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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Wednesday 28 March 2012
“What’s going on here? Right-wing sabotage of USPS financing, that’s what.”
The Truth About the U.S. Postal Service
What does 50 cents buy these days? Not a cuppa joe, a pack of gum or a newspaper. But you can get a steal of deal for a 50-cent piece: a first-class stamp. Plus a nickel in change.
Each day, six days a week, letter carriers traverse 4 million miles toting an average of 563 million pieces of mail, reaching the very doorsteps of our individual homes and workplaces in every single community in America. From the gated enclaves and penthouses of the uber-wealthy to the inner-city ghettos and rural colonias of America's poorest families, the U.S. Postal Service literally delivers. All for 45 cents. The USPS is an unmatched bargain, a civic treasure, a genuine public good that links all people and communities into one nation.
So, naturally, it must be destroyed.
For the past several months, the laissez-fairyland blogosphere, assorted corporate front groups, a howling pack of congressional right-wingers and a bunch of lazy mass media sources have been pounding out a steadily rising drumbeat to warn that our postal service faces impending doom. It's "broke," they exclaim; USPS "nears collapse"; it's "a full-blown financial crisis!"
These gloomsayers claim the national mail agency is bogged down with too many overpaid workers and costly brick-and-mortar facilities, so it can't keep up with the instant messaging of Internet services and such nimble corporate competitors as FedEx. Thus, say these contrivers of their own conventional wisdom, the Postal Service is unprofitable and is costing taxpayers billions of dollars a year in losses. Wrong.
Since 1971, the postal service has not taken a dime from taxpayers. All of its operations — including the remarkable convenience of 32,000 local post offices — are paid for by peddling stamps and other products.
The privatizers squawk that USPS has gone some $13 billion in the hole during the past four years — a private corporation would go broke with that record! (Actually, private corporations tend to go to Washington rather than go broke, getting taxpayer bailouts to cover their losses.) The Postal Service is NOT broke. Indeed, in those four years of loudly deplored "losses," the service actually produced a $700 million operational profit (despite the worst economy since the Great Depression).
What's going on here? Right-wing sabotage of USPS financing, that's what.
In 2006, the Bush White House and Congress whacked the post office with the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act — an incredible piece of ugliness requiring the agency to PRE-PAY the health care benefits not only of current employees, but also of all employees who'll retire during the next 75 years. Yes, that includes employees who're not yet born!
No other agency and no corporation has to do this. Worse, this ridiculous law demands that USPS fully fund this seven-decade burden by 2016. Imagine the shrieks of outrage if Congress tried to slap FedEx or other private firms with such an onerous requirement.
This politically motivated mandate is costing the Postal Service $5.5 billion a year — money taken right out of postage revenue that could be going to services. That's the real source of the "financial crisis" squeezing America's post offices.
In addition, due to a 40-year-old accounting error, the federal Office of Personnel Management has overcharged the post office by as much as $80 billion for payments into the Civil Service Retirement System. This means that USPS has had billions of its sales dollars erroneously diverted into the treasury. Restore the agency's access to its own postage money, and the impending "collapse" goes away.
The post office is more than a bunch of buildings — it's a community center and, for many towns, an essential part of the local identity, as well as a tangible link to the rest of the nation. As former Sen. Jennings Randolph poignantly observed, "When the local post office is closed, the flag comes down." The corporatizer crowd doesn't grasp that going after this particular government program is messing with the human connection and genuine affection that it engenders.
America's postal service is a true public service, a grassroots people's asset that has even more potential than we're presently tapping to serve the democratic ideal of the common good. Why the hell would we let an elite of small-minded profiteers, ranting ideologues and their political hirelings drop-kick this jewel through the goal posts of corporate greed? This is not a fight merely to save 32,000 post offices and the middle-class jobs they provide — but to advance the BIG IDEA of America itself, the bold, historic notion that "yes, we can" create a society in which we're all in it together.
Copyright Creators.com
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ABOUT Jim Hightower
National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
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By Ronnie Cummins
36 comments on "The Truth About the U.S. Postal Service"
February 03, 2013 12:06pm
Kudos! Thank you for putting the truth out there....I am so sick of the poison kool-aid that the PMG keeps feeding the public. If the USPS is privatized (which, by the way, no other company wants to take it over...not even FEDEX or UPS), do people really think it will be door to door delivery? Heck no, that would not be lucrative........most of the country would be forced to pick up their mail or pay fees to have it delivered.....SERVICE? For those that are old, disabled, poor, without a computer or incapacitated, NO......you don't provide a profit. Please, people, look at the big picture....save the postal service. We all deserve the service. Lets look out for each other and not just the "bottom line".
