In a sense, the Repubs attempted to "private equity" the USPS

[Skidmore]

13. Two or three times over the past several years, I have commented that

the Rs were using corporate raider strategies to dismantle the system. I have also asked what we can do to counter it. I'm not an expert on business or finance but I do recognize when someone is trying to destroy something from within. It always amazed me that I could never seem to get responses from anyone else on the board who saw it that way also until reading this thread now. You have done a very nice job in giving a concrete example of how it works. The same thing can be said now for the educational system, the election system, and any other institution we have. Some have been taken over to eliminate them and others have been taken over to provide the private sector with new markets. Many of these functions were best handled by government--like the USPS and the schools. The surest way to sink the ship of state is to load it up with as much baggage as you can before drilling holes under the water line. Doesn't matter whether that ship is on the sea or in the bathtub.