Do we still need the post office?

• Author: Dimondstein, Mark
• Position: Debate

The U.S. Postal Service lost $5.5 billion in 2014. That's largely due to a continuing decline in the amount of mail--especially first-class letters, which are the most profitable--that Americans send. To reverse its financial losses, the Postal Service has proposed ending Saturday delivery and closing some branches in more remote areas. But some say the government should get out of the mail delivery business altogether and let private companies handle it. Below, an official from a postal workers' union and a researcher at a free-market policy group face off.

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YES The United States Postal Service is vital to our economy. Every day, postal workers deliver more than 500 million pieces of mail--without a dime of taxpayer money and at a fraction of the price of private companies such as FedEx and UPS.

Despite the popularity of e-mail and text messaging, the post office remains the heart of many communities. And it's essential to commerce: People rely on the Postal Service for the speedy delivery of online purchases, medicines, local newspapers, bills, letters, and invitations.

Why must the Postal Service remain a public service? Because it does something no private delivery company would ever do: It serves 153 million addresses, in every city and town across the country, including unprofitable routes in isolated rural areas and low-income neighborhoods.

Commentators have convinced many people that the future of the Postal Service is bleak because young people consider it irrelevant, but a recent Gallup poll shows the opposite is true. While a majority of Americans in all age groups give the Postal Service high marks, a whopping 81 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds rate it "excellent or good."

And although the volume of letters has declined in recent years, e-commerce has caused an explosion in package volume. Unless someone figures out how to e-mail your Amazon order, that trend will continue.

Our nation must maintain a strong public mail system. Post office hours and services should be expanded. The Postal Service already has the infrastructure to provide customers with basic banking services, as well as Internet access and licensing.

The Founding Fathers had it right: In Article I of the Constitution, they empowered Congress "to establish post offices and post roads." For more than 220 years, the nation's postal system has carried out its legal mandate to...