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April 06, 2012 9:08am
Postman - interesting, about the difference between the 2.
As for the current service, I know someone who the USPS stole their mail. That's right: outright stole it. Claimed all sorts of untrue stuff, to back up why they did it. That person took them up with the inspector general. But nothing ever came of it. They never did get their mail back.
March 31, 2012 9:03am
I have always thought the Post Office was a great bargain. Where else can you get a letter delivered the next day in state for less. A lot of people do not have computers, internet is not available in all places at a reasonable price. If the power goes off the mail still gets here. I can put a check in my mailbox and get a book of stamps. I live 10 miles from the nearest Post Office so it is a big savings on my car and budget. What we need to do is write more letters. There is something special about getting mail that is not a bill or an ad. Even little kids like mail. While on a vacation I wrote letter to each of my grandchildren just so they could read a letter written just to them. I like mail and think I will start writing to more people, just for the fun of it.
March 30, 2012 6:51am
So greedy coporations can take the money instead? At least that money goes back into the government paying for something....? Anyway if corporations had it that money wouldn't help anyone except for the CEO's golden parachute and the 1%'s bottom line.
My notion is -- if the US doesn't shut off the US Mail, merchants in Hong Kong will simply replace every US business by selling direct with free shipping, delivering directly to our door.
I can buy most anything Amazon or Best Buy sells nowadays direct from some China/HOng Kong company, shipping free, for less than I'd pay for the same thing made in the same place, but bought from a US company.
Yeah, there are problems -- long delays, wrong stuff, etc.
But I can sure see how those merchants could keep using the US Mail for their deliveries and wipe out all the US businesses that have been buying their products, marking them up, and reselling them to us.
US Mail -- disintermediation.
Good or bad, it's quite powerful.
No wonder the US wants to kill it off, eh?
March 29, 2012 10:08am
There's a difference between the United States Post Office (the U.S.P.O.) and the United States Postal Service (U.S.P.S.). Our country started with a Post Office. Today we have a Postal Service. The banks have their hand in the Postal Service. We need to go back to our Post Office. If you think 45 cents is a good deal for a letter, by law, as I understand it, the Post Office could only charge 2 or 3 cents for a letter. Many laws were canned when the USPS took over.
March 29, 2012 12:37am
And let us suppose that congress does succeed in wiping out the U. S. Post Office. What will they do then with this huge pile of money for employee health plans?
March 28, 2012 6:32pm
The USPS moves 40 percent of the worlds mail everyday!
March 28, 2012 5:47pm
To quiet the whining on the right about the USPO they could be brought under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security, a bunch that really knows how to waste taxpayer money with absolutely nothing to show for it. The DHS could redesign postal uniforms in black to satisfy some of the neo-fascists in Congress. Kevlar helmets and sexy armored vests with lots of velcro pockets would also appeal to manly tastes. Hummers would replace those dangerous little post office Jeeps.
When this newly-costumed-by-the-DHS mailman, rings your grandparent's doorbell to deliver a parcel it will probably take the old folks a minute or two to recognize him or her and open the door. After this initial glitch things will hopefully smooth out and postal employees can go about their appointed rounds without having to look over their shoulders for that rightwinger with an axe.
March 28, 2012 5:28pm
As a postal employee I can vouch for everything in Mr. Hightower's piece however I disagree with his assessment of the motivation of the prefunding requirement. I believe this bill was passed to make the deficit appear smaller. Why do you think Obama didn't repeal it when he had super majorities in both houses of congress?
March 28, 2012 3:55pm
Junk mail is part of the reason why the Post Office can achieve an operating profit while charging one 45 cents for first class mail. Junk mail subsidizes other classes of mail. If you don't like the junk mail you get, you can contact the people who send it to you--most businesses don't want to waste their money on people who will never be their customers. Or you can do something much simpler than that. Throw that mail away. And enjoy the fact that the money that brought that mail to you helps keep your postage costs down.
