Goin' Postal on Postal Reform

Chuck Muth

Not even Timothy Leary, in his worst acid-induced hallucination, could imagine the following scenario occurring regularly (if at all) at his local post office.

I needed to send seven boxes of “stuff” to a friend in Florida. So I went to my local UPS Store in South Carson City (Nev.) on Saturday and arrived at 3:15 p.m. The door was locked. A quick scan of the operating hours posted on the door indicated I was 15 minutes too late. Oh, well. I’ll just have to come back Monday morning.

Then a funny thing happened on my way back to the car. The owner of the store unlocked the door and asked what I needed. He explained that he’d already closed out his cash register, but that if I wanted to leave the boxes and fill out the paperwork now, he’d keep them over the weekend, take my credit card information over the phone on Monday morning and save me a trip. Wow. Nice service.

And to top everything off, while I was filling out the shipping form, the man went out to my car and unloaded the seven boxes for me! Now you tell me this is the kind of service you’re accustomed to receiving from the USPS, even at the new 39-cent stamp price.

Every now and then someone will write asking why I continue to dog the post office like this. It’s not, after all, a “sexy” public policy issue for most people - like the war in Iraq, illegal immigration and gay marriage. But my organization’s (www.citizenoutreach.com) primary purpose is to promote the notion of strictly limited government and free markets. And the post office is a government-enforced monopoly which is bigger, I believe, than any other federal agency other than the military. So while it may not be sexy, it IS right up our alley.

And inevitably, I get emails - usually from postal union workers - whenever I write about the post office claiming it’s an “independent” operation which receives no taxpayer dollars. But the post office IS a federal agency; it is NOT a private business. It enjoys a federally-protected monopoly on first-class mail delivery and access to YOUR mailbox. Woe to any non-postal employee who attempts to violate either. And while USPS may not receive direct “taxpayer dollars for routine operations,” it DOES receive government benefits which no private firm enjoys, such as preferred borrowing rates and exemptions from local property taxes.

But I’m not even willing to concede that USPS receives no taxpayer funds. You and I have no choice BUT to deal with the post office if we want to mail Aunt Minnie a birthday card and the post office charges you a “fee” to deliver it. That “fee” comes in the form of a stamp. That stamp, therefore, is a tax. Plain and simple.

Indeed, England’s Stamp Act in 1765 was implemented as a means of funding the operations of the British army in the colonies. The act required that a “stamp” (actually, an imprint; what we today would call embossing) be affixed to certain documents as proof that the tax had been paid. So offensive was this stamp tax, that it served as one of the reason we colonists went to war for independence in 1776.

Stamps today serve as proof that another tax to fund the operations of an army has been paid: The army of postal workers at USPS.

In any event, a postal “reform” bill awaits congressional action when our representatives return from their extended winter recess (formerly known as Christmas Break) this week. And proving once again that politics makes strange bedfellow, I find myself on the same side as the post office in opposing the legislation - for entirely different reasons.

The post office opposes the bill because it doesn’t loosen up the oversight USPS is subjected to. They want the freedom to set their own prices and run around loose without a leash, just like any other business. But they are NOT like any other business. And until/unless they give up their monopoly protections and benefits, they shouldn’t be treated as one.

Which is why I don’t like the bill as drafted. Because this postal “reform” legislation does nothing to bring true, free-market reforms to mail delivery in the United States. There’s no provision for introducing competition to first-class mail delivery. And therefore, there’s no incentive for the local postal worker to unlock the doors 15 minutes after closing to provide first-class service to a paying customer. Absent such “reforms,” the bill is about as valuable as a 37-cent stamp.

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Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a non-profit public policy advocacy organization in Washington, D.C.

chuckmuth@earthlink.net