
United States Postal Service mail carrier Frank Colon, 59, delivers a package in El Paso on April 30, 2020. (Paul Ratje / AFP via Getty Images)
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/usps-funding-local-media/
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The postal system has been a key public infrastructure since the dawn of the US republic. Today, the United States Postal Service faces an existential threat as President Trump blocks a desperately needed emergency loan. Instead of defunding and privatizing the postal system, now’s an opportune moment to reimagine its purpose and revitalize it.
We’ve heard by now many compelling arguments for saving the USPS. It offers a secure and private means of communication (especially important with mail-in voting); it provides more than 600,000 jobs for a diverse workforce; and it ensures an essential service of delivering important goods (including prescription medicine) to far-flung locales at affordable and equal rates. Remarkably, the USPS serves as both a national communication network and a local anchor institution for small communities across the country. Its loss would be a profound blow to American culture and democracy.
But we should be striving for something bolder than just preserving a noble institution. Instead of fighting over whether to scrap or save the USPS, we should be pushing to expand it. Reimagining and repurposing this vital public infrastructure could yield tremendous benefits for all of society.
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