Why We Need the US Postal Service

For a government agency that's been around since the time of its first Postmaster, Benjamin Franklin, the United States Postal Service has done a pretty remarkable job.  Just think about it... you receive mail, at your house, six days a week.  And the cost of a letter is still around 50 cents.  Consider that.  You can send a letter across the country for half a buck.  And yet, the USPS is losing money hand over fist.  The latest calculation shows that it lost $1.9 billion dollars over a three month period.  That's billion with a "b".

One can figure that email cuts into revenue.  People send letters and photos instantly now via the internet.  But there is still a clear need for the USPS.  What are some of the problems?

1)  The Congress (which is the opposite of the "Progress") insists that the USPS pre-fund the retirement plans of their employees, something that no other company is required to do.
2)  The USPS has to get approval to raise the price of postage.  That's a killer.  In the U.S., a first class letter costs 46 cents.  That same letter mailed in Norway costs $1.67.  Would it kill us to pay 75 cents to mail a letter?  I doubt it.  People shell out over 4 bucks for a single gallon of gas.
3)  The USPS is not allowed to make a profit.  That's correct.  They cannot legally make a profit.
4)  They are required to have post offices in just about every town.  (Let's see FedEx or UPS do that!)
5)  The USPS is required to deliver six days a week.  FedEx and UPS charge extra for Saturday delivery.

I could go on, but you get the picture.  People whine and complain about how slow the mail is, but most of us get our Netflix dvds the day after they are mailed out.  It's ridiculous that people complain about the USPS, but don't complain about the constraints that that service has to deal with that FedEx and UPS don't.

I'm sorry, but it's time to take the chains off of the USPS and let them do business.  Looking at just the five points above, we could do the following:

1)  Get rid of the pre-funding of retirement accounts and let the USPS operate under the same guidelines as any other company.
2)  Let the market determine the cost of postage.  If they need to raise prices, let them.  If the price becomes non-competitive, they'll feel it.
3)  Let the USPS make a profit.  Duh.  Any profit can go to pay down the national debt.
4)  Let the USPS close offices that don't make any money.  Place a limit, though, and make it so that there has to be a post office within a 20 mile radius to the next office.  Use grocery stores and the like for small branches to handle shipping questions and accept packages.
5)  Let the USPS determine the delivery schedule.  Again, if people start using other methods to ship because they are unhappy with dates of service, the USPS will have to change to keep making money.

See how easy that is?  So what, pray tell, is causing these problems?  That's right!  An idiotic group of doofuses who oversee the regs.  Sorry.  I'm not trying to be political.  I just see a great benefit in having a healthy postal service.  Someone needs to fix this.  Now.  I need my Netflix dvds.