America


U.S. Postal Service Heading for Collapse


Y


Fading demand, soaring costs, delivery delays: Do we really need it anymore? BY DAVID A. PATTEN


our local postal carrier leans out of his van, stuff s mail into your box, off ers a friendly smile and wave,


then cruises on down the street on his appointed rounds, blinkers fl ashing, to make another delivery. A classic feature of life in Ameri-


ca? Perhaps — but unless something changes soon, United States Postal Service supporters worry mail delivery could soon go the way of the Edsel. “We don’t really need the postal


service anymore,” says Heritage Foun- dation economist and Newsmax con- tributor Steve Moore. “You have Ama- zon, UPS, FedEx, email. The Postal Service is truly a dinosaur.” In one sense the criticism is noth-


ing new: The Postal Service has been under pressure for decades. But to stem a series of operating


defi cits, Postal Service executives had adopted a 10-year restructuring plan that initially brought hope, but now is a harbinger of despair. The reason: The plan projected


that the post offi ce would turn the corner and break even in 2023, then operate this year in the black. Now it’s clear neither will happen. Instead, despite cutbacks, the USPS


reported a staggering $6.5 billion loss in fi scal year ’23. And Postmaster Gen- eral Louis DeJoy has already acknowl- edged it will run another defi cit this year as well. All of which has trained the spot-


light on signs of what looks like a com- ing Postal Service collapse, including: Fast-fading demand in the internet


age. Mail volume has declined disas- trously, dropping every single year


22 NEWSMAX | FEBRUARY 2024


over the past decade. Like a scene in Back to the Future, it now stands at about the level it was in the bell-bot- toms and disco era of the 1970s, when the U.S. population was a fraction of what it is today. The anti-mail trend appears to be accelerating. U.S. mail deliveries dropped nearly 9% last year alone, with volume dropping from 127 to 116 billion pieces in the past year. Angry mail on the postmaster gen-


eral’s desk refl ects a growing cacoph- ony over delivery delays, especially in rural areas.


Billion-dollar deficits.By law, Postal


Service operations are supposed to be self-sustaining, not government sub- sidized. Yet postal revenue last year dropped by $321 million, while Biden- era infl ation drove up costs by a stag- gering $5.8 billion.


Staggering debt, unfunded pen-


sions. In this respect it’s similar to the federal government, but without the ability to tax or infl ate the currency. The U.S. Treasury Department


has estimated those unfunded USPS obligations at close to, and possibly


U.S. Mail Volume Falling Fast T


120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0


First-Class Mail Pieces in Millions


o say the new millennium has been tough for the Postal Service is an understatement. Once a mainstay of neighborhoods nationwide, mail volume has


been steadily trending downward ever since Y2K. In fact, the chart shows the last year with an uptick in mail volume was back in 2004. One telling statistic: Post of ice mail volume today is about what it was in 1970, when the U.S. population was just 203 million. Today it’s 332 million, a 64% increase.


2000 ‘01 ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08 ‘09 ‘10 Source: United States Postal Service Annual Report to Congress


‘11


‘12


‘13 ‘14


‘15


‘16


‘17


‘18


‘19 ‘20 ‘21 ‘22


JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100