On the US Postal Service

USPS has been one of the success stories in the public sector. It is playing the game with its hands tied behind its back, thanks to the government. That too during the financial crisis and the development of the internet and email communications.

It is the only agency in the US that MUST fund all its future retiree healthcare benefits WITHIN 10 YEARS FROM the enactment of the  Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA). Try convincing the congressmen that this rule also must apply to all private sector undertakings.  Watch if Walmart and other companies embrace the idea.

It also MUST provide service to the entire population of the country AT THE SAME RATES irrespective of where they live, unlike other private services.


And postal service has been a free-standing agency that does not get a penny from the US Government at least since 1980 or so. Try convincing the congress that this rule also must apply to the sleazy Banks and investment banks. Try telling the farmers in the Carolinas and Iowa that they are on their own; no support prices, no subsidies.

And I doubt they can raise the postal rates. For that they have to beg the same congress that would rather have them shut down even though it delivers their junk mail to all of us (let them send it by Fedex).

USPS precedes USA. It was established by the continental congress in 1775. And it is one of the few agencies that appears on the US Constitution (Postal clause, Article I, Section 8, Clause 7: "The Congress shall have Power To...establish Post Offices and post Roads....").