March 28, 2012 3:16pm
It is one of the best organizations of any kind in this country. To think of getting rid of it or privatizing is outrageous
March 29, 2012 2:45pm
I agree. My mail carrier said that the reason that they are trying to do away with it is because they are trying to fund the employee retirement accounts out 50 years or more, and don't have the funds to do it. That's their excuse. What kind of sense does this make anyway???
March 28, 2012 3:01pm
I agree that the USPS is a great bargain. When I was a tad, the cost of a First Class letter stamp was three cents. That price may sound cheap until you think about the times. Mail moved by car, truck or train and took days to cross the country. Then, you could by a Pepsi, a Coca Cola or a cup of coffee (with refills) for a for a nickle. Think about it. A stamp cost 60% of the price of coffee or a soda. Currently the drinks are more like $2.00. So, a stamp today should be at least $1.20 for a "fair" price for speedy air service. To only charge 45 cents to move a document from a farm mailbox in Arizona to an office in Boston is ridiculous. Raise the rate and save our Postal Service.
March 28, 2012 6:30pm
The big jump in stamp price was when the Postal Office Department became the United States Postal Service in 1973 I believe. At that point tax money no longer subsidized the mail. All revenue had to come from stamp and service sales. That is the main reason for the jump in price back in the day. Since then the USPS has not taken one time in tax money
March 28, 2012 2:49pm
Hightower damages his own arguments against privatisation when he mentions how government legislation and accounting errors have harmed the USPS. If the Post Office were in private hands then greedy politicians and other bureaucrats would not be allowed or able to levy upon the USPS costly and senseless legislation, nor would they be close enough to the till where they could reach in and help themselves to funds for vote buying or other such nonsense. The Federal Government should never be permitted to do something that can be handled by the private sector. The reasons for this should be obvious. Perhaps Thomas Paine said it best: "Beware the greedy hand of government, thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry".
April 09, 2012 12:04pm
Yeh! I suppose privatizing the P.O. would insulate it from the grip of avaricious politicians. I have another suggestion; how about we get rid of the greedy politicians? Maybe replace them with NON-greedy ones and thereafter we could all behave like real Citizens and hold their feet to the fire by demanding that they not be on the PEOPLE's payroll and the payroll of avaricious carrion feeding corporate dicks at the same time. Whatdaya think? Maybe while we're on the subject, we could actually pass a law that says you can't be on the payroll of a corporation or it's proxies, or receive funds of any kind or for any purpose or golf trips to St Andrews, or junkets to China or fact finding missions to the Bahamas while your are on the public roster. How about we make a law that says you can't join the ranks of any corporation that you've had contacts with as a public servant for ten years post Congress? I think that's a much better idea and it has the advantage of not allowing our precious P.O. to fall into the hands of avaricious assholes who have proven they are incapable of acting on behalf of the people.
March 30, 2012 6:52am
So greedy coporations can take the money instead? At least that money goes back into the government paying for something....? Anyway if corporations had it that money wouldn't help anyone except for the CEO's golden parachute and the 1%'s bottom line.
Hmm... what about the greedy capitalist CEOs in for profit companies? You think they are more noble than the politicians. Please.
March 28, 2012 6:21pm
"If the Post Office were in private hands then greedy politicians and other bureaucrats would not be allowed or able to levy upon the USPS costly and senseless legislation"
We can do something about the poison pill legislation that has been shoved down the throat of the post office. If we privatized it then there would be no leverage against corporate greed and manipulation. Instead of paying middle class wages to postal workers there would be huge payouts to the top people/CEO's as well as shareholders and the like. If you look at UPS or Fed Ex for example they charge FAR MORE to send packages than the Post Office does especially internationally. The private package giants will not deliver to the door in many many MANY instances. They deliver instead to the post office and then your mailcarrier brings it to your door.
March 28, 2012 5:08pm
Private hands are greedy hands. If the USPS were privatized, they'd probably eliminate house to house delivery, because just having an office with mail slots would be more profitable, especially if you could put a McDonalds in it.
The key issue is can the private sector handle it? I don't think so, not with such capacity. Benjamin Franklin was easily one of the best businessmen of his age. But he took the appointment as America's first postmaster in 1775 from the Continental Congress, as a government function. The Post Office was futher authorized explicitly by the Constitution, Article 1, Section 8. It's existance is too important to leave to the whims of business.
The profit motive would require them to cut corners such as rural delivery. Would a for-profit operation have invested as much as the Post Office did in the nascent airline industry, historically, it didn't and couldn't.
