USPS Crisis
“Based on a number of briefings and warnings this week about a critical fall-off in mail across the country, it has become clear that the Postal Service will not survive the summer without immediate help from Congress and the White House,” Maloney and Connolly said.
April 10, 2020
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service was established, on July 1st, 1971, in Washington D.C., by the United States Congress. For years, USPS had been the leading mail service system. However, it has shown time and time again that it can’t hold support itself without assistance from Congress, “Congress must not ignore the US Postal Service. Mail volume plummeted this week and USPS will run out of cash by June. Every household and every business in America relies on our postal service.” (Connolly, 2020).
George Bush Broke the Bank
No matter what the situation is the United States Postal Service is a plummeting company with little going for them from now on, “Eventually, the burden became too great, and the USPS began defaulting on the PAEA payments in 2012. But the damage was done. The Postal Service lost $62.4 billion between 2007 and 2016, and its own Inspector General attributed $54.8 billion of that to prefunding retiree benefits. Without the PAEA, the Postal Service wouldn’t be doing stellar. (Though you could plausibly blame many of its remaining struggles on the Great Recession.) But it probably would’ve spent at least part of the last decade making comfortable profits. (Spross, 2018). This was all before the current ongoing pandemic. Imagine what happened then times ten now.
Amazon Affair
A secret affair? Or a deal that is causing USPS to lose profit? Amazon relies on USPS and vice versa, “Amazon relies on around 230,000 USPS workers to deliver many of its packages. As my colleague Ryan Cooper explained, the Postal Service is definitely giving the company some sort of deal, though the details are secret. Defenders point out the Postal Service is forbidden by law from charging less than the cost of delivery, though it could still be charging below-market rates.” (Spross, 2018).
Impact on the U.S.
The impact of the USPS could mean millions of people having to go without essential items such as medicine or basic communication for older demographics, “Every community in America relies on the Postal Service to deliver vital goods and services, including life-saving medications.” (Capron, 2020). Will Congress be able to pull the USPS out of this one? Is it time to kiss our mail goodbye? Only time will tell. One thing is for sure; this event will change our country drastically.
Sources:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241470831.html
https://theweek.com/articles/767184/how-george-bush-broke-post-office
