Do we still need the post office? Facing stiff competition from texting, e-mail, and the Web, the Postal Service lost nearly $10 billion this year.

• Position: DEBATE

YES

The United States Postal Service is vital to our economy. Last year, the post office delivered more than 170 billion letters, catalogues, and packages--without taxpayer funding and at a fraction of the cost of private couriers like FedEx or UPS.

Despite the popularity of e-mail and text messaging, many American businesses depend on the Postal Service to send bills, take orders, and ship packages. And the Postal Service does something no private delivery company would ever do: It serves every city and town in America, even on remote--and unprofitable--rural routes. America's citizens rely on the Postal Service to provide inexpensive service to all.

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Let's not forget: Many elderly citizens and residents of small towns and poor urban communities lack access to broadband Internet service; they depend on the post office.

Doomsayers predicted the demise of the postal system following the inventions of the telegraph, the telephone, and the fax machine. Each time, they were wrong, and unless someone figures out how to e-mail a package, they'll be wrong again. In fact, many businesses have increased their use of the U.S. mail to fulfill orders they now take online. And marketers know that electronic advertising is no substitute for delivering a glossy catalogue to people's homes.

The Founding Fathers had it right in Article I of the Constitution, where they empowered Congress "to establish post offices and post roads." For more than 230 years, the nation's postal system has carried out its legal mandate to "bind the nation together" for commerce and communication. It should continue to do so.

--CLIFF GUFFEY

President, United Postal Workers Union

NO

These days, why mail a letter when you can call, e-mail, or text? As a result, mail volume is in permanent decline. That's a problem for the U.S. Postal Service because it depends in large part on the sale of postage to pay its bills.

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