CORPORATE MIND-SET RUINING POSTAL SERVICE

CORPORATE MIND-SET RUINING POSTAL SERVICE
From LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER, April 12th, 2001

By Marianne Means Syndicated Columnist The motto of the U.S. Postal Service is "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor
gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their
appointed rounds." Ha! That ideal does not apply to Sundays and may not always apply to
Saturdays, either. And as for "swift," the word went out of fashion an
eternity ago along with the penny postcard. "Snail mail" is not a joke. Thirty years ago, the Nixon administration concluded that a
quasi-government agency run by business executives could deliver the mail more
efficiently than the old system run by faceless federal bureaucrats. A new
corporate mind-set, however, improved neither fiscal stability nor service to
the public. The post office has, in fact, been a mess ever since. Now the agency's management concedes that it expects to lose between $2
million and $3 billion next year, continuing a perpetual pattern of shaky
finances and red ink. So officials are about to ask Congress for another
first-class stamp rate increase on the grounds that the 1-cent jump in January
to 34 cents wasn't enough. This time the hike may be 3 or 4 cents. These corporate geniuses are also threatening to stop delivering letters on
Saturday, a bad idea but not a new one. Within six years of their takeover,
they raised the specter of weekend-long empty mail boxes if they didn't get
higher rates to cover their deficits. And they bring up the proposal every
time they demand another increase, which has become almost an annual event.
It's a familiar political scare tactic. The Postal Service has a million excuses for its incompetence. A popular
whine is that competition is fierce. A significant number of people now use
e-mail, electronic bill payments, message delivery services and other
privately subsidized high-tech businesses. Indeed, regular mail volume has
declined because of the Internet. But there will always be a need for personal and business letters. Not
everyone sits in front of a computer all day. Who sends an e-mail to invite
guests to a wedding, relay birthday greetings or express sympathy upon death
or illness? Most Americans still prefer the privacy of sealed envelopes for
business contracts, income tax returns, family confidences and love notes. The problem is not just that communication has changed since the Pony
Express linked the western frontier with the rest of the country. The post
office sees itself as a business run for the comfort of employers and
employees, not as an essential public service run for the convenience of the
public. Despite its financial losses, the agency recently handed out $280 million
in management bonuses. Its own inspector general's office claimed recently to
have found more than $1.4 billion in waste, fraud and abuse. High-level postal
officials are given lavish moving stipends to relocate closer to work. More
than 520 improper uses by executives and their spouses of official vehicles
for private activities have been documented. Furthermore, the agency does not suffer as much from its quasi-governmental
restrictions as it pretends. It is exempt from paying state and local taxes
and is permitted to borrow money at discounted interest rates. It also
benefits from subsidies valued at more than $1 billion annually. Most
importantly, it has a legal monopoly over the handling of letters. But the Postal Service has lost its sense of mission. During a financial
slump more than 20 years ago, the agency spent $4 million on a Madison Avenue
advertising campaign urging Americans to write more letters to one another.
The idea was to generate more revenue-producing first-class mail, but mostly
what it generated was criticism for wasting public funds on trying to drum up
business for itself. Since then, the agency has tried a variety of other
unsuccessful gimmicks, from fancy decorator stamps to unpopular commercial
ventures not related to the mail. The agency now employs more than 900,000 people, which represents a 36
percent increase in staff since 1980. Postmaster General William Henderson
told a House committee this week that to make the postal system profitable,
Congress would have to rescind laws that prevent the closing of money-losing
rural post offices and that forbid rapid, uncontrolled increases in mail
delivery rates. (It typically takes a year for proposed rate hikes to be
processed.) He did not volunteer any internal management reforms. Clearly, an overhaul of the system is needed. Conservatives are pushing
their old reliable theory that privatization — removing the government role
altogether — is the answer. But that is going the wrong way. It makes more sense to go back to the old system in which the post office
was simply a government responsibility, paid for by the taxpayers. Letting
private enterprise in the door has been a mistake. Delivering the mail is one of the few federal tasks specifically assigned
to Congress in the Constitution. And it remains as vital to our national
well-being as printing money and maintaining a military. This business of threatening to end Saturday deliveries has to stop. No
proper government agency would be so politically stupid as to even consider
such a public insult. Maybe federal bureaucrats can't do everything, but they
are better at putting the public interest first than corporate executives are. WAYNE STAYSKAL/TAMPA TRIBUNE
Copyright (c) 2001, Lexington Herald-LeaderLEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER, 12th April 2001