Deride and Conquer: Dismantling the USPS

Sunday, 04 May 2014 00:00
By Douglas Jamiel, Truthout | News Analysis

The historical cost of building our postal network, its unique characteristics and efficiency, the nefarious efforts to privatize and cripple it, and the economic and personal costs of losing it are considered.

An army prefers to fight on familiar terrain. Absent such serendipitous circumstances, a good general will try to move the conflict to more hospitable ground. In their long-thwarted campaign to cripple, privatize and cannibalize the assets of the United States postal system, conservative and business interests have finally, it seems, turned the tide of battle by employing a more measured and subtle strategy of legislative and economic subterfuge. Having failed in a full-on frontal assault on government control last attempted by private carriers in the mid-1840s, the Postal Service's detractors have mounted a new, more promising offensive in the present era. To their credit, they have enjoyed some success by redefining the terms of engagement, and by reconstituting the nature and mission of the US postal system from its historical role as a civil service entity to a Frankenstein-like corporate/government hybrid with most of the downsides, and few of the advantages of both.