It's long been an article of faith amongst conservatives that anything the government can do the private sector can do more efficiently.
So I shouldn't have been surprised when Rush Limbaugh's regular substitute bloviater Roger Hedgecock took to task one of our nation's least favorite quasi-governmental organizations, the United States Postal Service.
Hedgecock took the postal service to task for increasing the cost of a first-class letter to $.41 on Monday. He noted with derision that the Postal Service is the nation's third-largest employer, behind only the Department of Defense and Wal-mart.
"And that's with less mail now then there was five years ago," Hedgecock said. He noted that parcel carriers like FedEx, UPS and DHL all make do with far fewer employees.
Nobody likes postal rate increases. But Hedgecock's analysis fails to take into account several factors. First, the Postal Service operates far more offices that do the parcel carriers. The postal service operates around 27,385 independent post offices in the United States. FedEx only has 1,500 offices on the whole planet. Worldwide UPS has 23,800 offices while competitor DHL has 4,400. In other words, it takes the combined worldwide offices of the three largest parcel carriers to equal the number of USPS offices in the US alone.
What does this mean for the consumer? It means that a post office is a fairly short drive away for anyone needing their services. For people who live in rural areas a trip to the FedEx office could be as 30-mile round trip.
Or maybe you prefer the convenience of having a carrier pick something up at your door. The Postal Service would do it for free. FedEx charges $10 for the same service.
Let's break it down even further: If you were going to mail a 1 ounce letter it would cost $.41. FedEx doesn't deal in ounces – its lowest rate is for a 1-pound package, and that is $4.39.
But let's make the playing field a little more level. Let's assume that the letter professing your undying love to your significant other ran dozens of pages until it hit the 16-ounce mark. At that point the Postal Service and FedEx would cost $2.96 and $4.39 respectively.
Only if you shipped the letter priority mail does FedEx enjoy a slight price advantage - $4.60 vs. $4.39.
And that's with the disadvantage of the Postal Service employing workers who are highly stressed. When was the last time you heard of an employee going FedEx?
So, let's have a show of hands. How many people out there want to ditch the bloated US Postal Service in favor of the streamlined FedEx efficiency?
Didn't think so.