The Shallowford Road Postal Service facilityMaking a profit by delivering goods and services that consumers want to buy at a given price is the first goal of any business. If consumers aren’t interested, the business goes under. But that’s not the model the U.S. Postal Service follows.
The agency has been running annual deficits since 2006, resulting in a net loss of $40 billion. Between 2006 and 2012, mail volume declined almost 25 percent due to the increasing use of email and e-commerce.
Also, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, if the Postal Service were allowed to immediately cease making catch-up payments to its health care and pension plans, it would have an unfunded liability of nearly $100 billion by 2017.
The GAO further highlights that “while USPS achieved about $15 billion in savings and reduced its workforce by about 168,000 over this period, its debt and unfunded benefit liabilities grew to $96 billion by the end of fiscal year 2012.”
And guess who will be footing that bill? Though the Postal Service was created to be a self-sustaining entity, taxpayers are forced to stand behind this large and growing liability.