Dead letter office?

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The restructuring of one of the Postal Service's larger divisions, mail sorting, suggests the broader effects of privatization. Most businesses that provide government services cut costs by lowering salaries, Colatosti reports, and that's certainly been the case with mail sorting. Mail sorting is tedious and demanding work, but Post Office wages and benefits make it a good job. The booming private mail-sorting industry, which can offer a postage discount to business customers using its services, is paying close to minimum wage with no benefits and has fought vigorously against unionization, according to Dollars and Sense.

But if big business gains under this push to privatization, it's poor people who don't have fax machines, computers, or the money to use Federal Express who will probably lose. The private sector is lobbying Runyon and Congress to let them handle mail delivery as well as sorting, and there's widespread support among Republicans to end the Postal Service's monopoly on the delivery of first- and third-class mail. Ryan and Franzen both report that businesses are interested only in the profitable parts of the system. It's easy to imagine low-income neighborhoods and low-density rural areas getting stuck with gutted, ineffective, and more expensive service. 'As its most profitable parts are privatized [the Postal Service] will be forced to raise residential rates,' Ryan concluded.

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