Have spent the past few days of my life arguing in favor of the USPS and I think I’ve finally compiled a list of the most common arguments, which I will now address here in one thread to save everyone some time in the future!

1. It’s not profitable!

True! USPS loses billions annually, due to a 2006 bill requiring them to prepay health benefits for any and all employees they may hire between now and 2069- many of them haven’t even been born yet! This puts a $6.6 billion strain on them every year (1/2)

If this didn’t exist, the USPS would’ve turned a profit of ~$5.6 billion every year. There are no other federal agencies that are required to pre-fund retiree health benefits, and no private companies that pay 100% of these costs. If you want them to profit, unburden them. (2/2)

2. We can’t just take away the promise of retiree benefits for postal workers!

That’s not what anyone wants to do, but we can all agree that prepaying 50 years of employee benefits is unreasonable. Release them from even a fraction of that burden, and you’ll start seeing profit.

3. But they only took those jobs under the promise of having those health benefits!

If the USPS folds, no one will get any health benefits, especially not for the next 50 years. Every postal worker I’ve spoken to has agreed they would prefer a job to a 50 year promise. (1/3)

Since private companies have no obligation to pay for these benefits, not only would you leave hundreds of thousands of people unemployed (namely veterans and seniors!) but you would also take away their only chance of receiving those benefits from anywhere in the industry. (2/3)

I also feel like it’s slightly more harmful to leave a huge amount of people (especially veterans and seniors) unemployed and without health insurance in the middle of a pandemic because we demand so much prepayment for something that may never be used. (3/3)

4. Just use UPS/Fedex/Amazon!

That’s funny! UPS, FedEx, AND Amazon all rely on USPS to do their last mile deliveries. They send it to a general area but they count on USPS to get it to everyone. Companies won’t pay to deliver everywhere because they only care about profit. (1/4)

In addition to that, UPS/Fedex/Amazon are not legally allowed to deliver government documents or checks, medications, or fully handle ballots, and they are legally unable to deliver to troops overseas, expats, and don’t have any operations in the entire state of Alaska. (2/4)

You can ask any small business owner who sells physical products, and they’ll tell you that they would either have to completely restructure their business or couldn’t afford to run it altogether. That means no more free 2-day shipping on sites, hello $23 minimum shipping! (3/4)

Nothing could be worse for the economy than thousands of businesses closing or raising their prices like crazy and all of their employees suddenly losing their incomes. Who would actually be profiting here, the average American, or the government and mega corporations? (4/4)

5. Those other companies can just buy the USPS’s resources and take over for them!

Sure! But how long will that take? How long will it take to hire and train new employees, develop routes for last-mile delivery, rebrand, and have all those sales go through? People need mail.

6. Everything can be done online anyway!

This is just blatantly false. There are millions of people who can only get vital prescriptions by mail. There are homeless people who rely on it to stay up to date with government documents. There are soldiers who need care packages.

7. People can just go pick up their mail!

Have you ever stayed in a town of only 83 people living in poverty located two hours away from the nearest post office? I have. Communities like that rely on the mail for EVERYTHING. They can’t afford the time or money that would take.

8. Defunding the postal service will help prevent voter fraud!

USPS is the ONLY mail service that is legally unable to open or inspect your mail, especially ballots. They are extremely regulated; for-profit companies are not. The entirety of Oregon also exclusively votes by mail

9. They already wrote a bill to save it but they won’t accept it because they want attention!

Oh my god. Oh my god, no. They did pass it, but Trump has openly stated that he will not sign any relief act that includes them because he does not want universal mail-in voting.(1/2)

The Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy (who was appointed by Trump) also has investments in both UPS and Fedex and wants to privatize the industry, and refuses to accept any stimulus relief while actively removing mailboxes and shutting down 671 sorting machines since June. (2/2)

10. But again, it doesn’t work! It’s just not profitable!

Again, true! But even if it weren’t burdened with 50 years of prepayed costs, it shouldn’t have to be. It’s in our constitution. It’s essential to keep millions of people and small businesses alive. It cannot be replaced.

USPS has survived hundreds of years- through war, famine, and economic collapse. It kept going in our least profitable times. If you need help finding the money, we have the largest rate of military spending over the next 7 nations combined. Don’t tell me the mail can’t be saved.

Also this, and they’re the only service that can deliver mail to prisons as well! The USPS is so important to so many families. https://twitter.com/sirenxslays/status/1294866835448295424

Thank you all for sharing this thread! I hope you’ll also consider checking out some fun spooky stamp stuff to help put a little extra funding into the USPS! You can also buy stamps at your local post office, and the money will go directly to them and their operations! https://twitter.com/gothspiderbitch/status/1294420136766603268