Why We Should Privatize the Postal Service
It's a costly, slow way to shuffle junk mail around. Let's open it up to competition.
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. That's what countries like Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands have done as email and social media eclipse traditional snail mail. In the latest Mostly Weekly Andrew Heaton explores why the Post Office is leaking money and stamps all over the place, and the best way to it get it on track.
As communication technology has grown by leaps and bounds, the Post Office struggles to remain relevant. More importantly, it's struggling to remain fiscally solvent. Its unfunded liabilities are at a staggering $70 billion. Meanwhile, it's losing money every year–it's lost $50 billion in the last decade, and is pushing up against the credit limit allowed by Congress. A day of reckoning is on the way, and when that happens, it will either need a massive taxpayer bailout, or private sector flexibility.
Mostly Weekly delivers the answer to America's mail problem. And it does so quickly, without long lines, and without losing billions of dollars in the process.
Mostly Weekly is hosted by Andrew Heaton with headwriter Sarah Rose Siskind. Watch past episodes here.
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.
