How Can You Support USPS
As a result of the pandemic, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is now in need of financial help: companies are sending out far fewer advertisements and mail volume has dropped by a third, which has severely impacted cash flow. To make matters worse, the president has threatened to veto any stimulus package that includes money to bail out the USPS.
So why is it so important to save the United States Postal Service – an institution as old as America itself – and how can we help?
USPS serves everyone
The Postal Service is unusual in that it serves all addresses in the United States. For a sharp comparison, the availability of high-speed Internet in rural areas should be considered: approximately 19 million Americans do not have broadband Internet access , while many others have to deal with poor quality and / or expensive Internet access.
In contrast, the Postal Service serves every address in the United States at a constant rate. If you want to mail from New York to Nome, Alaska, the price will be 55 cents. If you want to mail from Alpine, Texas to Casey, Wyoming, that will also be 55 cents. In contrast, if you use a commercial shipping service like UPS or FedEx to send your letter to the countryside, you may have to pay extra .
The USPS is how millions of Americans receive salaries and information from local governments and community organizations. This is how they vote for elected officials. And postage is one of the rare universal offerings: Many rural areas may not have access to decent cellular or cable TV services, but they all receive mail. The Postal Service is a public good designed to serve all US residents, no matter where they live.
USPS is funded through the sale of stamps.
The USPS has not received taxpayer funds since 1982, and its entire budget comes from the sale of stamps. So if you really want to help, buying stamps – and then waiting to use most or all of them until the pandemic passes and mail volume starts to recover – is a good way to support the USPS right now.
You can buy stamps from the USPS online store . The fantastic thing about buying them this way is that you can get pretty much any design you want, whether it’s a stamp dedicated to your favorite national park ( Big Bend National Park looks great in miniature), an impressive historical figure. (there is John Lennon or Sally Ride in the lineup), or even a cool dinosaur (hello Tyrannosaurus rex ).
Once you have the stamps in hand, you can go through the old school and send a handwritten postcard to a friend or family member. Do you remember the last time you received a handwritten letter in the mail? It was nice, wasn’t it?
Contact your elected officials
Buying stamps is a good start, but given that the Postal Service is an independent federal agency that performs vital government services, it deserves support like any other government agency. Although the president has threatened to veto the postal aid funds , Congress has the power to overturn his veto, provided they have a vote to do so. Therefore, if you want to help, one of the actions would be to call your Senators and a Congressional Representative to tell them that you are supporting USPS aid funds. You can find information on how to contact your Senators here and information on how to contact your Congressional Representative here .
You can also sign the petition by texting USPS to 50409 . Once you do this, an automated chatbot will ask for details such as your name and mailing address and then deliver your petition to local elected officials. As of the morning of April 14, this petition was signed by more than 200 thousand people.
If you want to kill two birds with one stone, you can also send a postcard expressing your support for the USPS to your elected officials: no matter where you live, from rural Maine to Silicon Valley, a postage stamp will cost you 35 cents.