How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
In today's Wall Street Journal, Andy Kessler suggests five ways of creating hundreds of thousands of jobs at the stroke of a pen--President Obama's pen. Here's one:
End the mail monopoly. The U.S. Postal Service, which posted a net loss of $3.1 billion in the third quarter alone (there is only so much junk mail and Hallmark cards to deliver anymore), is finally starting to rationalize small post offices, recently putting 4,000 of them on a list for possible closing. Accelerate this task by ending the USPS monopoly on first- and third-class mail. Entrepreneurs will jump into action. Online bill payment will become ubiquitous. UPS and FedEx and a host of new companies will create more productive forms of delivery. The Postal Service won't end, it will just slowly fade away.
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Jul '11
Re: How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
We have family friends who are lifelong postal employees. I would like to see the USPS liberated from congress, the prices of stamps to rise to a rate commensurate with the service provided and a realistic retirement program.
So yes, I agree with Peter, lets make the USPS competitive and save a Constitutional Institution.
Dec '10
Re: How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
The constitution only says that congress will establish post offices and postal roads. It does not say how congress should do it. A little creative thinking by congress (stop laughing) would go a long way in making this constitutionally directed (and therefore proper) government service a benefit to the people rather than a burden.
Jun '10
Re: How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
J.Voss: We have family friends who are lifelong postal employees. I would like to see the USPS liberated from congress, the prices of stamps to rise to a rate commensurate with the service provided and a realistic retirement program.
So yes, I agree with Peter, lets make the USPS competitive and save a Constitutional Institution.
I agree, but think the best way to do this is simultaneously ending the USPS monopoly on mail and then allowing the the USPS the freedom to compete in an open market (which means pricing freedom). I worked for many years for a telecom company that was compelled to move from a government-sanctioned monopoly status into a competitive economy, which is the only way to force a bureaucratic organization to become efficient.
We will need to do something to assure that vast swathes of rural America don't lose access to mail services, but I view that as a short-term problem while the market figures out how to serve it economically.
Finally, I generally find bureaucrats hard to deal with, but of all the government institutions I deal with regularly, the USPS is the one with the best customer service.
Edited on Aug 8, 2011 at 11:17amJul '11
Re: How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
tabula rasa
Finally, I generally find bureaucrats hard to deal with, but of all the government institutions I deal with regularly, the USPS the one with the best customer service. · Aug 8 at 11:16am
Edited on Aug 08 at 11:17 am
I agree completely! I love my local post office. I have been in the process of trying to get published for a while now. To send my queries via UPS or FedEx was going to run between $5 and $15 each. The postal service ran $2.43 with delivery confirmation. I think they could be incredibly competitive if only they were allowed to be! And to agree further, the monopoly must end, just as 'Ma Bells' had to end back in the telecom era.
May '10
Re: How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
Might be worth doing but don't kid yourself that it will create jobs. More will be automated in private hands, more self-service and lots of small, rural communities without and economic justification for services will be SOL.
Dec '10
Re: How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
tabula rasa
We will need to do something to assure that vast swathes of rural America don't lose access to mail services, but I view that as a short-term problem while the market figures out how to serve it economically. · Aug 8 at 11:16am
Edited on Aug 08 at 11:17 am
Here's the thing: I think we could directly subsidize the truly rural delivery and leave the rest to the market.
In any case, the few truly rural residents will either have to accept extra charges or inconvenience to send mail or they will pay a little more for it. Prompt mail delivery, especially for people who are so isolated, is not so important to survival anymore. Internet access via a satellite is easier and far more valuable than Val-Paks sent to somebody in a Montana cabin 100 miles from the nearest neighbor.
Feb '11
Re: How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
The legacy costs of pensions and health insurance coverage for USPS retirees is the largest cost driver leading to such substantial annual losses. These are union driven issues and these contractual structures in place need to be addressed and reformed. The USPS needs to adopt a business model that is closer to its private enterprise competitors. Congress does its best to micromanage the USPS and that may be a contributing factor to the USPS's continuing decline. Since when has Congress ever been efficient in managing taxpayer's money?
Apr '11
Re: How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
In Australia the Government-owned postal service runs at a PROFIT.
http://auspost.com.au/annualreport2010/financial-report/
I know there are some important differences between the Australian and American markets but I still think it would be worth you Americans sending a delegation down under to see how a government owned (but not run) postal service can actually make money.
Edited on Aug 8, 2011 at 12:30pmMay '11
Re: How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
I like all 5 of Kessler's suggestions. Thanks for the link. I remember when fracking was a euphemism for an expletive but now it has become an expletive in its own right to environmental wackos.
Jun '10
Re: How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
AmishDude
tabula rasa
We will need to do something to assure that vast swathes of rural America don't lose access to mail services, but I view that as a short-term problem while the market figures out how to serve it economically. · Aug 8 at 11:16am
Edited on Aug 08 at 11:17 am
Here's the thing: I think we could directly subsidize the truly rural delivery and leave the rest to the market.
In any case, the few truly rural residents will either have to accept extra charges or inconvenience to send mail or they will pay a little more for it. Prompt mail delivery, especially for people who are so isolated, is not so important to survival anymore. Internet access via a satellite is easier and far more valuable than Val-Paks sent to somebody in a Montana cabin 100 miles from the nearest neighbor. · Aug 8 at 11:42am
I don't disagree with any of your suggestions. I grew up in a rural area, and there is a price to be paid for all that clean air and no traffic. My only point is that there would need to be a transition.
Dec '10
Re: How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
I support the USPS because today they delivered the latest National Review and I have something to read this evening while I sit outside and have a pipe. I guess the point is that there is value in what the postal system does. The problem is that it is cleverly hidden among some of the most assinine bureaucratic regulations ever created.
Apr '11
Re: How to Create Jobs While Putting the Postal Service Out of Its Misery
There's no doubt the USPS would benefit from reform - mainly the reforms that would free it from congressional micromanagement and poisonous labor-management relations. But there is no way UPS or FedEx could provide comparable service for a profit. The post office delivers to every address in the nation every day; something UPS doesn't do. I'm certainly no Luddite but the USPS is a victim of technology - just one of many industries displaced by the Internet. A basic problem is that we are not replacing increasingly obsolete work with new work.