Mail at the Millennium: Will the Postal Service Go Private?

by Edward Hudgins

As more people correspond and pay bills online, dramatically reducing the need for letter carrying, what is the place for the Postal Service in the 21st century?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1930865023
• ISBN13: 9781930865020
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Cato Institute
• Length: 233 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.3" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Let us hope that one day we can see a privatized USPS, Inc.

Is it any surprise that Americans complain most about public-sector monopolies--the postal service, public schools, and Social Security? This is an excellent book explaining why it is not a radical concept to privatize the Postal Service. There are far more complicated companies than the postal service--including wireless telephone companies--that are able to remain in the private sector. The main reason why the postal service remains a government monopoly is due to the postal union workers--900,000 strong--who have an interest in keeping the system, as ineffecient as it is, just the way it is, as that is the way to keep their jobs. That is unfortunate, because an entrenched faction has decided to keep their ineffecient monopoly, which does not serve the public interest. This book also counters many inaccurate arguments used to keep the postal service as it is. For instance, some have said that postage rates are not high because they have not risen faster than inflation. Well. Not everything increases at the rate of inflation. In the technology sector, namely computers, we have actually seen prices fall because of productivity gains. If the postal service was not so labor intensive, it is plausible that postage rates would fall. Let us hope that one day we can see a privatized USPS, Inc. Michael

An intriguing title

Can the postal service maintain its federal associations in the 21st century, or will it go private? Considerations of the new online payment forms and correspondence raise questions about the service's future, and Mail the Millennium contains 16 essays by economists, scholars, lawyers and others who detail the communications and delivery services of the present and possible future. An intriguing title.