What’s remarkable about the federal government’s continual rumbling about making the Post Office “run like a business” is that this ridiculous idea lives on and on. The postal system was set up in the days of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin not to make money, but to bind the country together. It’s part of a social contract that includes things like roads and bridges, ferries and other forms of public transportation, the Internet, laws enabling interstate commerce, electrical and telephone service and so on. We should expect the postal system to cost us money; it’s something we must pay for as citizens, part of what makes the nation a place where we want to live.
But every so often, some budget-slasher proposes closing “inefficient” small post offices, a.k.a. small rural ones – including, of course, post offices on islands.
Think about it. Even Maine’s largest island towns couldn’t avoid cuts made on this basis. But once again, we’re going to have to explain that to Congress. The members of Maine’s delegation already understand, of course, but it’s a shame they’ll have to spend time, effort and political capital to fight off an idea that’s demonstrably so dumb.