Many people in politics and the interest groups that depend on political favors will say anything to save face, no matter how stupid it is. You might think they’d be embarrassed to sign their names to obvious baloney, but they aren’t. “Winning” is the only thing that matters.
In this letter to the editor, Don Boudreaux gives a perfect example of what I’m talking about — a lame-brained defense of the monopoly enjoyed by the US Postal Service.
Editor, The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
To the Editor:
American Postal Workers Union president William Burrus complains that “It is
deeply troubling that Journal editors advocate ending the Postal Service’s
exclusive right to sort and deliver mail. The Postal Service must remain a
public service if we are to honor our nation’s commitment to serve every
American community – large or small, rich or poor, urban or rural – at
affordable, uniform rates” (Letters, Sept. 2).
Apart from disingenuously describing monopoly as a “public service,” Mr. Burrus
makes two unfounded assumptions. The first is that private, competitive firms
won’t supply everyone willing to pay. Small-town America brims with competitive
private firms operating the likes of affordable supermarkets, motels, satellite
t.v., restaurants, and clothing stores – oh, and also express overnight mail
delivery!
Mr. Burrus’s second wrongheaded assumption is that it’s good that postal rates
be uniform. How can it make sense that the price of mailing a letter from
Manhattan to Brooklyn be the same as the price of mailing a letter from
Manhattan to Point Barrow? But if such enforced “uniformity” DOES make sense,
then why doesn’t the USPS pay all of its workers “uniform” wages? Why aren’t
newly hired clerks paid the same salaries received by thirty-year veteran mail
carriers?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
