A forever future for the "Forever" stamp people
On minting coins, filing taxes, and delivering the services that stand for state capacity
The financial situation for the US Postal Service is looking dire, with the venerable institution expecting to run out of cash in the next 12 months unless it receives some form of assistance. The GAO reports that the Postal Service has “lost money every fiscal year but one since 2007”, despite cost-cutting efforts and rate increases that have come more often than once a year since 2020.
■ The mandate imposed on the Postal Service -- to deliver government-defined services while fending for itself in an increasingly competitive market environment -- appears to have passed a point of some unsustainability. It’s very much for the good that its competitors exist, ranging from FedEx to e-mail, but the situation forces us to behave like adults.
■ A serious government should possess certain capacities. Among them: The abilities to mint currency, to conduct diplomacy abroad, and to provide universal postal service. These need not be money-making activities. If some of the costs can be captured through some user fees (like postage stamps), that can be just fine.
■ But the services themselves are part of ensuring the orderly provision of value to the public without having to go through intermediaries. A functioning postal system guarantees that citizens can pay their taxes, vote by mail, and receive jury summonses (among many other functions) without having to go through an intermediary like a phone company or an Internet service provider. It’s not glamorous, it’s functional. But it’s also a mark of state capacity -- a government with the ability to organize itself to do basic, necessary things.
■ Like many things, the condition of the US Postal Service is boring but important. We have too many fellow Americans who want everything in political, social, or civic life to be exciting or stimulating. That’s the wrong course, and it leaves us exposed to real failures when we fail to act like adults who are worthy of running a great nation. Whatever the right answer is to secure the future of the US Postal Service, we need to seek it out and implement it with the urgency it deserves.