Do you care about Saturday mail delivery? Amazon does. Hallmark does. Catalog companies and and mail service pharmacies do. By contrast, Netflix has said it could accept the elimination of Saturday mail.
Trying to decide what to do about the huge financial difficulties facing the postal service, Congress is holding hearings. Their stated alternatives are to raise rates, cut Saturday delivery, and diminish labor and facility costs. While opinions vary about Saturday delivery, all who testified expressed little price elasticity. Higher postal rates would decrease their usage, further exacerbating post office problems.
Recently, the Washington Post expressed wisdom about the postal service. Comparing creative innovation from a privatized Swiss system to tired thinking from the USPS, they said we are dealing with a hybrid entity “hamstrung by a large and heavily unionized workforce, congressional management, and an antiquated business model.”
The Economic Lesson
A market economy can thrive when fundamental infrastructures function well. In the U.S., a transportation infrastructure emerged during the 19th century as roads, canals, and railroads increasingly connected disparate areas of the country. Similarly, a financial infrastructure developed that moved money from those who had it to those who would use it productively. The US Postal Service is a part of a communications infrastructure. When an infrastructure is crucial, is more government or less government the appropriate approach?
