It is essential to define the terms in the debate about the governmental role in 21st century mail. All customers have access to the same products. Stamp prices are uniform, regardless of distance. Since customers must have ready access to retail postal services, small post offices cannot be closed solely for operating at a deficit, as the law now provides. Finally, delivery must be nationwide, six days a week.
Postal privatization means more than contracting out.
It means moving essential elements of the business from government to private ownership. Universal service and privatization need not be mutually exclusive. The proceeds from a potentially lucrative initial public offering would be returned to the U.S. Treasury. This would not mean the absence of regulation. To the contrary, where mail service has been privatized, governments have retained the role of regulator and guarantor of universal service, particularly to urban and remote rural areas.