Those of us of a certain age — born before about 1970 — have fond memories of the mailman (yes, that’s what we called him, not “postal carrier”) dropping off a pile of letters and cards into the mailbox down the driveway six days a week.
But those days are long past. Now if we have something important to say — “I love you,” “I hate you,” “happy birthday” — we text or email or hop onto Instagram. Even most bills are paid electronically, so that mail function is also close to obsolete.
Yet here we are, on our nation’s 250th birthday, still hanging on to the 19th- and 20th-century idea that the government should deliver the mail — even though there’s less and less of it every day. Mail volume is down by half in the last 20 years, and its total demise in 10 years is a near certainty as everything goes digital and the United States Postal Service’s market shrinks to near zero.
Let’s face it: The USPS is now about as relevant to everyday commerce as the telegraph office of old.
It no longer can meet its mandate of universal delivery; it can’t pay its bills, and the service is increasingly unreliable. A new report by Postal Regulatory Commission reports that over the past 20 years, the USPS has lost a gargantuan $120 billion. That same report finds declining productivity of the workforce. Almost every industry except mail delivery has seen big leaps forward in cost-cutting.
Where will that $120 billion come from to cover these losses? Get ready for one of the world’s largest taxpayer bailouts.
The very best financial scenario we can hope for is that postal management loses money at a slower pace, but even that is a long shot given recent trends.
The USPS has managed to lose money every year despite the cost of a “forever stamp” rising to 78 cents — a 90% rise since 2017.
Even a master turnaround artist like Elon Musk couldn’t make the USPS profitable. An obvious cost-cutter would be to invest in drones to drop mail on our front lawns. But then what would happen to all postmen — er, letter carriers?
The USPS’s financial predicament is dire: We have a business with a catastrophic loss in market share, mounting financial losses, higher costs and 535 members of Congress who boss it around and tell it how to run mail delivery. What’s remarkable about the USPS is that it racks up these operating deficits even though it has been granted a legal monopoly by Congress in door-to-door letter delivery.
In short, USPS is a dead man walking — a stock you would sell in a nanosecond if it had shareholders rather than a federal government safety net. It’s time to bring this 250-year experiment to an end.
The USPS should cease operations at some certain date, perhaps on Jan. 22, 2028. It should declare bankruptcy and immediately start selling off any profitable operations to businesses like FedEx, or its valuable real estate holdings owned across the country should be auctioned off to help pay off its losses.
Most importantly, Congress should bring the free market to mail delivery by immediately repealing the “Private Express Statutes,” the laws that make it illegal for private delivery services to deliver letters below a price determined by the government. It’s an antiquated law that violates every aspect of antitrust laws, such as they are. There’s no law of economics that mail delivery has to be a money-losing proposition. It’s just a losing proposition when the government runs it.
Stephen Moore is a former Trump senior economic adviser and the cofounder of Unleash Prosperity, which advocates for education freedom for all children.
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I worked and retired from the USPS. Granted slowly but surely with the decrease of mail volume the USPS is losing money. The USPS was created to earn its own money and receive nothing from the taxpayer. The real demise for the USPS is when the Democrat Congress under the Obama administration. mandated that USPS not only fund their own employee’s retirement but that of several other government agencies with a certain amount at the end of the physical year — THUS THE USPS STOPPED SHOWING ANY SIGNS OF A POSITIVE BALANCE BUT HAD A DEBT EACH YEAR. The USPS fought to get this stipulation annulled but Congress let it stand. The USPS went into debt faster. Thus, as usual, Congress is the problem.
I live in Florida, a couple of weeks ago I order an item on line. When it shipped I tracked it, begining from California via the USPS. From California it went to Tennessee, then to Georgia, then to Florida, then to North Carolina, then to Alabama, then back to Florida, then to my local post office, then delivered to my home. How can any company survive doing this.
USPS is my preferred method of sending all kinds of greeting cards and gifts. I’m not a big fan of online shopping or birthday type greetings. The Internet to me is antisocial as we are anonymous. I enjoy picking out just the right card for just the right person. But I guess that’s just me. This article made me sad.
