This is somewhat out of date, but considering that it is a developing story, I wanted to get my two (or three cents, if we’re talking about Lysander Spooner’s stamps) in. The United States Postal Service, a sprawling, inefficiently-run government monopoly, is facing default. Over the years, the USPS has been gradually increasing shipping costs in order to make up for massive losses, but it seems that increases in the cost of postage will no longer make up for the billions in lost revanue.
In these tough economic times the USPS has been forced to actually do something that it feared so much over a century ago that it made illegal: compete. Fortunately, in modern times, the state cannot pass Private Express Statutes for the sprawling new innovative ways that humans have found to communicate, such as email, text messaging, instant messaging, video conferencing, and more.
Some may decry the loss of services by the Postal Service as deleterious to our general economic health, but it is quite the opposite. The cutbacks at the Postal Service are simply signs that it is an inefficient dinosaur operating in the age of communication-mammals. Though it may be considered high treason to say so, perhaps it is time to abolish the United States Postal Service. Almost everything can now be done online and physical postage has become simply a form of advertising. A whopping 77.3% of Americans are considered Internet users in 2010, and the number is simply rising. Banking, billing, advertising, and communicating have all gone paperless in the 21st century.
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