Why We Should Privatize the Postal Service

What's the best way to make the Post Office faster and cheaper? Pull the government's tendrils out of it and let it loose in the private sector.

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Mostly Weekly is hosted by Andrew Heaton with headwriter Sarah Rose Siskind.
Script by Andrew Heaton with writing assistance from Sarah Rose Siskind, Brian Sack, and David Fried
Edited by Austin Bragg and Sarah Rose Siskind.
Produced by Meredith and Austin Bragg.
Theme Song: Frozen by Surfer Blood.

[Jeagan]

"If it goes out of business, maybe it was never meant to be." I wish we would allow large companies to fail. Cut the billions of dollars in subsidies to huge ass corporations, please!

[ThatsViews]

Before privatisation the Royal Mail kept putting up prices and misdelivered mail. After privatisation the Royal Mail still keeps on putting up prices and misdelivering mail.

[starrychloe]

That one time the UK was more capitalist than America.

[richardstarkey]

I work for USPS. You try running your business under congressional oversight and see how well you do.

[DanielJaegerFilms]

Good ol’ USPS, losing the packages you actually need, but making sure your junk mail is delivered right on time 🤣

[Kidsinamerica]

UPS/FEDEX/DHL want NO PART of mail delivery - the logistics costs are far too high, and spending the money to upgrade would destroy profits. UPS/FEDEX only comes to your house when they have something to deliver. USPS comes to your house 5-6 days a week, without fail, whether you have something substantial or not. UPS/FEDEX, in case you've noticed, are NOT getting any cheaper to deliver than USPS. This idea is stupid.

[ohmicah]

The Post Office has been losing so much money because Congress mandated they fully fund pension plans. Some say this mandate was created to force the Post Office to privatize.

[forks]

I have a post office two miles away but my mail is delivered from the post office 8 miles away. The small town, just south of me, has two post offices. To drive from one to the other takes 2 minutes.
A little further south, there is again two post offices in close proximity. Stand at one and you can see the other.

[mastercheif]

legalize weed delivery through the U.S postal service watch how quick it rebounds.

[WhirledPeasFursure]

""In 2006, Congress passed a law that imposed extraordinary costs on the U.S. Postal Service. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) required the USPS to create a $72 billion fund to pay for the cost of its post-retirement health care costs, 75 years into the future. This burden applies to no other federal agency or private corporation.

If the costs of this retiree health care mandate were removed from the USPS financial statements, the Post Office would have reported operating profits in each of the last six years. This extraordinary mandate created a financial “crisis” that has been used to justify harmful service cuts and even calls for postal privatization. Additional cuts in service and privatization would be devastating for millions of postal workers and customers.

In its December 2018 report, President Trump’s Task Force on the United States Postal Service reaffirmed current rules related to postal retiree health benefits, calling it “part of a mandate for postal self-sustainability.” However, the Task Force also recognized that the aggressive and accelerated timetable for funding the mandate has proved unworkable. They call for past deficits to be “restructured with the payments re-amortized with new actuarial calculation based on the population of employees at or near retirement age.”

While this would have a modest positive effect by spreading payments over a longer period of time, it does little to address the underlying problem caused by USPS being burdened with a mandate that no other federal agency or private corporation faces. A new Institute for Policy Studies report makes the following recommendations.

A Better Path Toward Sustainability... etc etc etc"

[jordanwhite]

Hey Reason, what happened in 2006/07 that started causing the USPS to stop making a profit? 🤔

[puertoriconnect]

What about the rural areas the private companies won’t go to cause it’s not profitable?

[holidayhouse]

But whose gonna deliver my monthly issue of Reason?

[nodinitiative]

2:18, banks charge me $30 if I'am even 2 or 3 days late on my payments. They justify this because they sent me a "reminder letter".

[TheSuburban]

My local post office is only open 9:30 to 2:30. WTF!!?? I can't get there on a weekday without taking time off from work.

[BrutusBellamy]

*Lysander Spooner smiles in satisfaction as the postal service disintegrates*

[EmberwildeProductions]

I like the post office! As a small business owner, it's almost always the fastest and least expensive way to mail small parcels. It's also a friendly and central community hub in many rural areas. Many for-profit delivery services still hand off their parcels to the post office to deliver to rural routes that aren't profitable. Without the post office, many people would be paying much more for delivery to remote areas.

[Yewon]

Germany tried to privatize their post office and it didn't work to well. Also the public doesn't want post offices to close.

[Kamidon]

I miss this show :(
Edit: Or whatever, clips. Mini...series? Whatever. lol

[PocketBeemRocket]

It's all that micromanaging and unneeded stipulations thats really killing the PO. I'm convinced they could whip themselves in shape if it wasn't saddled with the amateur lawyers in congress freaking out every time they want to up the price of stamps a half-cent.