Congress is currently considering legislation to eliminate door to door mail delivery in order for the United States Postal Service to save money.
This would cause various problems for people. For some disabled people, it would make it more difficult to access their mail. For some people, it would make their mail delivery less secure and leave them open to thefts from their mail.
Article 1, Section 8, number 7 of the Constitution of the United States says that Congress shall have the power and implied responsibility "To establish post-offices and post-roads."
That would mean that Congress has the responsibility to provide adequate quality postal service, but the legislation being considered would reduce the quality to less than adequate.
Congress turned the USPS into a private company, but that doesn't abrogate the responsibility to provide adequate mail service, because that responsibility is set out in the Constitution. Therefore, if the USPS cannot provide adequate postal service and break eveb doing so, Congress would be violating the Constitution by not providing enough of a subsidy to keep the USPS from losing money.
There is currently expected to be this year a 16 billion dollar loss by the USPS. Compared with the value of the service the mails provide, if one does a cost-benefit analysis, that would be a very small amount. It also wouldn't be large compared with the entire budget.
In addition to the benefits of postal service itself, the USPS provides jobs for people. Reducing the number of those jobs would produce costs that would offset a large chunk of the subsidy. There would be extra costs in unemployment insurance and various welfare programs for the newly unemployed postal workers. The postal workers would no longer be paying taxes, which would reduce the savings to the USPS and government. Then, the newly unemployed postal workers would buy fewer goods and services in the economy, reducing the income of businesses.
Reductions in sales of goods and services reduce company income more than the actual amounts of the reduction due to negative economies of scale. When sales fall, it costs the company more to produce each item or service. People are always talking about positive economies of scale, but there is very little discussion of negative economies of scale, even though this is a very important factor in how well the economy does.
Therefore, not only would it be unconstitutional for Congress to reduce the quality of mail service by ending door to door delivery, but it would also add another weight onto our economy which is struggling with a variety of problems.
Jim
This would cause various problems for people. For some disabled people, it would make it more difficult to access their mail. For some people, it would make their mail delivery less secure and leave them open to thefts from their mail.
Article 1, Section 8, number 7 of the Constitution of the United States says that Congress shall have the power and implied responsibility "To establish post-offices and post-roads."
That would mean that Congress has the responsibility to provide adequate quality postal service, but the legislation being considered would reduce the quality to less than adequate.
Congress turned the USPS into a private company, but that doesn't abrogate the responsibility to provide adequate mail service, because that responsibility is set out in the Constitution. Therefore, if the USPS cannot provide adequate postal service and break eveb doing so, Congress would be violating the Constitution by not providing enough of a subsidy to keep the USPS from losing money.
There is currently expected to be this year a 16 billion dollar loss by the USPS. Compared with the value of the service the mails provide, if one does a cost-benefit analysis, that would be a very small amount. It also wouldn't be large compared with the entire budget.
In addition to the benefits of postal service itself, the USPS provides jobs for people. Reducing the number of those jobs would produce costs that would offset a large chunk of the subsidy. There would be extra costs in unemployment insurance and various welfare programs for the newly unemployed postal workers. The postal workers would no longer be paying taxes, which would reduce the savings to the USPS and government. Then, the newly unemployed postal workers would buy fewer goods and services in the economy, reducing the income of businesses.
Reductions in sales of goods and services reduce company income more than the actual amounts of the reduction due to negative economies of scale. When sales fall, it costs the company more to produce each item or service. People are always talking about positive economies of scale, but there is very little discussion of negative economies of scale, even though this is a very important factor in how well the economy does.
Therefore, not only would it be unconstitutional for Congress to reduce the quality of mail service by ending door to door delivery, but it would also add another weight onto our economy which is struggling with a variety of problems.
Jim
