Postal Letter

Should we let the postal service go out of business?

Follow up on a question before, if we let the postal service go out of business, or let them go down to weekly service, would it hurt many people? The volume of mail would decrease and you would get less waste in the mailbox. The general public has the ability to pay bills through the internet anyway. We still have UPS and Fed Ex. Private business could pick up the rest of the slack. The elderly could still get weekly mail.

Public Comments

1. No, but reform is in order. Please consider, the Postal Service is specifically guaranteed in the Constitution
2. No. The postal service needs to run more efficiently. We still need their service.
3. If private services would charge me the same amount to deliver my Netflix I would accept this.
4. i say let it drop back to every other day, who needs all the junk mail, and why do we keep paying higher postal rates and the mail gets slower....
5. No, the PO is one thing the government has managed to do well.
6. No! It is very illegal to tamper with the U.S. Mail. .
7. Absolutely. UPS and FedEx make the postal service look like exactly what they are: Inefficient, government dolts. The private sector would handle mail delivery much more efficiently, and less costly, than the bloat that is the USPS.
8. No more bail outs
9. You evidently don't use UPS/Fed Ex or you don't have to pay the bill when you use them. Send anything by either of them is expensive--ridiculously expensive compared to the post office. So no but we do need to solve the problem and fix it.
10. the post office goes places fed ex, and ups wont. There is places in near the grand canyon where they still have to go in by Horse, or donkeys. Selling the post office to fed ex/ ups or both might be good idea. The post atleast pays for most of itself. So what is the problem of them operating? They need to restructure. Thats funny. A bank goes under, the Government takes over. The post office goes negative and people want to privatize it.
11. just revamp it,it is required under the constitution and it should be streamlined into a more efficient system
12. no I think everything would begin to become electronic. the few people who still mail bills will stop all correspondence will be by email and all other transactions except for big packages as a result they would then regulate the internet more. the only thing is that many would become unemployed
13. YES. They are going out of business because they are inefficient. How many of us ship large packages through the Post Office any longer?
14. You only need mail twice a week. Fed Ex and UPS are presently kicking the USPS' butt. Here's the best part. 1.) There would be many private spin-offs for local delivery. 2.) UPS will finally be able to get tough with the union. Without UPS, there is no teamsters. UPS is there single biggest shop. They would be toast and good riddance.
15. Just a thought, it (mail) is the closest thing to private conversation that we have. Do we need to loose that?
16. I have thought of this senerio, and I can only think of some big issues and some really bad service. If the post office went out of business, the private sector would take over. and since it would be private, you would have fees. so if you couldn't pay, I guess you would get no mail. currently homeless people get mail by general delivery in some smaller towns. they would get no mail. The military would get fleeced, imagine having to mail something to a military person overseas through a private company, they would make big money off of contracts with the government. No postal service would lead to lots of chaos, and criminal activity, and very poor service
17. And Obama is pushing for socialized medicine. The government runs the post office and amtrak. how is that working out?
18. I would say yes, but I am afraid that a private service would not be able to keep up with the amount of mail they would have to take on. It would probably be a disaster for at least the first couple of years.
19. Not everyone can pay their bills online. Not all companies even offer online bill pay. And have you ever paid for UPS or FedEx shipping? People complain about the rising postage costs and inefficiency of the USPS, but it serves its purpose.
20. We could live without Saturday delivery of the mail. But probably not without the US mail. Compare the number of pieces of mail & parcels you receive from the mail each month to number you get from everyone else. Private companies would deliver to the easy to get to places. Many places would no longer receive mail because the cost would be too high. UPS & FEDEX charges $10 or so to deliver a letter. The U.S. military is all over the world. They receive mail delivery when they are out on the oceans. There is no UPS or FEDEX in the middle of the ocean.
21. if they kick their "union" out, they will be far more efficient and less expensive.
22. Bad Idea ! For a couple of reasons........ 1) As Holy Cow said ......UPS & Fed Ex are already a lot more expensive than the Postal Service is. Can you imagine how much more expensive UPS & Fed Ex would become it they lost competition from the Postal Service ? ---You would see TV ads proclaiming " Only $ 9.99 + $ 49.99 UPS shipping " 2) Perhaps because UPS & Fed Ex have such extremely strong unions offering such great " protection " to employees --- Have you ever received a package delivered by UPS ? --- They look like they were handled by a place kicker for the Pittsburgh Steelers.