Postal Problems

I guess I must be one of the few that hadn't really noticed any problems with delivery of snail mail around here lately. I have noticed the mail gets delivered at different times throughout the week unlike years ago when it seemed to usually come at the same time each day. I suppose I don't notice it much because I really don't rely on regular mail much anymore. I pay almost all my bills online and receive many of my bills through e-mail. The vast majority of my mail is junk mail.

The Post Office problems do bring out a point, though: How hard it is to change the status quo in government. Snail mail gets more and more expensive and less and less efficient. The cost of stamps will be going up again soon, from what I hear. All this for an archaic, inefficient agency that less and less people are relying on. Yet, no one in Congress wants to broach the subject of ending the USPS monopoly on the delivery of first class mail.

They really need to encourage alternative ways of delivering standard first class mail. I'm not even suggesting, as some have, that they "privatize" the mail service, although that's always an option. All congress need do is get rid of the law that prohibits delivery of non- urgent mail by private carriers. If I wanted to start Fred's Mail Service, I should be allowed to do so. If I fail to make the grade and go out of business, so be it. If no private entity wants to get in the mail delivery business, so be it, and the USPS keeps their monopoly.

Let's open up the mail business with competition and see if it can be improved that way.