Timothy Birdnow

Trump plans to federalize the U.S. Postal Service, ending it's status as a semi-private corporation (it's not a private corporation; it is wholly owned by the U.S. govenrment and the President selects the board that picks the chairman).

President Trump will send a letter this week firing the board of directors and putting the USPS under the direct control of the Commerce Department - where it had been until the Nixon Administration "privatized" it in the early seventies.

The USPS now holds a monopoly on letter delivery. You get in big trouble if you put something in someone's home mailbox, for instance. The box beloengs to the service, or so they believe.

Moving it back to Commerce could be a way to set the stage for true privatization.

In point of fact we really don't need a post office any longer. In the old days it was needed; it was a huge undertaking to carry letters and parcels across country, and it really did require government to accomplish it. But now letters are nigh unto unknown as everyone e-mails or tests, and what business is transacted via post can be done by a private company just as easily. As for parcels, we have UPS and Fedex (who also does papers) so why do we need a costly USPS? It theoretically is funded by the sale of stamps but loses money every year and is often propped up with infusions of tax dollars.

And the people there treat you poorly. I just had to send a check to the IRS (who cheated me out of a lot of money, making me pay interest on THEIR mistake) and I tried to be friendly with the clerk. He was sour as can be; I would have thought he had a lemon in his mouth. Not pleasant at all; that's what you get when you have a monopoly and hire people based on DEI and not worry about customer service.

While it's a bit sad to see a 250 year old institution dissolved, it's not so sad as to warrant us to waste a bunch of money on it when perfectly viable alternatives are available. The Post Office is exactly what is wrong with modern America; a backward, overly bureaucratic institution that no longer serves a pressing need.

Time to buy stock in Fedex.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 12:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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