The fast and furious online reaction to The [Washington] Post’s Dec. 19 editorial underscores how strongly the people support and trust the U.S. Postal Service.
Though the Editorial Board claims to be “agnostic” on postal privatization, the board suggests it’s been successful elsewhere. This couldn’t be further from the truth; postal privatization has proved deeply unpopular in other countries, where it has led to higher postage rates and cuts in service.
Privatization would jeopardize the Postal Service’s universal obligation to provide postal services for all people, no matter who we are or where we live. What’s to stop a Wild West of price gouging and profit-taking? Where profit cannot be made — especially in rural America — service would probably cease.
The bleak picture of the Postal Service’s financials presented in the editorial ignores some obvious fixes: Allow the Postal Service to provide expanded products, such as financial services and licensing; invest Postal Service pension and health funds in something other than low-yield Treasury bonds; end presorting discounts, which amount to corporate welfare for big mailers and deprive the Postal Service of needed revenue; update the 1970 business model to address the reality of growing package volume and declining letter volume in the internet age.
In addition, The Post’s editorial devalues what the public Postal Service does. Whether through providing tens of millions of people secure access to the ballot box, sorting and delivering medicines, packages, personal correspondence and advertising, enabling customer access for small businesses, bringing normalcy after natural disasters, or giving the exchanging of ideas and information a presence in every community, the Postal Service remains vital to binding the country together. Omissions such as the Postal Service’s role in ensuring access to e-commerce are striking.
Yes, the Postal Service is facing financial and service challenges. But we should not use these fixable challenges as reason to side with private business oligarchs. The unionized, dedicated postal workers side with the people as, together, we say: “The U.S. mail is not for sale!”
Read President Dimondstein’s response and other responses to the Dec. 19 Washington Post Editorial by clicking here!
