Going Postal (Redux) Part 2

The above image sums it up pretty nicely.

And finally, just this morning, a major, mainstream news outlet finally made the point that The Blog has been making for ages.

(If you are not up to speed, read Friday night's repost of a column that I wrote last April. I'll be here when you get back.)



Today's Meet the Press pointed out that a letter sent from Alaska to Florida costs less than 50 cents via the USPS, but...



"...while that same letter, if sent using a private carrier, would cost 50 to 100 times as much."



That's 50 to 100 TIMES as much! This basic fact is lost on so many people who seek to privatize the USPS in an ideological quest to "get government out of the way". But as today's Meet the Press broadcast also points out…



"...even FedEx relies on the Postal Service. 21% of its shipments are ultimately delivered by the mailman."

A similar number is true for UPS.

In that vein, The Huffington Post's Toby Barlow explains why corporate, for-profit entities should be as worried about the demise of the USPS as the rest of us.

As for that whole "get government out of the way" philosophy, it doesn't hold up.

Yes, bad government policy is the thing that is killing the Post Office. Just not they way that the "free marketeers" would like you to believe.

The Government does not fund the USPS. Not... one... penny. Since 1970, the USPS has been, pretty much, a private entity, entirely dependent on income from postage and ancillary merchandise. You see, way back then, the common wisdom held that the Post Office would perform better if it was not a government office. So it became a quasi-private business. But, a business that still had to answer to Congress.

In 2006, Bush's rubber stamp, Republican Congress, gave the privatizers one last gift before the Democrats took the majority.

They passed a bill requiring the USPS to fund their employee Medicare and pension for 75 years in advance.

That's right.

Thanks to a Republican dominated Congress, The Post Office is now required to bank funds for the future for employees who have not yet been born.

Crazy, right?

No other business, private or public, has ever had to submit to such a ridiculous regulation.


Talk about "government over-reach!"

A regulation designed to do nothing but deliver a death blow to the Postal Service.

Here is a great column that lays it all out.

Sorry, free market absolutists. The free market just cannot compete with the crucial service of the USPS. Privatize the USPS and even the free market suffers the loss once the cost of mail skyrockets out of control. Mail delivery may be lower than it once was, but allow the USPS to keep slipping away, and not only Grandma, but businesses will recognize the loss when FedEx letter delivery charges become the only option.

So what is the end game of the free marketeers?

The Blog will let Greg Bell, Executive Vice President of the American Postal Workers Union, explain it all for you.

So, there you go. The redirection of billions of dollars into private hands.

The same goal of those privateers who want to privatize Social Security, Medicare, education, prisons and law enforcement.

Privateers.

Hmm....

For a minute, The PC thought that he had coined a new word. But, then he realized that it sounded familiar.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary provides us with the definition.

In short, government sanctioned pirates.

That pretty well sums it up.

For everything that you wanted to know about the USPS, but never knew you should ask...

Visit this link.