The Passing of the Post Office
I see that the Post Office is considering ending Saturday deliveries. I say, if it keeps the price of stamps from rising, go ahead.
A few years ago I wouldn’t have been so nonchalant about this. In the pre-Internet era, the Post Office was an essential lifeline. Back in those days, people wrote actual letters that often contained important information and I received a vast number of magazines, press releases and studies via the Post Office that were critical to doing my work.
Now it is quite different. I get almost no real mail and communicate almost exclusively via e-mail; I don’t even talk on the phone very often any more. I’ve cut back drastically on my magazine subscriptions, very seldom receive studies or other research materials by mail and use online banking for almost all of my bills. I also use the Internet to generate postage for packages and such so I don’t even need to buy stamps any more.
If I wanted to I could probably dispense with the Post Office altogether except for the occasional package I either need to send or receive. I assume that those younger than me will probably wonder in future years why anyone uses the Post Office for anything. But once upon a time, not too many years ago, I couldn’t have functioned without it.
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Post Office -- what to make of it?
Your comment, "I get almost no real mail" is interesting in that it points to an interesting aspect of the post-office. In recent years, the post office has prided itself on being largely self-sufficient (ie. their revenue covers their budget). But in order for it to do that, they have had to find other revenue sources as content, correspondence and bill pay have moved online. Those other sources of revenue are a. product distribution (ie. mail/internet order delivery) and b. marketing. Interestingly, the rates paid by bulk shippers (ie. businesses) are always more favorable than the individual parcels that consumers send.
I am not sure what to make of it. As someone in favor of less government spending, I applaud the post office's efforts to be self-sufficient. As someone in favor of the efficiency, I am constantly amazed at the job that the post office accomplishes (it serves as the antidote to the typical inefficient DMV anecdotes). But as someone who thinks government should make laws and only be involved in the most essential community functions, I am not sure if product distribution and marketing fit the bill or if providing favorable rates to businesses over citizens (and I'm a business owner!). Do we want more government functions to be self-sufficient? If so, what are the down-stream implications? The question of the post office constantly provides such an interesting juxtaposition of my most basic political assumptions...
FedEx
One reason the Post Office doesn't work is that it can't make the kinds of deals with mailers that a private firm can do. For example, I assume that Amazon and FedEx have some kind of special deal that allows Amazon to ship books for far less than I could. I don't view that as immoral or discriminatory; Amazon probably does hundreds of millions of dollars per year of business with FedEx and they would be stupid not to ask for a better deal and FedEx would be stupid not to give them one. But Amazon can't negotiate a better deal for itself with the Post Office because it is obliged to treat everyone the same--it costs the same to mail a letter a few miles away as a few thousand. That's just the way the Post Office has always worked.
re: FedEx
I wholeheartedly agree that amazon.com or others would and should find the best price for shipping. I really just wanted to point out that it is likely some very high % of the post office's parcels are for marketing purposes (catalogs, offers, etc.) or product distribution. I would wager that these two categories probably account for 99%+ of parcels going through the mail... maybe even 99.9%. And I do not see that as an essential function of government.
On the other hand, I would bet, due to business discounts, that some % lower than 99% would be the revenue contributed to the post-office by businesses for marketing or production distribution parcels. As an example, a person who sends a 1 pound Express Mail letter from Phoenix, AZ to Mill Valley, CA, would pay $24. A business who sends the same package, only pays $17. The consumer pays 47% premium for the same service. http://www.usps.com/tools/calculatepostage/welcome.htm?from=home_header&...
This seems out of alignment with what seems to be the charge of the Post Office and what people would want out of government. (Theoretically, the lower business price should pass on to the consumer... but that is just theory. In practice, many retail businesses make their margin on shipping and handling.)
Your example of FedEx is perfect, because FedEx and UPS and Airborne Express and all of the others should really be the ones handling product distribution and marketing message distribution. The government should not.
And the conundrum is, what to make of any government offices claims that it wants to be "self-sufficient"... because self-sufficient may not lead to the results we really want and probably, would just lead to distorted results.
A false dichotomy?
Are the only options higher cost or less service? Any chance there are substantial inefficiencies (operations, personnel performance, compensation, etc.) that could be greatly mitigated instead? Of course, we might want efficiency gains AND less service AND lower cost, but that's a different option.
"...I see that the Post
"...I see that the Post Office is considering ending Saturday deliveries. I say, if it keeps the price of stamps from rising, go ahead...."
I have the completely opposite view. I can't think of much of anything of less importance than the price of a first class stamp. Set the price of a permanent first class stamp to a dollar and increase the price of junk mail to a revenue maximizing level. Deliver junk mail only one day a week, if it helps.
Regards, Don
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