U.S Postal Service As a Monopoly
In the United States economy most markets can be classified into four
different markets structures. But, each and every market in the United States
is completely unique from the others. Generally the best type of market
structure for the general public is per-fect competition because it creates the
lowest possible price for the public. There are some exceptions were perfect
competition isn't the best choice for the public on account of various reasons.
The United States Postal Service is one of them and since the Postal Service is
a monopoly, it is its own market. This paper will discuss the budget dilemmas
that the postal service has faced for the past twenty years and if it is in the
best interest of the economy for the United States Postal Service to continue as
a monopoly.
The first time there was talk of privatizing the Postal Service was
in1979 when the Postal Service was losing vast amounts of money in the long run.
But since the Postal Service is a necessity for America, the government had to
subsidize the service in order for it to continue in operation. In 1979 the
United States Postal Service had a cash flow of $22.5 Billion and was
additionally receiving $176 million from investing(#1, Intro). Even with this
added revenue the Postal Service was still greatly under funded on its own (#1,
Intro). During this time it was discussed to privatize the postal service and
introduce competition because of the extreme losses that the service was
experiencing. A positive argument for privatizing the Postal Service was with
numerous c ...