Post Office Doesn't Need Fixing

"When a mail carrier works the same route for years, you become embedded in people's lives.You go to parties and to Eagle Scout ceremonies. You come to know people well when you deliver wedding gifts and condolence cards and birth notices. There are quick conversations with elderly customers who rarely speak with anyone else. There is the chance to casually spread the news of a lost dog or missing bike."

So says says Wendy Lopez-Swiatek, a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service in a column by Mark Hare that appears on New York's Democrat and Chronicle website.

Hare says, "But to the bottom-liners who run everything these days, price always trumps the human touch. So faced with what looks like $20 billion in losses forecast over the next few years, it's no surprise that the penny-pinchers, including new Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, want to close more than 3,000 post offices, end Saturday delivery and lay off more than 100,000 of 560,000 postal workers. If it comes to making drastic changes, the actual cutting could go even deeper. No one knows right now."

According to Hare, "But this fake postal crisis is a proxy battle being hyped by the same old government-is-always-bad crowd — another chance to sharply cut or eliminate a public service by privatizing what's already a cost-efficient, well-run program."

Ken Montgomery, president of the Branch 210 of the National Association of Letter Carriers responds, "The Postal Service is the richest broke company you'll ever see. The Postal Service has been a quasi-independent organization for 30 years, providing universal mail service at some of the lowest rates in the world without a single tax dollar of support. It doesn't need fixing."

 Lopez-Swiatek points out, "We go to every address in America, every day — for 44 cents. Nobody else can do that, and still make a profit. Why would you mess with such success?"

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