Ideas to Involve the Post Office in Revitalizing our Civic Centers

The U.S. Post Office has been under siege for years. Internet communications undermined the letter. Fed-Ex and UPS gave GOP privateers an alternative model. Financial problems, especially burgeoning pension liabilities, left the USPS appealing to Congress for help. Thus we find one of the bedrock institutions of the United States actually in danger of disappearing.

Even on DU we find the attack on the Post Office - something that should be on the list of GOP defundables along with PBS, NPR, the NEH, and the EPA if they can get away with it. Yesterday I wrote a reply to one such post to suggest that instead of dismantling the Post Office, we shore it up and add functionality to it. As I see it, the Post Office could be integrated into a revitalized Civic Center that also features the Public Library, Records/Maps/Licensing, Court Houses, Government Offices, Local Museums and Visitor Centers, etc.

Someone encouraged me to offer my ideas for the Post Office as an OP, so here it is:

The Post Office would not just handle mail, but would be offer a number of services central to our way of life.

1) USPS banking. No more extortionate fees for paycheck cashing. (MANY people have offered this idea).

2) USPS to run basic telecommunications. AT&T is always threatening to get out of the landline business. I say we let them! We need to put at least one means of national telecommunications in the public hands. By putting the landline infrastructure in the hands of the USPS we could create a "public option" for both phone service AND DSL to maintain competive prices in both phone and Internet service! We could fully subsidize "lifeline" phone service for the poor instead of that wacky discount service we have going now. ("discounts" for people who have no income? Sense it makes not.). Telecommunications services are a natural partner for mail services. In Europe post offices maintain phone services. I believe Post Offices used to host telegraph services at the turn of the century.

3) Post Offices could co-locate with other public services that travelers need like currency exchange, visitor information centers, hostel reservations, etc.

Over the years our sense of public institutions and public service centers have almost totally collapsed. The Post Office, like the public library, could play a role in rebuilding local civic spirit by re-asserting itself as a vital public space.

Current long lines and poor service at Post Offices could be dealt with by hiring more people and keeping the work conditions healthy so "going postal" never becomes a cultural in-joke again! Otherwise, it seems to me that there is a cycle of government agencies making their own problems with under-staffing and quasi-military structures that lead to people wanting to eliminate said agencies all together. Instead of creating the problem we should be creating employment, which in turn would be creating better customer service.

Also, the idea of "public service" and the ethics/spirit associated with it are practically nil in this country. Perhaps more "public option" style services would be a step toward getting that back.