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“Today the USPS comprises nearly a quarter of the entire federal workforce. Nearly half of its...workforce are people of color. They handle....nearly half of all the mail in the entire world.” #SaveTheUSPS https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/we-cant-afford-to-lose-the-postal-service
Postal workers are on the front line. Everyone remembers 9/11, but do ppl remember when two postal workers died in the anthrax mail attacks a month later? https://www.npr.org/2011/02/15/93170200/timeline-how-the-anthrax-terror-unfolded
What communities will suffer most if they lose USPS mail delivery? Rural communities. https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/4/16/21219067/us-postal-service-shutting-down-rural-america-native-communities
The argument that the USPS is losing money almost always leaves out why: the 2006 law in which Congress required the USPS to pre-fund its health & pension benefits for 75 years. No other private or public companies are subject to similar requirements. https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/
Earlier this year the House voted to free the USPS of the requirements of that draconian law. But no interest in the Senate. https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2020/02/house-votes-end-controversial-usps-payments-future-retirees-health-care/162912/
Our post office - a critical public good that was included in the Articles of Confederation & authorized in our Constitution - is regarded as a pawn by President Trump in his resentment of Jeff Bezos (owner of the Washington Post and of Amazon). https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/determined-to-hurt-bezos-trump-orders-the-post-office-to-crack-down-on-amazon
Now desperately needed bailout funds for the post office are being held hostage to Trump’s demand that the USPS charge Amazon 5 times more for package delivery. https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-amazon-build-their-own-post-office-jab-postal-service-2020-4
This should concern everyone. It is a threat to our public goods. And a threat to freedom of the press (Trump resents coverage of him in the Bezos-owned Washington Post). And further evidence of govt funds being withheld/used to address personal rivalries or agendas.
The post ofc has modernized. The post office has express delivery, and package tracking. It handles passport applications & offers voter registration. We need the USPS right now for absentee voting esp during this pandemic, & all the time for members of the military.
Many elderly voters depend on mail delivery. The USPS will deliver pandemic relief checks to those w/o direct deposit. It is the single most egalitarian, low cost, public svc available to every person in our country. Its survival is a measure of the health of our democracy.
Finally, ppl like the USPS. It is the single most popular government agency. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/463852-americas-most-popular-government-agency-the-postal-service
