The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse

businessweek.com

16 points·petethomas··5 comments

The fascinating part of this article is the international policy comparisons: "Indeed, many other countries have figured out profitable ways to run a postal service. The U.S. could learn a lot from them."

And of course the economic problems of the organization are related to some familiar causes: "The USPS has historically placed the interests of its unions first. That hasn't changed."

Thankfully it seems like Donahoe, the Post Master General, understands that in order to fix part of the problem the USPS needs to move post offices into convenience stores and supermarkets where they can be staffed by non-union employees. Anyone who can operate a cash register could handle most consumer packages as well as an expensive postal service desk agent.

The USPS has been running balanced for years until recently, which I find very impressive.

Judging by the amount of junk mail I find in my mailbox, they are charging too little.

The USPS is most likely charging a reasonable price to sustain current junk mail delivery rates. A price increase may cause more businesses to simply advertise online. Without any data, I would assume that the demand for the postal service by junk mailers is extremely elastic these days.

Part of their problem is costs.

How do they have to pay $5.5 Billion for retiree health-care?

I've read that there is a problem with people retiring early there and then getting hired back by friends as contractors.

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