BY MARK JAMISON The United States Postal Service is not a corporation in the traditional sense of the word, but that hasn’t stopped its leadership — the folks at L’Enfant Plaza and the men and women who sit on the Board of Governors — from viewing it primarily as a corporate entity. The post office is in the Constitution, but that … Read More
Postal Vision 2020 looks at the future of “postal services” and sees privatization
The third annual Postal Vision 2020 conference will take place this week in Washington, DC. The conference brings together speakers from a variety of backgrounds for what the Postal Vision website describes as a “provocative, candid conversation about what Americans should have in the way of ‘postal services’ in 2020 and beyond and who should provide them.” More about postal privatization: … Read More
Privatizing the post office: The NAPA/Pitney Bowes study on reinventing the retail network
About three weeks from now, postal insiders and innovative outsiders will convene in Washington DC for the PostalVision 2020/3.0 conference to discuss the future of the Postal Service. Called “Positioning America for the New Millennium,” the event will focus on “a constructive approach to re-inventing today’s broken Postal Service model for future generations.” Among the headliners speaking at the event … Read More
Pitney Bowes funds a study to privatize the Postal Service, could make billions off the plan
The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) has just published a report about a proposal to create a "public-private hybrid" postal system. The full title is worth noting: “An Independent Review of a Thought-Leader Concept to Reform the U.S. Postal Service.” Under the proposal, two-thirds of the Postal Service — the retail and processing components (the “upstream activities”) — would … Read More
How to Privatize the Post Office: Piece by piece, step by step
Think it would take an act of Congress to privatize the postal system? They’ve been privatizing the post office for four decades, piece by piece, step by step. It’s called “piecemeal privatization,” and it works like this. Step One: Marketization Marketization is “the process that enables state-owned enterprises to act like market-oriented firms.” It’s achieved by reducing government subsidies, deregulation, … Read More
The Postmaster General talks about privatization and real estate
If you’re a masochist or have nothing better to do, you might watch the video of Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe’s appearance on the Larry Kudlow show last week. Kudlow begins the segment saying, “The US Postal Service is in big trouble, and now there’s talk tonight in Congress of a bailout. . . . Isn’t it time to end the … Read More
Privatization of the Postal Service: New Litmus Test for Republicans?
Is favoring the privatization of the U.S. Postal Service becoming a new litmus test to determine the conservative bona fides of Republican candidates for president? It’s looking that way. Speaking at the University of Chicago June 7, presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty specifically mentioned the Postal Service in his list of government agencies that should be turned over to the private … Read More
Moving toward Privatization
The Action Plan report discussed in the previous post was produced by the USPS with the support of three consultants — Accenture, The Boston Consulting Group, and McKinsey & Company. McKiney did the survey on consumer attitude toward closing post offices that showed 80% of consumers would not be bothered if their post office closed and postal services were … Read More
Post Office Obit: The End of Brick-and-Mortar Post Offices
The Postal Service has begun the process of closing 2,000 post offices, and it has its eye on “discontinuing” and “consolidating” as many as half of its 32,000 offices because they’re operating in the red. Don’t think it won’t happen. The Postal Service has already started moving into alternative “retail outlets,” and it’s been boasting that that there are now … Read More
It’s Friday the 13th: Let’s Kill the Post Office
It's Friday the 13th, and Fox Business contributor Judge Andrew Napolitano has a scary thought: "Let's Abolish the Post Office." According to Napolitano's latest "Freedom Watch" column, the postal service is a "Soviet-style behemoth" and an inefficient, non-competitive "dinosaur," and the only reason it even exists is because politicians are pandering to voters. Don't think Napolitano is alone. Conservative think tanks like … Read More
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