US Postal Service

[Belsnickel]

In case you haven't heard, things aren't looking great for the USPS. This isn't exactly new, but with the current administration being rather hostile to the idea of helping them out it makes one wonder what a country without one of the oldest government agencies we have would look like.

So what do you think about the USPS? Should be bail it out? Should we restructure and bring it back into the fold completely of the Executive branch? Should we let it fail and deal with the consequences? What would you do were you making the decision?

[Goalpost]

Cant bail them out forever. Seems like the model in place no longer works. People don't write and send their checks in the mail much any more. So much is auto pay or pay by phone or internet. I would guess 80 percent of my mail is junk mail which I wouldn't miss. I cant think the last time I bought a book of stamps. It's a different world. Like nobody uses a land line phone much anymore.

[masonbengals fan]

Rate increases apparently long overdue.

[GMDino]

Of course they should be bailed out.  And the ridiculous constraints put on them during the GW Bush administration should be eased.

But the GOP does not care.  They still think "private" business will step in...and then don't care if it damages rural america or even just the normal flow of product in this country.

[GMDino]

[Belsnickel]

Personally, I still view the mail as an essential part of our every day lives. I still get and send many things via USPS. I have two (personal) letters and a package that will be arriving, today, in fact. Yes, I use informed delivery to know what is coming in the mail.

I may be a rare individual that is willing to supply it with taxpayer dollars, but maybe it's time to bring it back under the full fold of the Executive instead of being an independent agency. We may think about this service as archaic and being replaced by private industry, but do we want to trust private industry, with no real accountability to the people, to be responsible for handling tax documents, government checks, ballots, etc.?

In addition, some individuals would not have equal access to mail services were it not for USPS. For instance, I live in a small city of 50k people. There is an upcharge to ship here via UPS because of it not being a big urban center. Some places around me aren't even serviced by UPS or FedEx because of their rural position, but the mail comes to them. It isn't profitable to these companies to provide service to these areas, even if what they did was essential. We are seeing this with broadband, currently, where it is an essential service for everyone in today's society yet we have K-12 students in my area that are missing out on school entirely because they don't have reliable internet and can't get it. So the idea of moving mail service backwards to the model we currently use for broadband and are complaining about seems illogical to me.

[SunsetBengal]

Hell yes we should help the Postal Service. I am admittedly biased, as our oldest son is a carrier in Huntington WV.

[*michaelsean*]

Yeah it needs to be kept. How you do it, I don't know. I send no payments in the mail. I get very few bills in the mail. I think very few people write letters anymore. It seems the post office lost $4 billion last year. That's a lot of money for sure, but not a lot in the grand scheme of things. Just have it become a full government agency, and eat the losses.

[BmorePat87]

Disrupting the postal service impedes our ability to effectively vote by mail which in turn lowers voter turnout. As Trump has recently admitted, higher voter turnout means less people voting for Republicans. This is absolutely a calculated attempt to ensure that less people can vote.