Post Office Paranoia

As news of the fiscal shortfall of the United Sates Post Office makes it way through the general circulation press, collectors have become nervous over what the financial problems mean for them. If the Post Office were a private company, the solution to its problems would be fairly simple. Its pension liabilities alone would force it into bankruptcy where it would restructure these obligations, fine tune its business model and emerge from bankrupt strongly able to compete. But the USPS is a government agency, subject to governance by Congress, and so there are competing forces at work with regard to the USPS’s future. The Post Office is required to deliver mail to every address in America. This is very expensive and is something that not for profit business would ever attempt and which a bankraupcy referee would end on day one. But Congressional constituencies and the over representation of rural districts in Congress (and the vital importance of postal service to these districts) give the forces that wish to continue such service great power. There are tens of thousands of post offices in the United States. But again, rationalizing brick and mortar post office placement will be a political battle. It’s fairly clear that the answer to the current problem will be what could be called the Weight Watchers solution. Trim hours and deliveries, reduce the pension benefits and close a few post offices. Small, steady, evenly disperse pain so that all feel a bit of difficulty but no constituent group gets too upset.  Lots of sound and fury and little significance. The Post Office has too many competing constituencies to be greatly changed any time soon. When a government agency has as its two greatest beneficiaries Democratic organized labor and Republican rural America, its a good bet that not much will change.