In less than two weeks, Donald Trump will become our 47th president. Among a number of priorities about which the soon-to-be president has mused publicly — going after undocumented workers, going after Liz Cheney, going after the Panama Canal — one that concerns me, because he might actually do it, is going after the post office.
On Dec. 14, the Washington Post reported that in recent weeks Trump “has expressed a keen interest in privatizing” the U.S. Postal Service. The same reporting noted that people connected to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, are casting an eye on the P.O. as an opportunity to cut government waste and inefficiency.
It’s a tempting target. For the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, the USPS reported a net loss of $9.5 billion. It’s easy to see how entrepreneurs such as Musk and Ramaswamy could imagine that privatization, including more efficient management and a profit motive, could turn the post office around.
And it’s easy to see why a politician such as Trump is attracted to his party’s default position — privatization — on nearly everything.
Hate is too strong a word, so let’s just say that Republicans reflexively detest government, operating on the assumption that it is always inept, inefficient, bloated and inferior to private enterprise.
It’s not just that government is ineffective; it usually does more harm than good. This attitude is reflected in Ronald Reagan’s oft-repeated simplistic dismissal: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
Somehow this attitude manages to persist among Republicans despite the fact that there are some things that only the government can do: Win World War II, for example, or land on the moon, build and maintain the world’s finest military, build an interstate highway system, desegregate public schools, and develop a Social Security system that keeps millions of elderly citizens out of the poverty they experienced in pre-Social Security days.
Closer to home: If your house catches on fire, your tax-supported government will come and put it out for you. Why? Because we recognize that your burning house is bad, not just for you, but for everyone.
Back to the post office: Yes, $9.5 billion is a significant shortfall. On the other hand, for perspective, according to multiple sources Americans spent $12 billion on Halloween in 2023, $147 billion on pets and around $1 trillion on Christmas.
Perhaps certain efficiencies could be implemented at the United States Postal Service, but it’s worth remembering the “service” part of its title.
The post office, established in 1775 with Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general, was never intended to be a profit center. The Founders recognized that a more perfect union requires connections among all of its citizens and the efficient distribution of information, even if they require public money to maintain.
Further, whether by design or in effect, the Postal Service has always embodied an essential democratic principle: Just like the fire department, the P.O. treats everyone the same.
About the only thing that you, I and Elon Musk have in common is that we all get the same dependable service for the price of a 73 cent stamp. And the P.O. is charged with delivering to every American citizen, whether he resides in a Manhattan luxury apartment or at the end of a remote country road in Utah.
It’s hard to imagine profit-seeking private enterprise embracing this egalitarian principle. There’s just no money to be made in delivering to every address in America. Privatize the Postal Service and something very valuable will be lost.
What’s the opposite of privatize? Socialize? Maybe that’s the problem. One of our major political parties is loath to concede that government can and does perform very valuable functions in our lives.
