Last year, the U.S. Postal Service lost $7 billion. It expects to lose about that much again this year.
Why? There are several reasons, but the biggest is that Americans are just sending less mail through traditional means such as the Postal Service. Many rely more on e-mail to communicate with friends and family, and more are using the Internet to pay bills online. For that reason, the Postal Service delivered almost 26 billion fewer pieces of mail in 2009 than it delivered in 2008.
To save money, postal officials want to drop Saturday delivery, scaling back to five days a week.
Not surprisingly, thousands of unionized postal workers marched in Detroit recently to fight that plan, which Congress will accept or reject.
We sympathize with any worker who might lose his job, but it is not Congress’ place to prop up unnecessary, costly services of any sort.