A Post on the Post

Another duty of Congress was to “establish post offices and post roads.” The post is, of course, the mail. We picture canvas bags stuffed with letters, mail delivery trucks with the steering wheel on the right side, our personal mail carrier, or the mailbox at the end of our sidewalk.

Do we consider what an important role the Postal Service has played in our history? Not only is information spread from coast to coast, but also financial transactions and a huge chunk of commerce (Amazon uses UPS, but that’s another story).

What about post roads? Because the mail needed a fast and reliable method of delivery, not only roads but modes of transportation were developed and/or subsidized: on foot, horseback (Pony Express), stagecoach, steamboat, train, car or truck, airplane, and even by balloon, helicopter and pneumatic tube!

Unfortunately the current U.S. Postal System is a reflection of its bloated bureaucracy. One example is how the mail is delivered in our city of 20,000+ with our new, modern facility (I have this from a retired postal worker). If I want to mail a card to my neighbor, the envelope merely visits the main post office, is loaded on a semi with other local mail and sent to San Antonio, more than sixty miles away, to be postmarked “San Antonio.” Then the local Kerrville mail returns from San Antonio to be delivered the next day.

The reason? A substation in San Antonio wasn’t handling enough volume so was in danger of being shut down. Somebody got the bright idea to take OUR mail on a detour so a few people could keep their jobs at a particular post office. No wonder mail is often lost or mishandled! How many times is this scenario repeated across the nation?

Government control = inefficiency. There is no exception.

“Government machinery has been described as a marvelous labor saving device which enables ten men to do the work of one.” --John Maynard Keynes