It’s too bad to see the USPS suffer financially. I actually think it is a bargain to buy a stamp and have your letter or piece of mail delivered across the country. I think it would be worth a buck or more even. When I was a kid there was no Saturday delivery and I don’t see why they need it now. Shut that down for sure. I’m pretty sure the only problem with the post office is that it’s run by the government.
I am positive that a number of improvements can be made in the USPS. However, they will not apply to all areas of service. Door-to-door, six days a week, is very expensive and will not get cheaper, especially in rural areas. The costs of delivery vehicles and drivers will continue to rise. Cutting Saturday delivery will save significant money in gas and personnel/ It should have been done years ago!
The USPO does a remarkable job in my area and while everything is going up, the cost of service isn’t only the USPO, UPS and FEDEX have also raised their prices. One thing about USPO is that mail fraud is punishable if caught and convicted where the privatized carriers might not care. The only other carrier that seems to beat them all is Amazon. There has been stories in the past that politicians might have dipped into the USPO check book causing their books not to balance but that was a while ago but not too unbelievable knowing what our government is capable of. If we’re looking for government/efficiency, I’m afraid those two words don’t go together well, but the post office isn’t the only one. They still do a remarkable job.
I haven’t seen the trend of less and less mail. There’s much more in my box. Yes, a lot of it is junk mail but it’s still mail. If I get a package, I usually have to wait in a long line with others receiving packages. My post office ran out of mailboxes years ago. Many businesses, like grocery stores, are now renting mailboxes for US Mail. The mailman still walks the street in my town with a pack and drops the mail through the slot in the front door. The rural route deliverers are swamped with mail and packages and they have many stops. UPS and FedEx will drive the same route with just a few packages. Yet they are profitable.
If the USPS is losing money, there’s something crooked going on.
And one more thing: If some business insists on charging me more for paying with a check or money order by mail, then so be it. You think using credit cards is really free?
I guess I might be too nostalgic but I still send birthday and Christmas and holiday cards. How would they be delivered without USPS? UPS? FedEx? And I wonder if it would affect greeting card sales?
I live in southern Oregon. If I mail anything, it goes by truck to Portland (3 hours in north of state), then comes back down by another truck, then maybe in a few days the person gets it. Saturday delivery is stupid and requires an entire second shift of overpaid federal workers. They even deliver packages on SUNDAYS! There are TWO people who deliver packages in my small 25K person town, one for lighter packages and one for packages that weigh more (and the other person can’t lift due to disability accommodations I assume?). Privatize the postal service immediately!
Yep, that last statement seals the deal….”a losing proposition when the government runs it.” So, how about shutting it down and letting viable commercial operations take this whole enterprise over? Won’t happen as long as congress has the purse strings and power base to fail with. Think about it…..NASA has slowly been over performed by the likes of Space-X and others. The military is fast outsourcing a lot of it’s basic operations. The federal prison system is mostly private. Somewhere along the way we have to figure out just what our government is good for…..beyond it’s Constitutionally mandated duties. Like many, I hold no ill will towards the USPS, it’s just a case of getting the service I pay for…..timely delivery without losses and damage….and the USPS does not fulfill their mandate. Simple.
This for me seems to be a timely article not that I have anything to speak about the financial situation of the USPS other than it seems to be in dire straits. The problem is that the mail delivery seems to be in a shambles. We are expecting a letter to be returned to us for our failure to have the correct zip code (our fault). The good thing is we sent it with a tracking number and it has been returned to the Post Office distribution center one hour from our town in which it shows it arrived there seven days ago and still has not left that distribution center. Very frustrating. Our plan is to go to our local post office find out why this mail is stuck at the distribution center and why no movement since it arrived there. If we get no satisfaction then we plan on going to the distribution center and see if we can’t obtain this piece of mail.
the management/ budget office should be COMPELLED TO institute measures to correct the post office with the approval of the congress!
The only thing supporting the USPC is advertisements, campaigns – i.e., all JUNK mail! I can’t even afford stamps anymore! (and to think many years ago I could send out Christmas Cards to so many friends and relatives, birthday wishes, etc. Now I only can do it by e-mail… so sad….
I disagree with closing down the postal service. It’s vital for delivering essential materials and services like legal documents and services that are needed for sending forms and checks and receiving information and checks and revenues and forms. Electronic services don’t and can’t cover everything. Neither can UPS or FedEx. The postal service should be funded by congress for this nation’s security. Enough other government services are funded this way that are not needed, but the postal service is a necessary service.
