To the editor:
Ideological pipe-dreams resurface with each new political generation, the latest one being privatization of the postal service. Privatization is a myth that has been proposed for Social Security, Medicare and law enforcement and shot down, thankfully, for many good economic and social reasons. The profit motive contaminates every institution it touches. There are never enough funds allocated and safeguards established to permit social services to be converted to the private sector into an abuse-free model. The most glaring failure in recent history is the privatization of prisons—a total disaster with respect to both economics and humane care. Another failure is the privatization of IRS collections.
Some politicians try to sugarcoat these abysmal efforts but nothing erases the stink. The Constitution provides a workable environment for both private industry and public services, and a government that is responsible to enforce a fair and comprehensive atmosphere for both. In the name of budget austerity, the government continues to fail to legislate the tax revenue and expenditures necessary each year to carry out its responsibility. Such stupid phrases as “no new taxes” and “less government the better” echo in the halls of state and national legislatures and at political gatherings.
Since the beginning of this country, there are always some dissenters to proactive government, but history demonstrates that such libertarianism is unworkable. Socially responsible legislation and administration is not socialism but the recipe for a republic that just might avoid the trash heap of history. The postal service is precisely what that name states, a service for the country. The country needs to pay its fair share without whimpering.
Donald A. Smith
Franklin
