Sunday, February 10, 2013

Nichols on the End of USPS Saturday Service


John Nichols laments that the end of Saturday service from the United States Post Office is a threat to democracy. Arguing that marginal populations will lose their voting franchise following the discontinuing of Saturday service, Nichols ignores the more envelope-pushing reality: no matter who runs the program, no matter where the funding comes from, agencies and corporations cannot avoid supply and demand.

To permit the Post Office to continue at its current pace, without necessary pension and benefits reforms, or to continue to fund an institution which is losing revenue and relevance in the fact of technological innovations, is the greater threat to our nation’s democracy.  Private firms already deliver the mail, and they can process votes, too.

The United States Post Office is the epitome of government waste and insularity to invention and innovation. While liberal activists have repeatedly rung aloud that the postal service proves that government agencies can run effective business programs, the multi-billion dollar debts and deficits of the program, which has now forced postal workers not to ring twice on Saturdays, only proves once again that efficiency, productivity, and bureaucracy cannot be placed in the same package, nor deliver as a composite conglomerate.

Postal workers attacking colleagues was a sporadic tragedy. The timeless plight of dogs chasing and biting postal workers was serious. The inevitable decline of the United States Post Office, a government agency which faced no opposition nor realized any opportunity to improve, is a long-term inevitably, both timely and no laughing matter.

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