Because it really is a question, not of “if” but on how. The Atlantic muses on the fate of the USPS:
Admittedly, some of you might have missed this anniversary as you watched New England and New York advance to the Super Bowl. What you probably haven’t missed is all the recent talk about the demise of the U.S. postal service. The post office has recently announced its desire to close thousands of local post offices, lay off loads of workers, and end Saturday service, en route to cutting operating costs by around $20 billion before 2015.
The moves come in response to staggering losses suffered the past few years, due in part to the rise of electronic communication and an onerous 2006 law that requires it to pay billions a year into its pension trust. Whatever their source, the numbers aren’t pretty.
The article opines on the possibility of the USPS becoming what they once were — rural hotspots and general stores of the 19th century morphing into Internet hotspots, coffee houses, and open public squares of the 21st century.
The other alternative? Turn the USPS into an Employee Stock Owned Plan (ESOP) where the employees “own” the post office.
The alternative proposed otherwise is to continue allowing it to be an appendage of the federal government. But somehow, I can see post offices going back to country stores (boy, would I have killed to have the Post Office attached to the old store here in Kents Store, VA like it used to be). Why not return to that era? Why do post offices have to conjure up images of DMV lines?
Of course, that could conjure up the old images of when the USPS was a patronage position — the political party in power would dole out the post office jobs to their friends. Still, offering small businesses the opportunity to be the post office has its pros and cons. Small businesses and bistros? I can see that. An unholy alliance between Starbucks and the USPS? Ehh… not a fan…
A little free enterprise could go a long way towards revitalizing the USPS. How that occurs and when (and under what conditions) is a question for better minds… but for small rural communities, it’s a conversation worth having.
