The United States Postal Service: Relic or Necessity in Information Age?
In a recent issue of GOOD magazine, there was an article discussing one of the many anomalies in the United States Postal Service (USPS) system of universal service. The native Havasupai that live within the Grand Canyon area receive customized mule delivery of parcels on a daily basis through the USPS. One of the most cogent points of the GOOD article discusses the fact that private enterprises like Fed Ex and UPS would shirk the responsibility to deliver packages without a high premium.
While I enjoyed reading the article and felt that the USPS provides an invaluable service in a highly competitive market, I couldn’t help but feel that the USPS was the steam engine chugging along next to the monorail. Our economy is based on putting aside old relics and poor business models. The USPS provides inexpensive alternatives to private vendors that pass on the expense of parcel service to the customer. In the end, though, isn’t this socialized mail delivery? Should Americans be subsidizing the Postal Service in order to pay for a 41 cent stamp down the road?
I think that we need to maintain the USPS as part of our parcel delivery service, not as the dominant force in mail delivery. In the hunt for lower costs in our federal government, American tax payers need to advocate for a bidding system involving the major parcel companies in the United States. Bids would include the cost for delivering every piece of mail in the United States down to the direct marketing (read: junk) mail that the USPS feels obliged to deliver. The benefits of competitive bidding for parcel delivery would fall into two camps: private delivery services would work together to provide the same service as USPS for the public good or the American public, private services and the federal government would realize that the USPS remains a critical aspect of services from Alaska to Florida.
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