How to Save the Post Office [View all]

[Karmadillo]

A nice article on the role of the federal government in creating the crisis facing the Post Office. Fortunately, we now have a Democrat in the White House who can lead the fight to undo the damage.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/26-1

Published on Saturday, May 26, 2012 by On the Commons
How the Post Office Is Being Destroyed By a Phony Budget Crisis
Congress, not the post office itself, is the problem
by David Morris

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The solution to the post office financial deficit is simple. Give it back the money Congress, as a result of pressure from the CBO, has stolen from it over the past years. Then make future payments into the health fund for retirees actuarially based.

Once this artificially generated financial noose is removed from the postal service’s neck we can get on with helping it navigate the shoals of an uncertain future. To do this the postal service must build on its two most important assets: its ubiquitous physical infrastructure and the high esteem in which most Americans hold it. In combination, these assets offer the post office an enviable platform upon which to many new revenue-producing services.

But to do this Congress will have to remove another burden imposed by the 2006 law: a prohibition on the postal service offering non-postal services. Like issuing licenses (e.g. drivers, hunting, fishing, etc) or contracting with local and state agencies to provide services. Congress should also lift the prohibition on the post office shipping wine and beer.

In offering new services the USPS could learn from post offices in other countries. The French post office offers banking and insurance services. Remember that from 1911 to 1967 the US Post Office successfully and profitably ran a nationwide postal savings bank. The Swedish post office will physically deliver e-mail correspondence to people who are not online.

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