Everyone from Benjamin Franklin to the Mickey Mouse Club has realized the importance of prompt mail delivery in America. Everyone except recently-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, that is. Listen up, Louis.
Above: 1979 song by Larry Groce and the Disneyland Children’s Sing-Along Chorus
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Back in the Sixties, when people mailed paper letters and the U.S. Post Office was a real government agency, the USPO introduced the Zone Improvement Plan, organizing the country by ZIP Code. Vox explains.
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Bonus: ZIP Code music video by the Swingin’ Six.
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It’s not email or political pressure to maintain inefficient low-volume post offices that’s put the U.S. Postal Service in a deep financial hole. In 2006, Congress “reformed” the Postal Service by requiring it to prepay all retirement costs for current employees, something no other agency or business has to do. This costs the USPO $5.5 billion a year and is responsible for most of the agency’s losses. “Congress created the problems, and it can fix them by taking away the requirement that no other government agency or business has to face,” says Rural Letter Carriers Association President Jeanette P. Dwyer.
More:
— “Amid Capitol Turmoil, Postal Crisis Drags On,” Ron Nixon, New York Times
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Snail Mail surveillance is lots older than PRISM, but it’s now computerized through the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program. Postal Service computers photograph all the 160 billion envelopes processed in the USA each year. Law enforcement agents don’t need a judge’s approval to request this information.
More:
“U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement,” Ron Nixon, New York Times
“USPS Procedures: Mail Cover Requests,” Postal Inspection Service via NYT
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The U.S. Postal Service is broke, right?
No.
John Nichols explains:
“At the behest of the Republican-controlled Congress of the Bush-Cheney era, the USPS has been forced since 2006 to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. As the American Postal Workers Union notes, ‘This mandate is the primary cause of the agency’s financial crisis. No other government agency or private company bears this burden, which costs the USPS approximately $5.5 billion annually.’”
–John Nichols, “The Post Office is Not Broke,” The Nation
USPS is legally obligated to serve every location in the United States at the same uniform rate. That requires the Post Office to hire so many workers that, with 574,000 full-time employees, it is the second largest civilian employer in the nation. That’s the size of the insurance pool USPS must pre-fund every year.
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