Politics & Government

What Do You Think of the Post Office? How Would You Fix It?

Is there a solution to the declining revenues of the U.S. Postal Service. Is it an agency that still is viable?

People tend to have strong opinions of the post office, or more properly, the United States Postal Service.  From crabby clerks in the post offices themselves, to the love expressed for the individual letter carrier, there are strong feelings for the agency called on to carry the nation's mail.

There has been discussion of dropping one day of mail delivery as the Postal Service struggles to cope with declining revenue from the services it provides. Email has all but replaced regular letter writing, leading fewer people to buy postage stamps, which always seem to inch up in price.

There has even been . Missouri U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill have sponsored legislation to try and prevent such closings in the state.

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The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

The third fiscal quarter of this year (April 1 – June 30) ended with the Postal Service racking up a $5.2 billion loss, compared to $3.1 billion loss during the same period last year. One bright spot is the 9 percent growth in the package delivery sector, which largely has been the domain of FedEx, UPS and other shippers.

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Discussions with Congress continue on such issues as the Postal Service's retirement plan and on shifting to a five-day weekly delivery schedule.

So, what do you think of the Postal Service? About your local letter carrier?

And what changes would you recommend to keep the Postal Service viable so it can continue to bring the mail to your door?

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