Mail your packages early, so the Post Office can lose them in time for Christmas

Ah.. Johnny Carson, America's late, great, funny-man. How right you were. Today's rant is a more personal one, but none-the-less still an important look at a problem in today's society. That problem, true believers, is that den of corporate waste and corruption that is the United States Postal Service.

So a little introductory story is in order. My wife, who many of you know is a hypnotist, was awaiting a business DVD that had been shipped to her by one of her clients. The point of origin, in the same city, was around 7-10 miles "as the crow flies" away from our home (a much longer distance in real terms). We had nearly given up hope of receiving the package when, lo, a rather crumbled brown square arrived in the mail last week. The post mark was dated March 15, despite its arrival in late April, and it was rather worse-for-wear. Upon opening, we found that the DVD (worth $40) was cracked and splintered. My wife, being the very emblem of the "squeaky wheel" of proverbial fame, decided to file a complaint with the USPS in hopes of compensation. She was flatly told that "the USPS is not responsible for uninsured items and that she could continue to fill out a local complaint, by reimbursement would be out of the question." Intractable, the post office flatly told her that it was not their problem.

This leads me to my rant. The USPS is an independent establishment of the executive branch of the US government, not a government owned corporation (although it is run similar to one). The Postmaster General is a indirect presidential appointee (ironically the current one, Jack Potter, is a Bronx native and a Fordham University graduate) and is given the title CEO. The Postal Service has an executive committee and is structured in many ways like a for-profit company but it remains a the most well known and largest employing part of America's bureaucracy.

However, the sole practical purpose of the USPS is to deliver mail (packages and letters) in a reliable, secure, and timely manner. It is expected by citizens (who could be viewed as consumers) that their packages go from point A to point B in one piece. What purpose does it serve to mail an object that arrives at its destination broken? Not only does this waste consumer money and result in a net loss for both the object and the shipping cost, but it also wastes the postal service's resources in the time, wages, fuel, etc, that was required to unsuccessfully deliver that item. To tell a consumer that the USPS is "not responsible" for broken uninsured items is like Sony or Dell saying that they are not responsible for selling a consumer a TV or computer that is defective. If the USPS can not be held responsible for delivering mail safely, reliably, and in-one-piece, then what purpose does it have?

One could argue that there are a plethora of options for shipping packages, but this only belies the main problem. The post office has a federally granted statutory monopoly on the delivery of certain types of mail. Why? To make sure that the revenues of the USPS are protected in order for them to fulfil their mission. The government has altered the free-market economy for the very goal of making sure that the post office stays alive on the contingent that it is successful in its job. Faced with legislated dearth of options for sending normal "non-urgent" mail, what can or should the consumer do? Should we not hold the post office responsible for the times it fails? Should we not expect, nay demand, consistent, reliable, safe, and secure shipping services. Why should consumers have to pay extra for insurance that their mail will not be damaged? Should undamaged mail not be an expectation of "normal" stadard mail shippped by only a postage stamp? Any other corporation that provides goods or services for consumer consumption, the delivery (no pun intended) of a faulty product lies solely on the producer. This is especially so when one takes the philosophy that a money transaction is as good as an unwritten contract - binding the payer to the payee until a satisfactory service has been rendered. Should we let our government, even in its most mundane role of postal service, to be a flagrant contract breaker? I won't even go into the idea that taxes should ALSO be considered a contract between citizen and government that demands citizen representation in government decisions.

Of course this all comes on the wings of a looming postage stamp hike, carefully and subtly made more appealing by the post office's Star Wars campaign (did they honestly think that R2D2 post office boxes would make us feel better about the slow bleed of $.02 on each stamp). I will admit, those new mail boxes are pretty snazzy looking... but it becomes all the more ironic when you place your mail in them. Why? Because when R2D2 delivered Princess Leia's message to Obi-Wan Kenobi, it was undamaged and on time.



Abbot Chris