Letters to the Editor: Help the USPS by making junk mail illegal

To the editor: The very articulate article regarding the U.S. Postal Service operating as a business or not has some valid points. (“Stop saying the USPS should be ‘run like a business.’ It’s not a business,” March, 24) I propose an additional change to make the post office more efficient.

Make junk mail illegal.

When 99.9% of junk mail is tossed into the garbage without even a curious look, how is that helping the mail service, much less our society and the environment?

With this new law, we could reduce mail service to Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. With the advent of the internet, online bill pay and other more efficient ways to handle tasks that required mail service in the past, how can anyone justify mail delivery six days a week?

The point that the post office is not a business is well taken. But government services should be as productive and as financially self-sufficient as possible for obvious reasons.

John Buch, Hermosa Beach

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To the editor: The real problem isn’t first class mail, it’s bulk mail. Congress tried to raise these rates to a realistic level, but the magazine and catalog lobbies killed it.

We receive 10 to 15 unsolicited catalogs each week. Very few of them we order out of. Until this is fixed, USPS will always be way too far in the red.

Robert Rose, Brentwood

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To the editor: The Postman’s Oath: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

Louis DeJoy wants to reclassify the U.S. “Postal Service” into the U.S. “Profitability Sector.” Service and swiftness be damned.

Donna Sloan, Silver Lake

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To the editor: Kudos to Michael Hiltzik for looking into DeJoy’s “Post Office Business Plan.” Starting out as an idea from the Heritage Foundation, it has long been clear that privatizing the post office has been on the conservative hit list for decades.

I think it’s important to also recognize that is part of an overall strategy by Republicans to demonize ALL government institutions. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his ilk are on a mission to stop any efficient government organization from functioning for the American people. This includes not just the post office but Social Security, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Medicare, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Aviation Administration.... Everything.

For McConnell, all taxpayer money is to be funneled to political donors. Plain and simple.

Mike Harold, Los Angeles