Should the United States continue to operate the U.S. Post Office? The U.S. Post Office is a government corporation. It gets authority from Congress and the President, but has significant independence from both of them. In theory, a government corporation should be revenue neutral or even positivesome portion of its services collect fees that should pay for the service. In practice, many government corporations run at a loss, and the budget needs to cover for them.

In our supplementary links this week are a host of resources about the post office system. Review these links to try to understand the issue better.

1. What is the first thing that you think of when you think of the Post Office?
2. Is the Post Office something that government ought to do?
3. Why is this a government service instead of a private business?
4. How does UPS and Fedex compete with the Post Office?
5. Is it okay if the Post Office loses money (or is not "efficient") if it gives coverage to areas that cannot be profitable?