Trumping the Post Office

So, eh, what does Trump have against giving the Postal Service a nice big grant in the middle of a deadly pandemic, especially when it's the pandemic that has been the source of the Postal Service's most recent troubles?

Well, he explained from the Oval Office that the Postal Service has been needlessly losing money by charging ridiculously low rates to send packages to addresses, allowing Amazon - whose CEO, Jeff Bezos, also owns the anti-Trump Washington Post - to make an equally ridiculous profit at the Postal Service's expense.  He instructed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to go ahead in negotiating a loan with the Postal Service contingent on promises of postal reform, but under no circumstances is Mnuchin allowed to give the Postal Service a grant with no strings attached.

Gosh, Trump's idea sounds so capitalistic, so business-friendly, so perfect for . . . a private company!  I am not an economist, but if the Postal Service were to raise its package rates - if it were to quadruple them, as Trump suggested - Amazon and other mail-order companies would have to spend more money to ship things and ultimately pass the costs onto . . . us?  You think Bezos is going to take one for America by sending things out without raising shipping fees for the customers?  And while the Postal Service, a self-sufficient government agency since 1971, may have to pay its own way, it is still a public entity that is required, as it should be, to deliver mail to everyone, and it is thus a nonprofit enterprise.  If the Postal Service were to make a profit, you'd have to privatize it - which is what Trump wants - but to become profitable, it would have to stop delivering mail to smaller communities on money-losing routs - which, again is what Trump wants!  Because otherwise,voting by mail - which Trump doesn't want (except for himself) would be way too easy!

We could be in a serious situation by September, when the Postal Service - which is also known for sending out life-saving prescription drugs - is expected to run of out of money.  Truth be told, companies like Amazon are actually keep the Postal Service going by using it.  But if the Postal Service does run out of money and goes down, voting by mail will be an irrelevant issue, because we won't be able to do anything else by mail either.

There is a bright side.  People are suddenly buying stamps in enormous quantities, especially stamp collectors.  And when people buy more stamps than they need or buy stamps they don't intend to use, that provides a lot of extra revenue for the Postal Service.

The solution to keeping the Postal Service going while Trump is in office and/or at least until the coronavirus pandemic is over is quite simple, really.   If you save stamps, stamps will save you!

Happy collecting.

Philatelic Woes

I'm on a budget these days, and I can't afford all of the stamps the United States Postal Service has issued in the past year, though even if I could, I wouldn't want to buy all of them anyway. Stamps honoring "The Simpsons?" Puh-LEEZE!

Anyway, the recession has had its own effect on the Postal Service. Three issues planned this year were shelved - the fourth set of ten stamps in the Flags of Our Nation series, a holiday stamp depicting an angel with a lute, and a commemorative honoring Edward Hopper. The first two have been rescheduled for 2010; the Edward Hopper stamp is still on hold, likely never to be issued. Meant for the Postal Service's American Treasures series, the 2010 issue in that series will honor another painter - Winslow Homer.

Fans of Edward Hopper, who was famous for painting lonely, desolate scenes, must feel really lonely now.