I am one of those ancient neanderthals that still pay most of my bills by mail. However most of the mail I receive is junk mail. I will hate to see the USPS go.
I live in rural Upstate Northern NY. Being federal, USPS prices are outrageous, service keeps getting worse, but their prices keep climbing. I now hand deliver “cash” payments to creditors in my area because if I send a check through the mail it, nine times out of ten, it’ll disappear somewhere along the way, which means I’m hit with a late charge. When I was growing up, what used to take a day or two to deliver mail now ends up taking four to five days or more. On May 8th I mailed a thank you card to one of my neighbors, she called me yesterday to tell me she got it. I asked her when she got it and she said “today” (May 12th)… it took four days. I wish I had kept tract of all the mail, to and from, that has “mysteriously” disappeared. I ordered a sweater and shirt from ebay before Christmas, on two separate dates, sellers sent them to me, sent me tracking numbers, but to this day I have never received them, and when I complained to the P O they just shrug their shoulders and say I don’t know what happened to them. I ordered a Ethernet Cable two months ago off ebay, I never received it. Same thing, I complained to the P O, their response, we don’t know what happened to it. Last time, I said there appears be thieves working within the USPS. I’m,100%, for shutting them down for good. They’ll never be in the black and their prices will continue to soar, and their services will continue to get worse. It probably won’t be in my lifetime but, eventually, there won’t be any need for the USPS.
Every other day with 1/2 the people that rotate 2 routes.
The problem with the Post Office is that Congress doesn’t let it run like a business operation like it should which means it needs to have radical reform changes to run efficiently. Congress is the reason why it’s not running like it should. And it doesn’t help that the Postal Workers Union considers themselves as untouchable for efficiency and can’t be dismissed for poor performance. The USPS can be the best way to send mail and packages if Congress gets out of the way of holding it from becoming effective.
A big problem is that the USPS is only charging non-profits 8-16 cents for them to mail something (I even received a full size wall calendar for 16 cents which would cost anyone else several dollars to mail). The USPS could make more money if they charged them at least 75% of a first class stamp. Right now, non-profits can mail 5-10 mail pieces for the cost of a 78 cent stamp. Even if they reduced their mailings by half, they would still be paying more to the USPS. There is 1 non-profit that I get 8-10 mailings from them in a month (there was one time that I got 3 mailings from them the same day and some other days that I have received 2 mailings from them in the same day) – way too much.
A make sense article. With the eminent demise why is the USPS buying new postal delivery trucks? How about 3 day a week home delivery and cut the work force in half?
Stephen Moore usually makes common sense observations about economic matters. On this subject, he might be way off base.
An average of five bulk mail pieces arrive in my box almost daily. Curious, as I noticed the price of First Class one ounce stamps go up rapidly over the years (I still have a roll of penny stamps from the Forties), several years ago I began weighing and recording the prices charged for each bulk mail piece and discovered each one carried significantly less cost than what typical users were charged. Quantity discounts are acceptable business arrangements, but the USPS’ board of governors took the matter too far. For instance, commercial and political enterprises generate five times the quantity of mail as the average citizen but are charged about five times less for the service. Bad business practice. Moore says even Elon Musk could not make the PO profitable. Get the Congress and the “governors” out of the way and, given his management style, Elon Musk could definitely show how to turn a profit. ;
Has Stephen Moore ever actually run a business? Exposure to book-learning is one thing, experience and positive performance, another.
Congress should mandate the PO service become profitable and specifically cancel all governmental interferences which prevent that from happening.
Incredible how USPS still loses money with what they are charging to deliver mail. I paid $140 on 5 May to have a 27 pound package delivered to Anchorage AK from Columbus MS. Priority mail. Expected delivery 5/9. Actual delivery, 5/15. A higher cost for worse service. I agree we should do away with USPS and privatize it, and get rid of the pricing mandates for competitors.
Without my local, small town Post Office I would be out of business. So helpful in making sure cards go to grandkids, receipt of hard copy bills, health aids and drugs,
invitations, along with all the junk mail that makes me wonder “how did they find me?”
