Do my eyes deceive me? Has you-know-what frozen over? Something strange clearly has happened in the universe, because the Washington Post’s editorial page has published a very sensible piece about the Postal Service, noting the system is fundamentally unsound and stating that privatization is the only realistic long-term option:
Approaching the limits of its federal credit line, the USPS must change drastically or go bust. …Postmaster General John E. Potter…has acknowledged the scope of that challenge, and last week he proposed new product lines, efficiency improvements and workforce attrition to generate $115 billion in revenue or savings between now and 2020. But that’s not even half the projected losses. To really transform, the Postal Service needs congressional action. Some 26,000 of the Postal Service’s 32,000 post offices lose money. …There is only so much that can be accomplished without tackling the item that accounts for 80 percent of the Postal Service’s expenses: labor costs. To be sure, 50 percent of postal workers come up for retirement in the next decade, and that will help cut costs. But attrition has its limits. Management and labor must aggressively tackle uncompetitive wages, benefits and work rules — including no-layoff clauses that cover most personnel. …Given the state of technology, privatization is probably the only long-term solution for the USPS. But it is so saddled with legacy costs that no investor would touch it. If Congress gives management the tools it needs to meet the crisis, and if management uses them effectively — two big ifs, we admit — the Postal Service will have a chance to get its house in order and one day attract private capital, as European postal services have done.
[…] Supporting postal privatization […]
[…] It’s editorialized in favor of school choice, for instance, and also has opined in favor of privatizing the Postal Service. […]
[…] It’s editorialized in favor of school choice, for instance, and also has opined in favor of privatizing the Postal Service. […]
[…] The bottom line is that there’s no reason in a modern economy for a government to operate a business that delivers pieces of paper (and more than it would make sense to have government deliver pizzas). Indeed, this is such a slam-dunk issue that even the Washington Post is on the right side. […]
[…] The bottom line is that there’s no reason in a modern economy for a government to operate a business that delivers pieces of paper (and more than it would make sense to have government deliver pizzas). Indeed, this is such a slam-dunk issue that even the Washington Post is on the right side. […]
[…] The bottom line is that there’s no reason in a modern economy for a government to operate a business that delivers pieces of paper (and more than it would make sense to have government deliver pizzas). Indeed, this is such a slam-dunk issue that even the Washington Post is on the right side. […]
[…] not often that I agree with the Washington Post, but a government-run monopoly is not the best way to get mail […]
[…] not often that I agree with the Washington Post, but a government-run monopoly is not the best way to get mail […]
[…] it’s worth noting that the Post’s editorials are dogmatically statist (though it does support Postal Service privatization, perhaps because that affects the paper’s bottom […]
[…] it’s worth noting that the Post’s editorials are dogmatically statist (though it does support Postal Service privatization, perhaps because that affects the paper’s bottom line). Rate this: Share […]
[…] Of course, when taxpayers bail out the Postal Service, the joke will be on us, but let’s not think about that right now. Instead, let’s dream that the government-imposed monopoly on mail delivery will end and the private sector takes over. Heck, even the Washington Post has acknowledged this is the right direction. […]
[…] Of course, when taxpayers bail out the Postal Service, the joke will be on us, but let’s not think about that right now. Instead, let’s dream that the government-imposed monopoly on mail delivery will end and the private sector takes over. Heck, even the Washington Post has acknowledged this is the right direction. […]
They should refer to this report (which I helped author) that is 7 years old. http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/usps/pdf/freport.pdf
Seems that for the Washington post, the
“Everything Europeans do is Good” principle
overrides their
“Government does things better” principle.