Can you remember 3-cent first-class postage (up to 1958)? Can you remember twice-per-day mail delivery? Moving forward, can you remember the Cold War-era joke that explained Communism as government run like the Post Office?

So we are raising postage rates and cutting service -- again. Maybe we should change the U.S. Postal "Service" to U.S. Postal "Dinosaur."

The problem with the postal service is simple: It is too big. The solution, while obvious, isn't simple, thanks to the meddling of Congress and the union. Too much capacity? Too much infrastructure? Cut service. Does that make any sense at all? Yes, we need a postal service. No, we don't need a behemoth.

The fix is to privatize it along the lines of UPS and FedEx. Then you would get the agility and efficiency that is desperately needed.

David Jennings

Lady's Island