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No Dot Gov
By Matt Margolis | January 26, 2006
I recently found myself behind a mail truck, and noticed something interesting. The back of the truck prominently displayed the the United States Postal Service website, www.usps.com. I thought this was a bit strange. The United States Postal Service is a government agency, I thought, “Shouldn’t the website be www.usps.gov?”
It made me wonder how many people even think about the our postal service as being run by the government. I would guess most people either don’t know this, and even those who do know still don’t really consider it as such.
I find this interesting because almost everyone complains about the poor service and regularly rising rates of postage, but never put two and two together and realize that the government monopoly on our mail delivery is responsible for this.
I decided to check www.usps.gov and found it redirects to to usps.com. I can’t understand why this is done, since there’s a government agency for almost everything—There’s even a government run website on booster seat safety at boosterseat.gov—yet, the postal service disguises itself as a private commercial enterprise by flashing a .com web address instead of a .gov address.
Is the postal service trying to hide something?
Topics: General |
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January 27th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
I don’t know if I would push this if I were you, they have *agents* everywhere, and there’s a chance they may go *postal* on you…
February 9th, 2006 at 9:45 am
Certainly USPS is run by the government, but I’m not sure in the days of FedEx and UPS we can say that there is a government “monopoly” on mail services, and even if you don’t agree with those examples, I’m unaware of any statutory provision which forbids a private mail service from competing against USPS. In strict definition, a monopoly may be “a business or inter-related group of businesses which controls so much of the production or sale of a product or kind of product as to control the market,” but in everyday usage, I would suggest that the term carries the connotation of exclusive control, such as public utilities, wherein “electric, gas and water companies may also hold a monopoly in a particular geographic area since it is the only practical way to provide the public service.” I just don’t think this applies to carrying mail: certainly there is a cost of entry, and to be sure, it’s a high one, but it isn’t quite in the same ballpark as having to dig up roads or string telegraph poles, all of which involves city permits, regulations and so on.
So I’m not sure that USPS meets any definition of a monopoly: it isn’t conferred monopoly status by law, it doesn’t excercise the kind of control suggested by the strict definition, and the barriers of entry for competition that exist in the public utilities sector simply don’t apply, as evidenced by the appearence of alternative carriers. It seems to me that merely “not having one’s core business being actively challenged by competitors” is not a definition of “monopoly status” that would appeal to conservatives.
February 9th, 2006 at 10:18 am
Ick. Ignore that last comment, I can’t have had enough caffeine yet; I spaced on the Private Express Statutes…
February 9th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Simon… only USPS can deliver first-class type mail…
February 9th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
Yeah, I typed, hit submit, went and got some coffee and suddenly thought “wait a second…that isn’t right,” and issued a fast retraction. I agree with you on the underlying point about privatization though; it’s the same as my argument about the BMV: you don’t necessarily need to abolish it, just open the market to competition and let it sink or swim.
February 9th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
I think abolishing the USPS would be a great thing… for one thing, all those post offices could be made available private parcel/mail services. Since they’re private, those properties would become taxable. Relieving the government of paying postal workers salaries and creating a new source of tax dollars. Win-win… when private companies are competing, they are forced to be more efficent and inexpensive. former postal workers would find it very easy to continue working the same job in the private sector…
We’d also get our mail quicker and cheaper…
August 30th, 2006 at 8:01 am
I work for the USPS, and yes, we are 100% government run. USPS does have a monopoly on a lot of things, When you buy postage, you pay a tax and my paycheck, when I sit on my butt, your postal rates go up. If you want an idea of how bloated the USPS is, apply for a job as a seasonal casual and you will get first hand experience in bureaucracy. We’d all be served if more people paid attention to the horrible inefficient ways the government handles things.