seems a little extreme at this point. There are still real people who use the postal service to correspond. Scaling back services would be a better first step to see if they helped stop the bleeding. Now if FedEx or UPS want to submit a bid to provide a similar service at a reasonable cost, that would be a different story. But recently, it was going to cost me more than $33 to send a letter via FedEx for next day delivery. I opted to use the postal service, knowing that my letter would get there a day or two later, but the cost was a first class stamp.
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2nd Quarter losses of $3.2 billion
The mail agency is incurring significant losses because Congress has failed to pass legislation allowing it to eliminate Saturday mail delivery and reduce health and other labor costs.
The Postal Service warned that its cash flow is running low. Without legislative action, the agency says it will be forced to default on more than $11 billion in health prepayments due to the Treasury this fall.