The Postman Rings the Golden Bell--More Than Twice

Egads.

...the Postal Service is a great jobs machine, employing 712,000 people at an average annual compensation, including wages and benefits, of $83,000. And those hefty pay checks are a great source of political contributions for Democrats. In 2010, almost 90 percent of the approximately $4 million contributed to campaigns by postal unions went to Democrats. Take a guess where much of the opposition to reform comes from.

...the Postal Service lost about $6 billion this year and by its own projections it will drop a cool $238 billion over the next decade. By 2020, the last year in the projections, the Postal Service will be losing $33 billion annually.

So what about the quality of service? You know: if it's THAT good, maybe it's worth the price.

...we don’t know how bad the service is, because the Postal Service collects data on its own service quality, but it refuses to make the data public.

OK--so what about privatizing?

Postal Service advocates have argued that the monopoly is necessary because of the national objective of providing universal service.

Well, yes. It's in the Constitution, or something like that. But what about those demi-Socialist Europeans--Germany, and Sweden? Well, they're reforming, and have been for 10 years or more.

Reforms tended to have, he reported, three characteristics. First, they would “corporatize” or privatize postal operations. Second, reforms have tended to reduce delivery monopolies. And third, regulators have guaranteed the continuation of universal service.

So, yes, it can be done. Let's just make sure that it's done right.

HT: AOSHQ