This Viral Thread Nails Why The USPS Is Basically A Miracle
President Trump inspired a journalist to explain why
2017 has been full of the president’s unhinged rants on any manner of things, from his political opponents to the media, from Saturday Night Live to the NFL. He’s railed against just about everything, and recently he set his sights on the United States Post Office.
One writer for the Washington Post was not having it.
Paul Waldman is a blogger for the Washington Post, as well as a columnist for The Week and a senior writer for American Prospect, and it seems like he had this particular Twitter rant in the holster for a while, before President Trump came along and gave him the perfect opportunity to unleash it.
On Friday morning, the President criticized the post office for not charging Amazon and the like more for package delivery:
A few hours later, Waldman sprang into action, first announcing his intentions:
Then he explained, in basic terms, what makes the post office so special:
He’s not wrong. We all complain when stamps get more expensive, but they’re still cheap AF, all things considered. Some of those things to consider? The sheer volume the USPS handles every day.
They have no choice but to maintain offices all across the country. As a service to the citizens. Even when those offices don’t make money. Because, as a government agency, it’s the law.
This one might be my favorite:
“Nobody asks why the Defense Department isn’t turning a profit.” BOOM.
Waldman doesn’t shy away from the typical complaints either, but tries to put them into perspective, mostly by reminding us that people are dumb.
Where is the lie?
The writer wraps up his Twitter rant by reminding us, and, perhaps the president himself (I’m sure he’ll apologize soon), about the important parts.
Everybody hates the post office. It’s a hassle, it’s inefficient, etc. But Waldman is right. The USPS performs a thankless job and it’s going broke doing it. Yet it keeps trudging on, through sleet and snow and all that other annoying stuff.
It’s pretty clear we take it for granted, and so does our president. But Waldman’s rant is a good reminder that for all its faults, the United States Postal Service is pretty remarkable, both in what it attempts to do and how well it accomplishes such an insurmountable task.
It’s about time someone gave them a little credit, and based on the reception his Twitter rant got, Waldman isn’t alone. Nearly 8,000 people have retweeted the thread, and over 18,000 have liked it!
It took nearly all of 2017, but I guess we finally have something to thank the president for.
