With all the arguing going on over using mail-in ballots for this year’s general elections (something that will result in fraudulent voting) as well as its removal of mailboxes in some areas, one thing is clear: the United States Postal Service needs to be privatized (i.e. sold to a private entity).
The woes of the Postal Service have been going on for quite some time. It keeps increasing the rates of stamps, it suffers from financial problems (due to technological advances, labor costs, and mismanagement), and there have been several instances of thousands (if not millions) of pieces of mail not being delivered. Meanwhile, the Postal Service has been getting bailouts from Congress to make up for its financial situation.
So as I mentioned in previous articles, the Postal Service should be sold at a reasonable price (perhaps even equivalent to its most recent budget) to the private sector. Doing so would be beneficial to the taxpayers as well as being a source of revenue. In addition, the Postal Service can undergo the following changes:
- Eliminate the Postal Service’s monopoly on delivering first-class and standard mail.
- Abolish the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee.
- Since the Postal Service is exempt from paying property taxes, keeping it exempt after it is privatized might be a good idea until it is out of the red (i.e. a grace period of two years, maybe five).
- The Postal Service is also exempt from receiving parking tickets. This exemption can be done away with (or perhaps it can also be given a grace period in that area).
- Eliminate the Postal Service’s unions, which are partly responsible for it being in the red.
- Repeal the law forbidding the Postal Service from closing any of its offices for solely economic reasons. Once that is done, the Postal Service can close around 2,000 of its 31,000 + post offices (80% of them have lost money) and continue to establish contract post offices. In fact, it can probably consolidate some of its offices if necessary.
- Replace any federal healthcare and pension requirements and replace them with private sector options (which would be less costly).
- The Postal Service has also suffered financial setbacks due to the digital age (i.e. the internet, email). So the Postal Service needs to become more technologically advanced, and that includes going digital. Doing so would reduce delivery costs.
- Like any private entity, allow people (American citizens only) to invest in the Postal Service- i.e. put it on the Stock Market.
There is also the issue of whether or not the Postal Service should have its offices open on Saturdays. Earlier I have advocated it being closed on Saturdays, but if it is privatized then whoever owns it should make that decision. If so, then it would depend on which of its offices are doing well financially on Saturdays. If privately owned, the Postal Service might even be able to extend its hours on weekdays.
Now some will argue that privatizing the Postal Service would require an amendment to the Constitution. That is not the case. The United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8) authorizes Congress to establish post offices and post roads, but it does not require Congress to do so. Keep in mind the post offices in the early days of America were private entities, and would continue to be private until the big government advocates of the Twentieth Century came along. Thus, a Constitutional Amendment is not required in order to privatize the Postal Service. Government action is all that is needed.
Call it the Postal Service Privatization & Reform Act.
