Sunday, April 12, 2020

How and Why to Save the Post Office

As many of you know, the Post Office is in dire straits due to the quarantine shutdown reducing their letter & package volume by 50%. As you may not know, they've been in dire straits for a while due to the 2006 PAEA bill that requires them to prefund retirement benefits for all their employees for the next 70 YEARS, two to three times as long as most pension funds do.
As a result, if something is not done to help, the Post Office will have to shut down in June 2020. Many of you are dependent on the Postal Service to deliver medicine, food, and other necessities. For small businesses, postal delivery is the only viable link they have to deliver to customers, and postal delivery completes the eCommerce loop for every online business in America. For many rural communities, no commercial package delivery service can profitably offer last mile delivery to and from your doorstep.
The President and Senate Majority Leader have blocked funding to keep the Post Office running during this time of crisis.
It was part of the Coronavirus Recovery Package that found Boeing important enough to bail out, but not the government run Post Office.
So here's a three point plan to Save the Post Office:

  1. Buy some stamps at usps.com
  2. Send your Congressperson and Senators a postcard or letter each, telling them why you like the Post Office and how you depend on its service. Recommend that they fund the Post Office rescue and repeal the 2006 PAEA pension requirements. Do this once a week until it happens.
  3. Send a postcard or letter to your friends, sharing something about your life during quarantine or just reaching out to them, and asking them to participate in this effort to save the Post Office, if they happen to like getting and sending mail and packages like this. (Most people do.)