Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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November 18, 2012

Operate postal service as a business

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

— — The U.S. Postal Service can be compared to an automobile service station offering free windshield cleaning, under-the-hood check, attendant tire air and fuel fill competing with gas stations that offer no services and set their own prices.

The problem is not the competition, but the oversight by Congress, whose concept of a budget is determining how much money to borrow. A lot has changed since Benjamin Franklin started the business (I received one personal letter this century. I considered forwarding it to the Smithsonian). In a day of Internet, cell phone and satellite, asking is not a problem. Getting still is.

If the post office is going to provide services that UPS and FedEx don’t, it at least ought to be able to set its own price. As an entity capable of surviving on its own, the best thing for everyone would be to separate the post office from the  government and let it operate as a private business. But try getting a person with franking privileges to vote for that.

Joe Hall

Princeton

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