The Postal Service is doing the job in keeping me on the ball with our every day updates
and communication. The Internet cannot rectify and accurately keep me up to speed.
What about Hallmark and other card dealers? What about grocery ads and offers for services I didn’t know I needed or had options for!
Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to establish Post Offices and post Roads. It is the only business Congress has the Constitutional power to establish. I would much rather see the Federal Government shutdown one of the other businesses (black hole money pits) they enacted without Constitutional authority (e.g. obamacare) than the Post Office.
I disagree. The USPS still has a purpose. I love getting cards in the mail, letters and even bills. My mailman is adorable and I look forward to his coming to deliver the mail. I also get packages via USPS, which is cheaper than UPS or Fed Ex.
Maybe an answer to the problem is to cut down delivery days to either 2 or 3 days a week. I don’t get mail every day so I would not be alarmed if mail was delivered on Mon, Wed, and Fri. That way we get timed mail on time but the mail man gets a 2 day weekend like the rest of the working people, except medical personnel who rotate weekends.
My Grampa was a postal worker in Illinois and I loved going up to his window to hand him an envelope to mail. But that is just the kid in me.
For some reason this article reminded me of when the milk man would come by and put our milk by the door.
My father was a Marine and went to Vietnam, during the war in the 60’s, his one job was transporting mail down the rivers and canals and when he finally got out of the marine corps he went to work for the Post Office as a Mail Carrier. He drove that little mail truck for 20 years, before being made Postmaster and got his own station. He went to college to get his AA and would be asked to go from post office around Jacksonville to get them organized. After 30 years, He retired in Jan, passed away in April. I loved it when the holidays would come and he’d come home with fruit cake, cookies, men’s aftershave. lol
people were so thoughtful in those days. Not sure if you see that anymore. I remember as a kid growing up being so proud to tell my friends, my dad’s a mailman. The cutest thing I loved was in the summer months he would wear those uniformed blue shorts. Gone are the days … luckily in my neighborhood, I still have a mail lady now, who drives a white mail truck. I never forget to give my mail carrier a gift during the Christmas holidays. They deliver mail during the most treacherous weather; they deserve so much respect. I still send Birthday cards thru the mail and probably always will. Something special about getting a card or letter in the mail. Seeing someone’s personal writing means so much. Don’t get me wrong, email is quick and I use it daily at work and on my phone. Let’s not let putting down on paper our thoughts and wishes that die. Thank you to all the Mail Carriers across America!
When our Government becomes involved in any program it goes Bankrupt .
I’d prefer to keep the UPS, as I am a dinosaur and send cards on special occasions (birthdays, holidays, Chrimmas, etc). Yes, I send emails to (various) folks, bidnesses and the like, quite often.
But I still wanna keep UPS. If only ‘they’ treated me better when I go to buy stamps. Doesn’t happen but once a year, yet they treat me like a fat, red-headed step-child…they gots 5 customer service windows, and only ONE is EVER open.
Obviously, a branch of our federal gubmit.
I would miss the post office. I send each of my 26 great grandchildren a birthday card with $5. They love it, because it’s unusual. Most people don’t send cards anymore.
I love my current mail service. Felix delivers packages whiuch sound or like like heat sensitive to my front door vs leaving in environmental challenged community mail box. Private companies would deliver to my door which would be terrific. Better yet I wouldn’t be receiving all the “junk” mail that wastes my time with recycling and the destruction of trees. Time for a drastic change.
Move to 2 days per week deliveries, Mon-Sat so teams could work 4-5 days/week and cover everything. DROP the heavy junk mail make everything ACTUAL opt-in, not default if you read a page. Get ready to privatize. Make the contract happen, perhaps spread across UPS, FedEx, Amazon, DHL in different areas of the country to preserve competition.
The internet everything is just fine until you have a problem and call customer service.We had a credit card company that sent us a delinquent notice when it wasn’t.We made four phone calls to try to straighten the problem out.We couldn’t understand any one of those entities,all in a foreign country which I won’t name.We finally became frustated,paid the bill again,which wasn’t that much,paid the fine and trashed that credit card.
Actually, Obama was the problem. Congress was probably democrat heavy and just followed the carrot.
Home delivery should be only be once a week, preferably the day before trash day.
Nothing that comes in the mail that important that can’t wait a week.