Allegedly the white house entertainer is blocking bipartisan efforts to fund the postal service
Is there any benefit to we the people of privatizing the post office?
Will we pay for mail delivery futurely?
Will the white house entertainer make money off of it by getting a cut of what the privates earn?
What's innit for him?
The idea of privatizing the USPS has been around for decades. trump favors it as the only thing he can see in this world is dollar signs. If there's a chance something will make money (especially for him and his "kind"), he favors it 100% - despite any possible disadvantages.
As it stands now, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is a large business enterprise operated by the federal government. It has more than 600,000 employees and more than $70 billion in annual revenues. Revenues are supposed to cover the postal service's costs, but mail volume is plunging, and the USPS has been losing billions of dollars a year for more than a decade.
Currently the USPS enjoys many "perks" –
- It can borrow up to $15 billion from the U.S. Treasury at low interest rates.
- It’s exempt from state and local sales, income, and property taxes, and from parking tickets, vehicle fees, and other charges.
- It pays federal corporate income taxes on its earnings from competitive products, but those taxes are circulated back to the USPS.
- It’s not bound by local zoning laws, is immune from a range of civil actions, and has the power of eminent domain.
- It has government regulatory power, which it can use to impede competitors.
- It has a legal monopoly over letters and mailboxes. That means entrepreneurs are prevented from entering postal markets to try and improve quality and reduce costs for consumers.
At the same time ...
- Mail demand is falling and package demand is rising.
- Management has cut costs by reducing the worker count. However, Congress has resisted the closing of many post offices, even though the number of retail customers has plunged.
- Marketing mail (meaning “junk mail”) has become the largest type of mail by volume.
- More than three-quarters of their costs are employee compensation. About four-fifths of the labor force is unionized.
- Expenses are substantially higher than revenues.
- Assets are falling and liabilities are soaring.
In other words, the USPS is bleeding red ink and the company's finances will likely get worse. Technically, trump is right. The USPS's current model is unsustainable and will eventually need a huge taxpayer-funded bailout (and we all know how those work).
There are numerous pros and cons to this argument. However, like everything else that gets “privatized”, we (the consumer) usually end up paying more and getting less in the long run.
Shuhak 