By Stephen Moore
Wednesday, 20 May 2026 07:21 AM EDT
For those of us born before 1970, mail delivery by a trusted postal worker remains a cherished memory—dropping letters and cards into the mailbox six days a week. Today, that tradition has faded. Messages like “I love you” or “happy birthday” now flow through text messages, emails, or social media.
Even bills are paid digitally, making traditional mail increasingly obsolete. Yet on America’s 250th anniversary, we cling to an outdated notion: the government must deliver mail—despite its dramatic decline.
Over two decades, mail volume has plummeted by half. The Postal Service’s market is shrinking to near zero as digital adoption accelerates. A new report by the Postal Regulatory Commission reveals that the U.S. Postal Service has lost $120 billion in the past 20 years alone.
The service can no longer fulfill its mandate of universal delivery, struggles with financial instability, and faces growing unreliability. The same report highlights declining workforce productivity—a stark contrast to industries that have achieved significant cost-cutting efficiencies elsewhere.
With no clear path to profitability, the USPS has lost money every year despite a “forever stamp” price surge from 20 cents in 2017 to 78 cents today—90% higher than before. Even Elon Musk’s expertise in turnaround strategies hasn’t been enough to turn this system around.
The Postal Service’s predicament is dire: it operates with catastrophic market share loss, mounting financial deficits, rising costs, and oversight by 535 members of Congress who dictate its operations. Remarkably, the USPS continues to rack up massive deficits despite being granted a legal monopoly for door-to-door delivery by Congress.
In short, the U.S. Postal Service is a dead man walking—an institution that would be liquidated in a heartbeat if it had shareholders instead of federal support. The time has come to end this 250-year experiment.
The USPS should cease operations by January 22, 2028, declare bankruptcy, and immediately sell off profitable assets such as real estate to offset losses. Most critically, Congress must repeal the “Private Express Statutes,” which block private companies from delivering mail at regulated prices—a law that violates antitrust principles.
There is no economic principle requiring mail delivery to be unprofitable when run by government. The USPS’s current model is unsustainable.
