I DISAGREE with Jeff Jacoby’s Dec. 11 op-ed column “E-mail isn’t killing the Postal Service,’’ in which he argues that a lack of competition is hurting the post office. He is correct, in part. While electronic diversion certainly has had a detrimental impact on first-class mail, it isn’t killing the Postal Service. Jacoby failed to address the 800-pound gorilla on the post office’s back, courtesy of Congress.
Jacoby asserts that “not many institutions enjoy the benefits that federal law confers on the Postal Service.’’ Let me bring to his attention one of these so-called benefits. Congress mandates that the Postal Service pre-fund its retiree health care costs 75 years in advance, a mandate no other federal agency or private company is forced to pay. Absent that annual $5 billion “benefit,’’ the Postal Service would be profitable.
