The recent announcement that the U.S. Postal Service is going to ask for an increase of two cents for a first class stamp and is considering closing of post offices and delivery on Saturdays should alarm citizens who are advocates of free speech and open communications in America.

It isn’t just the two-cent increase, from 44 cents to 46 cents to mail a letter or the increase to 30 cents to mail a post card. The citizens’ concern should be directed to what the post office has become, from what it once was.

The office of Postmaster General is older than the republic. Benjamin Franklin was the first to hold the position and, from 1829 to 1971, postmaster general was a cabinet-level position, indicating the importance of the U.S. Postal Department or the “Post Office.”

Most Americans would not even think about roads being vital to the communication system of the nation, yet they were the link among the 13 colonies. Mail was carried on horseback by pouch, or delivered by stagecoaches, as they careened from one city or village to another. It was primitive, but it was the vital link among the citizenry.

Post roads were designated by the postmaster general and the department even built some of the roads and maintained many, so the letters, newspapers and other documents and papers could be delivered, debated and acted upon by the various groups of citizens and governing bodies around the colonies.

Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution specifically mentions the post offices and post roads, so it was something that the founders thought was vital to the health of a democratic republic, if one were to continue throughout the generations.

Elements in the political life of the nation - individual and organizational - have made it one of their goals in life to reduce the functions of government. Thomas Jefferson mentioned that a small government would be the best government, but he didn’t say that this was the only thought to hold regarding government.

But some sects within political parties and some without party have come to understand Jefferson’s view, carried to the extreme, is the way government should be. Grover Norquist, an anti-tax, anti-government crusader has said that he and his cohort don’t want to eliminate government altogether, but they just want to make it “small enough to drown in a bathtub.”

The conversion of the Postal Department from a cabinet-level agency to the “U.S. Postal Service” was a way station on the road toward privatizing or contracting-out any service of government that could be converted. In 1970, the transformation of the USPS into a private corporation had begun.

Since it was organized like a private corporation, it needn’t be supported by government any longer, right?

This past week, when the USPS announced that it would be seeking an increase in the price of a first-class stamp, Stephen M. Kearney, postal vice president, told the Associated Press, “The Postal Service faces a serious risk of financial insolvency.”

Last year, the service “lost” $3.8 billion, even though it slashed tens of thousands of jobs across the country. This year, it faces a loss of about $7 billion and an equivalent loss is expected in 2011. The U.S. government and the USPS (the corporation) can use those terms, because, essentially, they have turned a public service into a private company.

In recent history, the U.S. has seen a massive effort by right-wing think tanks and their stables of popular writers to move the country to deregulate, privatize, contract-out, or otherwise eliminate any government role in providing services. This has occurred in transportation (especially public transit and rail), water and sewage treatment, utilities, defense and the military, education, and most recently, health care. In the last instance, the effort to keep the insurance industry in complete control of health care was fully bi-partisan. And, they succeeded.

The Postal Service is a vital connection for thousands of non-profit organizations, which are in many cases the only alternative voices that some Americans hear. All of this goes into the mix of a vigorous debate on public policy and the progress of the nation toward solution of some of its toughest problems. As the price of mailing these newsletters and other communications goes up, the number of them continues to decline or the groups decrease frequency of publication.

As the USPS prices rise, the more people and groups move to other forms of communication, especially the Internet, which, for now, provides free distribution. That will last, however, only as long as Corporate America is kept out of the arena. If corporations gain control of the Internet, the cost will start out for pennies - similar to that of the old Post Office Department - and rapidly escalate into incalculable reservoirs of money.

Instead of looking at the USPS as a public service, providing vital support for political debate in a democratic republic, it has come to be seen as just another business. That’s what has been accomplished over the past 40 years. And, if it is just another business, it can be bought and sold. Don’t think that United Parcel Service or Federal Express haven’t been eyeing the Postal Service as the next big project.

The country’s right wing would prefer Federal Express, being non-union, to the unionized UPS, but right-wingers certainly would prefer that it be sold to a private company. Consider that it’s in the works already.

For years, moves have been made to move work out of unionized Post Offices and into private “mail houses,” which often have their own printing presses. The Postal Service over many years has provided discounts for patrons who bring their mailing to them ready to put into the automated system. That way, no Postal Service (unionized) workers have to do much to handle the mail.

Corporations have taken advantage of this and have received deep discounts for their solicitations, advertising, and junk mail that clog up the postal system. That leaves the first-class mail customers out of the equation, and they’re the ones who are picking up the tab for the corporate mail. Either that, or the Postal Service runs up the great debt that they have announced in recent years.

Also, the USPS has been billed - some $5 billion a year - for the retirement benefits of the workers of the old Post Office Department. According to AP, the USPS avoided further financial disaster last year, when Congress allowed it to delay $4 billion of that annual payment.

Even though much of the work of the Postal Service has been farmed out to non-union, smaller companies and it has been automated to the maximum extent, the service cannot seem to make a profit. Should that be one of its goals?

Should a profit be made on schools, colleges and universities, municipal water systems, highway systems, railroads? All of the services necessary to a vigorous and healthy democratic society are in danger of being sold off, mainly because of the relentless propaganda campaign against government and any services that we expect it to provide.

To be sure, government can be used to intrude on private citizens, such as we have seen happen over the past dozen years, or more - the US PATRIOT Act immediately comes to mind - but where it should intrude, it doesn’t seem to be able to lift a finger.

Government’s role, according to at least some of the founders, was to provide protection of all the citizenry from the depredations of the powerful. In that, government has failed (witness the disparity in wealth and the misery of the people in our Great Recession).

The Postal Service’s travails are but one example of the problems faced by the people in finding a better way, but if the answer is to sell off the estate to any bidder, on the premise that it is more efficient, there is more trouble afoot than anyone believes. How much control over the giant corporations that rule our economy does the average citizen have? At least, if government (that’s us) is in control, there is an opportunity, through the political system, to have an effect on policies and the outcomes of those policies.

Without political awareness and action by the people, there will be little opportunity to affect how we live our lives. By selling off massive amounts of government service, like the Postal Service, Americans inexorably and steadily lose their rights and their government becomes just a shell.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John Funiciello, is a labor organizer and former union organizer. His union work started when he became a local president of The Newspaper Guild in the early 1970s. He was a reporter for 14 years for newspapers in New York State. In addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure from factory food producers and land developers. Click here to contact Mr. Funiciello.

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