Warming-Up Exercises

This column is officially charged with the duty to describe how the free market might give us solutions to problems that are too commonly seen as strictly governmental babies. Normally I follow the Psalmist’s example and make one idea stretch for the whole column. But it’s early in the year and we could use a few warm-up shots. Three here:

There is almost universal dissatisfaction with the governmentally operated post office. The service has deteriorated steadily for at least a century (one notes, with a shock, that Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett exchanged letters several times a day, in London, 1845-1846, and American visitors found nothing extraordinary in it). And the cost of this tottering service has risen astronomically. The answer to the problem is in the reality of such free market ventures as the Independent Postal System of America. This company sent an announcement to its customers last July 1 that is worth quoting not only for its message but for the friendly and unbureaucratic style: “Dear Sir: We at IPSA are happy to announce that we are able to lower our rates from $36 per thousand to $27 per thousand, for material weighing three ounces or less. With the increased business we have incurred, from the U.S. Postal System rate increase, we have been able to lower our rates instead of increasing them. This rate decrease allows you to mail with us at one-fourth the cost of going with the U.S. Postal System. We hope you will plan your next mailing with us and save on your advertising dollar. Thank you for your most appreciated order. Yours truly, William Lamb—Postmaster, IPSA Wichita, Kansas.”

WR

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William F. Rickenbacker

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This column is officially charged with the duty to describe how the free market might give us solutions to problems that are too commonly seen as strictly governmental babies. Normally I follow the Psalmist’s example and make one idea stretch for the whole column. But it’s early in the year and we could use a few warm-up shots. Three here:

There is almost universal dissatisfaction with the governmentally operated post office. The service has deteriorated steadily for at least a century (one notes, with a shock, that Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett exchanged letters several times a day, in London, 1845-1846, and American visitors found nothing extraordinary in it). And the cost of this tottering service has risen astronomically. The answer to the problem is in the reality of such free market ventures as the Independent Postal System of America. This company sent an announcement to its customers last July 1 that is worth quoting not only for its message but for the friendly and unbureaucratic style: “Dear Sir: We at IPSA are happy to announce that we are able to lower our rates from $36 per thousand to $27 per thousand, for material weighing three ounces or less. With the increased business we have incurred, from the U.S. Postal System rate increase, we have been able to lower our rates instead of increasing them. This rate decrease allows you to mail with us at one-fourth the cost of going with the U.S. Postal System. We hope you will plan your next mailing with us and save on your advertising dollar. Thank you for your most appreciated order. Yours truly, William Lamb—Postmaster, IPSA Wichita, Kansas.”