A Brief History of the Post Office
As soon as the post office was founded, back in 1775, it began taking advantage of its unique position, and using its monopoly status, raised prices on the American citizen, which it was supposed to be benefitting. Only once did it ever lower costs to the American people, and that was when it had competition, all the way back in 1844. Now while this history may seem obscure, it is crucial to the current crisis the USPS finds itself in.
In 1844, an abolitionist and classical liberal by the name of Lysander Spooner began the American Letter Mail Company, sending letters across the nation for only five cents, as compared to the Post Office’s twelve cents. Almost immediately, the Post Office lost much of its business, and realized that it had to be more cost effective to remain relevant: but despite stamp price decreases, it still struggled to compete with the ALMC. Mr. Spooner was simply more effective than his bureaucratic rivals. Finally, after eight years, the Supreme Court ruled that the American Letter Mail Company was illegal because it was competing against a government monopoly, despite the fact it saved the government’s very citizens precious capital, and forced the government to be thrifty (a very unnatural occurrence).
Much like in 1844, the USPS is losing the battle against private industry, but this time it’s even worse. The Post Office has lost billions of dollars in the past decade, a sum so great no private corporation would still exist, yet the United State Postal Service still runs the same way it has for the past fifty years, with no major spending cuts or innovations. If the Post Office was actually in serious danger of closing or even being modernized, they would adapt to the technology of today, but the USPS has no incentive to change: every single worker still gets paid regardless of the success or failure of the service. Peter Cohan told Newsweek back in late 2009 that the USPS needed to “run…like a real business,” and treat their employees like actual employees, not subsidized labor that has no interest in improving. Eight years later, and little progress has been made.
Furthermore, the Postal Service exists to serve us the people, not the other way around, so when postal workers protest the cutting of junk mail, the question must be raised: are they still benefitting Americans by sending them mail they don’t want? No! It has become a self-serving bureaucracy, which loses more than 5 billion dollars a year, and has outlasted its purpose by two decades. If government exists to serve the people, and the USPS is no longer doing that in the most effective way possible, is it ethical to have our taxes pay for it? The Post Office, if it must remain at all, must be privatized without government subsidies, in order to best secure the needs of the American citizens.
Source links:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/1970/01/lucille-j-goodyear/spooner-vs-u-s-postal-system/ (Spooner)
https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2016/pr16_092.htm (amount lost)
http://www.newsweek.com/seven-ways-fix-us-postal-service-81025 (Peter Cohan quote)
http://www.newsweek.com/junk-mail-keeps-post-office-alive-89323 (junk mail protests)
