Mail at the Millennium: Will the Postal Service Go Private? [Hardcover]

Edward L. Hudgins (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 2001

As more people correspond and pay bills online, dramatically reducing the need for letter carrying, what is the place for the Postal Service in the 21st century?

Product Details

• Hardcover: 233 pages
• Publisher: Cato Institute (August 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930865015
• ISBN-13: 978-1930865013
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,080,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing title, January 15, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mail at the Millennium: Will the Postal Service Go Private? (Paperback)

Can the postal service maintain its federal associations in the 21st century, or will it go private? Considerations of the new online payment forms and correspondence raise questions about the service's future, and Mail the Millennium contains 16 essays by economists, scholars, lawyers and others who detail the communications and delivery services of the present and possible future. An intriguing title.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let us hope that one day we can see a privatized USPS, Inc., June 30, 2004

By 

Michael Gordon "Michael Gordon" (Los Angeles, Ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mail at the Millennium: Will the Postal Service Go Private? (Paperback)

Is it any surprise that Americans complain most about public-sector monopolies--the postal service, public schools, and Social Security? This is an excellent book explaining why it is not a radical concept to privatize the Postal Service. There are far more complicated companies than the postal service--including wireless telephone companies--that are able to remain in the private sector. The main reason why the postal service remains a government monopoly is due to the postal union workers--900,000 strong--who have an interest in keeping the system, as ineffecient as it is, just the way it is, as that is the way to keep their jobs. That is unfortunate, because an entrenched faction has decided to keep their ineffecient monopoly, which does not serve the public interest.

This book also counters many inaccurate arguments used to keep the postal service as it is. For instance, some have said that postage rates are not high because they have not risen faster than inflation. Well. Not everything increases at the rate of inflation. In the technology sector, namely computers, we have actually seen prices fall because of productivity gains. If the postal service was not so labor intensive, it is plausible that postage rates would fall. Let us hope that one day we can see a privatized USPS, Inc.

Michael