Hightower's point is exactly that the USPS is being scr*wed not by the government but by the private factions donating cash to the campaigns of Presidential and Congressional candidates. That's where the greed lies, in private hands. This is not about thrusting a hand into industry, its the averice of industry desiring its precious.
March 28, 2012 4:34pm
I strongly agree that "the government" should never do anything that can be done by the private sector. The USPS is NOT one of those things. Try getting FedEx or UPS to come pick up your letter to Aunt Sally when you live at the end of a dirt road in rural South Carolina! They won't do it even if you could afford the price and you can't. Nowhere in the world does any private service provide the service of USPS--for any price. Let FedEx and UPS keep doing what they do--cherry picking the people and places that can afford their ridiculous rates--and keep the USPS for the rest of us.
March 28, 2012 1:59pm
Indeed the US postal service is amazing on many counts. Thanks for revealing the political shenanigans attempting to break it. Outrageous. Jim Hightower's article should be posted in every post office in the country.
March 28, 2012 1:13pm
The U.S. Postal Service is wonderful. They'll deliver a first class letter relatively quickly mailed from Maine and sent to Guam for 45 cents. The American Postal Workers Union has some top-shelf people in it.
March 28, 2012 1:09pm
Every time I go to the post office, I understand why monopolies suck. Of the 563 Million pieces of mail, how many are junk mail that most people would just as soon not get? How much does each of those pieces of "junk" mail cost to send -- a lot less than a letter. Is the effort to deliver junk mail less than first class mail? Not significantly.
Snail Mail will disappear entirely within 20 years, IMO.
March 30, 2012 6:59am
What about all the packages that USPS delievers? To major cities they might not be as cheap as UPS or Fedex but to rural towns UPS rules. Also ask anyone who purchases's something from outside of the US what shipping methods they prefer. By the time you finish paying the exorborant shipping and brokerage fees you would be way better off using USPS even though it might be a couple days slower. Nevermind that there are allot of places that UPS or Fedex won't ship to that the USPS will.
March 28, 2012 6:24pm
So-called "junk mail" would not be sent if it were not a very effective way to reach millions of customers. Obviously the senders of this mail find it profitable
March 28, 2012 1:06pm
I use to work at the post office until Reagan and his privatizers had me declared insane. I applied for the CIA in 1983 and I put down why I wanted to be an agent. I said I believed that the USPS was being sabotaged and I wanted to find out why and by whom. Well we know by whom. The why is that the past office has always been the most lucrative business in the world until big oil came along. Now that big oil will be disappearing they want the post office. Imagine how much money you could make if you owned the LA, NY or Chicago post office franchise.
March 28, 2012 3:26pm
After reading your comments, I can certainly understand why you were declared insane.
March 29, 2012 2:43pm
Mister B
Agree
March 28, 2012 12:57pm
I prefer the postal service over internet services any day; but, the Corporate world of technology has found a way to push 'their costs' to consumers via on-line banking, statements, billing, etc. Consumers are falling for it in the name of 'convenience'. On the other hand, the US Postal Service's pay & benefit structure is not sustainable, adding to the costs of operation. These costs may not have been born by the taxpayer, but the accumulated overtime, vacation days, sick days and double-time received by postal employees with huge pension packages were equal to any government office, unmatched by private sector jobs. Still, 45 cents is peanuts compared to maintaining a home computer, printer, software updates, security, paper, ink, etc. all affected by technology,snow, sleet, rainstorms...while the postman is still making his route.
March 28, 2012 6:29pm
I find your comment strange. Did you read the article above. It discusses why the post office is in financial trouble quite clearly. Postal employees do NOT get a huge pension, it is quite modest. Overtime and double time is paid to workers who are forced to work extensive amounts of over time. Sick time accumulates for those hard workers who make an effort to come to work everyday despite the injuries and such that this type of work brings. And as you said not a penny in taxes
March 28, 2012 12:35pm
This elite is also going after the Post Office because it is unionized. Horror of Horrors.
March 28, 2012 12:26pm
This is excellent overview. The Ed Show has also brought forth the truth on this whole issue also, which needs to be widely disseminated. You can bet no other business could survive under the terms that were foisted upon the USPS (and undoubtedly the lobbyists for private courier services had a hand in this too).
March 28, 2012 12:22pm
Exactly what I tell folks at the Post Office every time I go there: This is a great bargain.