OPINION1 - Let's Junk Junk-Mail

Proposition:  The United States Postal Service (USPS) should be reorganized to eliminate unsolicited mail commonly known as junk-mail.

The Problem

Using their own numbers, the USPS delivered about 150 billion pieces of mail in fiscal year 2017.  Fifty three percent of that mail, almost 80 billion pieces, was what they call direct mail (alternately referred to as advertising or marketing mail).   

The point is, most of this direct mail was unsolicited - things like travel brochures, political campaign flyers, magazines, address labels, real estate notices, senior living opportunities, charity solicitations, credit card offers, investment seminar invitations, sweepstakes offers, and a host of product or service advertising material including, circulars, flyers, newsletters, bulletins, catalogs, post cards, discount packs and coupons, sales letters, brochures, and product samples. 

This junk-mail situation disturbs me greatly.  The issue is highlighted when Pat and I return from a week or two of vacation to find that our “held mail” consists of 95% junk-mail that goes immediately into the recycle garbage.  If Pat and I are representative of postal customers in general, and I think we may be, that’s 80 billion pieces of unnecessary, unsolicited junk-mail going through the USPS “digestive process,” before being expelled as waste matter.  This is no way to run a business - wasting people’s time, natural resources (trees to make  paper), energy (to make paper, transport junk-mail to mail boxes and transport junk-mail to trash dumps or to recycling centers and recycle it).  And think of all the effort required at the USPS to handle and process 80 billion pieces of junk-mail.  Our society does not need junk-mail!

The USPS is Big Business

The USPS is established by the U.S. Congress as an independent organization of the executive branch of the Government of the United States, under the direction of a Board of Governors (nine individuals appointed by the President), with the Postmaster General as its chief executive officer.   According to the GAO, the USPS currently, with just over 500,000 employees, delivers roughly 150 billion pieces of mail annually, via about 200,000 post offices, to more than 150 million delivery points, with annual revenues of approximately $70 billion. 

And, as if the USPS isn’t a big or complex enough bureaucracy, postal employees are currently represented by four unions, listed here with the approximate number of active and retired members in parentheses:  The National Association of Letter Carriers (300,000), the American Postal Workers Union (220,000), the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (47,000), and the National Rural Mail Carriers Association (120,000).

The USPS is Losing its Shirt

In 2005 the USPS had no debt.  Starting in fiscal year 2006, the USPS has suffered significant net losses every single year, for example $5.1 billion in fiscal year 2015.  First-class mail volume - the USPS’s most profitable product - has steadily declined as communications and payments migrate to electronic alternatives, a trend that is expected to continue.  Meanwhile USPS expenses, 80% of which are compensation and benefits, continue to grow.  By fiscal year 2012, the USPS had hit its legal debt limit of $15 billion to the U.S. Treasury, where it remains today.  The USPS financial condition is further burdened by growing, unfunded liabilities for postal retiree health and pension benefits, which by the end of fiscal year 2016 had exceeded $120 billion.  This horrible financial condition is a drain on our country and is not sustainable.

The USPS Strategic Plan

The 2017 USPS Strategic Plan looks to Congress to “develop legislation that results in meaningful, beneficial reforms to improve our business model and help to ensure long-term financial stability” - without suggesting any specific changes.  The Plan recognizes the decreasing market for first-class mail but forecasts an increase in the business market for direct (junk) mail.  In fact, current USPS documents are full of what amounts to marketing material for direct mail. The Plan’s bottom line is the usual “need for continued revenue growth and a continued focus on finding cost savings where possible.”

In short, as is typical of government agencies, the USPS protects its “turf” and doesn’t consider fundamental organizational cost savings measures.  Making real change more difficult, the postal unions usually reject all cost savings proposals in favor of protecting their members’ jobs, privileges, and benefits. 

The USPS behemoth is a serious financial drain on our country in defiance of the public desire to eliminate junk-mail.

The Opportunity

We have a tremendous opportunity here - one that restores the freedom of choice, while greatly reducing costs.  By eliminating direct mail, we can significantly downsize the U.S. postal system by cutting postal through-put by half, thereby greatly reducing the number of people who now market, handle, process, and deliver this unsolicited mail - which most of us don’t want anyway.  The first step should be to stop delivery of direct mail to anyone who doesn’t request it - in writing.  Then Congress should bite the “bullet,” in defiance of their bureaucratic preservation tendencies, to reorganize the USPS, probably privatizing it, and eliminate unsolicited mail.  That action would produce great savings in labor costs, equipment, and facility requirements.    

Let’s junk junk-mail!