Should the US Government Privatize the Post Office?
President Donald Trump has reportedly showed a strong interest in privatizing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Proponents of USPS applaud its mandate to provide mail service to every American at uniform rates; critics claim it is less efficient than private competitors and no longer financially viable (if it ever was).
From its inception, USPS was intended to be a public good, not a profit-making entity. Indeed, in 1958, federal law declared it “clearly not a business enterprise conducted for profit.” But non-profits should not be financial black holes, and universal service should not require billions in annual losses, as demonstrated by private providers.
At present, USPS is a failing monopoly. Title 39 of the US Code hinders private carriers’ ability to compete by requiring weight minimums and USPS approval for packages. Additionally, only USPS may use mailboxes. USPS also receives substantial financial aid from taxpayers: $120 billion since 2020. Despite this legal and fiscal aid, USPS has run a deficit every year since 2007, accumulating a total loss of $108 billion. And service quality continues to decline—between 2022 and 2024, the percentage of packages delivered on time fell substantially.
A possible response to these financial difficulties is removal of rules that make USPS less profitable. USPS must offer reduced postage rates for certain users such as non-profits; and its uniform rate requirement means serving remote areas at the same price as cities. Repealing these restrictions would allow USPS to be more competitive.
An even better response is to privatize USPS. This would eliminate its uniform price and service mandate and allow it to close unprofitable locations. Privatizing would also eliminate restrictions on private carriers’ activity, enhancing their efficiency.
A key aspect of this privatization is that it must be complete, or nearly so. Since Britain sold a majority stake in its national postal service, the share price has fallen about 25 percent. But Royal Mail failed to eliminate the barriers that made it unprofitable, such as uniform pricing. Mail services such as FedEx and UPS show that private mail couriers can function effectively.
Ultimately, the case for privatization is one of efficiency, competition, and fiscal responsibility. By privatizing USPS, the U.S. could foster a competitive, market-driven postal industry that better serves consumers and taxpayers alike.
 | A guest post by
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What if they just allowed those who want to to opt out of postal service to opt out? Most city and suburban residents might. Then, they can focus on who wants their service. Daily we receive junk, trash, whatever descriptor you like. Unrequested, unwanted, waste arrives daily. We pay our bills on line. Nothing delivered by USPS to my address could not be delivered by a private company. I would opt out on day one.
From Jeff Hummel’s American history monograph War Is The Health of the State: The Impact of Military Defense on the History of the United States
“Another permanent legacy of the Revolution was socialized mail delivery. In 1707, during
the War of the Spanish Succession (known in America as Queen Anne’s War), the British State
had established a Crown monopoly on postal service in colonial America, with the explicit goal
of facilitating censorship and suppression of sedition and treason. In early February, 1774, as the
Revolution approached, William Goddard, the radical publisher of the Maryland Journal and
Pennsylvania Chronicle, proposed an underground quasi-private postal system. By the spring of
1775, such a system was already operating from New Hampshire to Virginia, while the royal
post in New York and Boston was discharging riders for lack of work. But Congress preempted
the growth of this alternative private postal system when, in July of 1775, it established a Postal
Department and took over the existing system.
Congress monopolized the postal service to gain control over communications with the army.
It appointed Benjamin Franklin, former Deputy Postmaster of the royal post, as Postmaster-
General. The government’s postal monopoly, written into the Articles of Confederation and then
enshrined in the Constitution, has become one of the most persistently socialized enterprises in
the United States. It served early political parties as the primary source of patronage and also
went on, most noticeably during World War I, to be employed for the same purposes originally
envisaged by the British: censorship and suppression.”