It’s no secret that the USPS has a monopoly on the delivery of mail, including all correspondence, notices, greeting cards, invitations, bills, payments, promotional material, and so on. This fact has unfortunately allowed USPS’ leaders to blatantly take advantage of consumers. Earlier this Spring, the Postmaster General proclaimed that price gouging will go on at an “uncomfortable rate.”
Whether the nation’s lawmakers are aware of it or not, they passed major legislation in March (The Postal Service Reform Act) that will force users of the mail system to pay between $35 billion-$52 billion more over several years. To add insult to injury, the legislation also sets the stage for significant U.S. mail slowdowns. Just weeks after the enactment of the bill, USPS began taking an axe to its delivery network to close and consolidate facilities across the country, including 500 processing locations, 1,000 transfer hubs, and more.
