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marmar

(77,080 posts) Wed Sep 11, 2013, 02:59 PM Sep 2013

Don't Shrink the US Postal Service; Expand It

Don't Shrink the US Postal Service; Expand It

Wednesday, 11 September 2013 00:00
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Truthout | Op-Ed

Last week we wrote about rebuilding the Commons as an antidote to the march toward greater privatization and top-down control of every aspect of our lives from public spaces to education, prisons, health care, resources and water to the internet, knowledge and creative entities. The false mantra that "private is more efficient" has been drilled into the heads of Americans despite the fact that most private institutions require public support in the form of public infrastructure, services or subsidies.

In fact, David Morris of the Institute for Local Self Reliance wrote that "Unbeknownst to most of us, the competition between public and private sectors (like golf) is also handicapped. But contrary to the popular wisdom, it is the private sector that often cannot compete without being given more strokes."

The Postal Service is perhaps the best example that public institutions are in reality more efficient than private ones. Although since the 1980s the Postal Service has been under an attack so severe that private corporations would not survive it, the Postal Service remains financially solvent without public subsidies and while continuing to offer services at low rates.

In addition, the Postal Service, because it is public, has a mandate to serve all of the public no matter where they are. Unlike private corporations that operate only in areas where they can turn a profit, the Postal Service serves everyone. In some rural and low-income urban areas, the post office is the only institution that connects those communities to services and to the rest of the world. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18737-dont-shrink-the-us-post-office-expand-it