Post Office

The big news yesterday was about the Post Office stopping Saturday deliveries of mail. Sounds like they’re losing so much money, they have to cut services to keep afloat. But is that the reason?

The U.S. Postal Service announced on Wednesday that it will discontinue first class Saturday mail delivery, marking another milestone in the decline of the once-ubiquitous government service. But it isn’t a switch to online mail that’s causing the postal demise — it’s Congress.

Under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, Congress has for years forced the USPS to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of pensions for its employees, a requirement not made of any other public or private institution. That means that the Postal Service is footing the bill for employees it hasn’t even hired yet. Link

Huh? Why would Congress hang such a ridiculous financial albatross around the agency’s neck?

Sadly, this is all part of the Republican effort to privatize all government services. Force the Post Office, one of the most visible of all government agencies, to cut back service, and you undermine the very idea that government is effective. You then argue that their efforts can be privatized through corporations such as FedEx and UPS. Eventually, the Post Office dies and corporations run the show.

It’s a sad, cruel, cynical way to approach governance.