Save the Post Office?

Yahoo! News and The Daily Ticker are reporting that the U.S. Post Office faces an $11 billion (with a B) shortfall this year and may be forced to close up the shop without more cash or drastic restructuring.

Won't happen. But that is a heck of a way to get our collective attention. I support the post office as much as I can. I still mail a fair amount of my bills out of sheer stubbornness. When I have an item to ship for Swap.com, eBay or Amazon, I choose the P.O. over UPS or FedEx. Come to think of it, I just canceled my Netflix streaming service in favor of their by-mail only service.

But after hearing the news about how much cash the USPS is losing, I ask myself whether my choice is a good one or not. Am I right to place value in patriotically supporting this service despite the shortcomings of its long-term operations? Or am I merely helping to prop up their sales and string them along just a little bit longer? Don't get me wrong, if UPS or FedEx were measurably cheaper or more convenient, I'd take my business to them but they're not so I still enjoy my occasional runs to the P.O.

With the bailout word getting thrown around one thing seems obvious to me: That if this isn't quashed it could get turned into an election issue. Whether some sort of bailout happens or if the USPS fails (again, it won't), all fingers will point at the current presidential administration despite the fact that strictly-speaking the USPS isn't even a governmental agency nor do its problems have anything to do with any recent presidential or legislative action.