It’s a service, not a business
This report is a few weeks old, but I nominate the narrative as one of Paul Krugman’s zombie lies (Reuters):
WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. Postal Service said on Friday it was seeking new administrative and legislative reforms as it reported a $9 billion yearly loss, down slightly from the prior fiscal year results.
New Postmaster General David Steiner said USPS must be more efficient and that it still has a “significant systemic annual revenue and cost imbalance.” He added: “To correct our financial imbalances, we must explore new revenue opportunities and public policy changes to improve our business model.”
Someone named The Comfy Dude complains this morning about an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government being judged by private marketplace standards:
After President Joe Biden signed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, USA Today reported (emphasis mine):
When the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 became law, it required the postal service to serve all Americans while also breaking even.
“It basically introduced an identity crisis that had very real consequences for USPS’s operations ever since: is it a business or is it a service?” said Porter McConnell, co-founder of the Save the Post Office Coalition.
Decades later, in 2006, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act was passed, which required the USPS to put money aside for future retiree health benefits and restricted the services the agency could offer in the future to only the ones it already offered.
Yeah, well, that didn’t work out too well. Hence the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022. But USPS is still not allowed to operate as a government-mandated, universal service. It’s what conservatives require when they want to kill any government service they consider a crime against capitalism. Especially against competing capitalist ventures represented by high-paid lobbyists.
I’m going to check Dude’s math here. USPS “lost” $9.5 billion in fiscal 2024 on operating expenses of $89.5 billion. There were an estimated 340.1 million persons in America in 2024. If taxpayers had to make up the “loss,” it would in theory cost $27.93 per person. If USPS were simply a no-fee, taxpayer-supported service (anyone who’s bought stamps knows it never has been), that would be $263.16 per person.
Now let’s look at the Pentagon’s budget: $883.7 billion in fiscal 2024. The Pentagon is a no-fee, taxpayer-supported service. That would be $2598.35 per person, or over 90 times the 2024 USPS “loss” per person.
I await the cries of horror from free-marketeers on the right about the Pentagon’s $883.7 billion loss in 2024 the way Fox News described the “whopping” $6.5 billion loss from USPS two years ago.
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