I heard on NPR that the U.S. Postal Service is in trouble. That it’s in danger of going bankrupt. That a bunch of people who think they know everything think it shouldn’t be a government agency anymore. That it should be privatized to force it to become economically viable. That it needs competitors. That capitalism as always is the answer.
I don’t have a stake in this, I don’t. I know we need a way to send and receive mail, but, pragmatically speaking, I don’t think it’ll make any difference to us as consumers if it’s private or public. Philosophically, I don’t see enough of a difference between our government and a private corporation to stand on a soapbox about it.
But.
In my gut, it feels like corporatizing the postal service is a bad idea. I admit, I’m biased. I teach public school, and the people who advocate privatizing the P.O. sound an awful lot like the people who favor charter schools. And I really don’t trust those guys.
Which got me thinking. When was the last time I got a piece of mail? I mean real mail. Not bills, not ads, not unreadable medical claims forms. Christmas cards don’t count. I’m sorry, they just don’t.
I took such extreme pity on the one government agency in more dismal shape than public education that I decided to do something about it.
I went down to the P.O. I waited in line for a really long time. I bought what felt like a lot of postage – 100 postcard stamps. I thought, it’s a new year. It’s a great time to start de-cluttering. Why not diminish that pile of postcards I've been accumulating for the last 20 years?
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