I think that consumers benefit from public ownership. Public ownership is when an agency of the government owns and operates an organization or business. One of the ways that the consumer benefits from public ownership is through the United States Post Offices. The post office operates as a service to the people of the United States, by making it affordable to mail your letters. Stamps have increased in prices several times over the past few years, but if you think about it, the prices are relatively cheap since you don’t have to deliver it yourself. The post office is a governing body as it is a part of the executive branch.

The post office has an eleven member board of governors, the board is composed of nine governors, and the other two members of the board are the Post Master General and the Deputy Post Master General. The board is appointed by the President of the United States and the consent of the Senate. As a service to the consumer, first class mail has had a steady delivery performance of 96 percent. Deliveries grow by approximately 1.8 million new addresses each year. Consumer satisfaction has reached an all time high of 94 percent.

I think that most consumers do benefit from public ownership because the government has more experience dealing with the country as a whole. Since the post office is a national ordeal, it’s only fair that a co-op of this magnitude be controlled by a governing body that has experience with entire populations. If the post office system was privately held, the owners might have conflictions on how to run it properly and day to day operations at the post office may be affected in a negative way. Besides the internet, the post office is still one of the most widely used mediums for sending communications to one another.

At 37 cents a letter, to go from east to the west coast is still not a bad deal considering all the work that goes into delivering it in a reasonable amount of time. If the post office was privately owned and operated, it would set up its own rules and regulations which may be entirely different from what most citizens are used to now. The government passed rules in regulations in 1970 to ensure that everyone from rural to urban areas had convenience of mail delivery.

The post office has new capabilities which has made it very easy to the consumer. Carrier Pickup Online Notification Service enables customers to request pickup of their postage-paid express mail or priority mail at no extra charge. Click-n-Ship has added online insurance as an option when printing pre-paid package labels. Postal service is available though eBay and the customer can track delivery status of their package online. 2,500 automated postal center units have been set up at post offices all over the nation. These offer the consumer services without needing to wait in line, a lot of services are open 24 hours a day.

Small and large businesses all benefit by new mailing technologies. If the consumer has an online service at home, there is no need for anyone to leave their home to mail a letter. So far I think the consumer has benefited from the public ownership of the U.S. Postal Service with all the conveniences of online access and still relatively cheap postage prices. New products and services add value to the mail and make it quicker, easier, and more convenient for the consumer to do business with the postal service.