The Post Office's horrific “business” problems have actually made it to the news recently, so I thought it would be a good time to post this excellent primer on the Post Office's travails. It's longish, but well worth reading if you'd like to understand this institution's problems – and why crazy people like me have long advocated ceasing all subsidies to the Post Office, and eliminating all special privileges of the Post Office.
As the article makes clear, the subsidies are not all direct and their removal will be politically challenging to accomplish. Even more politically challenging: the huge union membership of the Post Office's work force. The privileges granted to the Post Office are unknown to most people. The most important of these is that the Post Office currently enjoys an absolute monopoly on carrying first class mail, and on the right to deliver mail to a mailbox. These privileges exist only to prevent carriers like Federal Express and UPS from competing with the Post Office.
It's time for this beast to die...
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