OPINION: Delaying the U.S. Postal Service budget cuts does not solve the problem.

During the first week of August, the U.S. Postal Service announced a series of cost-cutting changes. Immediately after the announcement, social media platforms and news outlets were filled with pleas from people for the postal service to reverse the changes. On Aug. 17, the U.S. Postal Service did just that. It announced that all cost-saving measures would be suspended until after the 2020 federal election. The masses are satisfied, but the fight isn’t over. The suspension of the changes only results in the negative effects being delayed. 

What exactly were the proposed changes to the postal system? These changes came in response to the crippling financial status of the U.S. Postal Service. According to NPR, the postal system reported losing $9 billion dollars last year and has increasingly lost more money as the pandemic continues. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy proposed a series of changes in order to cut costs and save the business from a financial crisis. These changes included the elimination of overtime for mail carriers, reduction in post office hours and the removal of postal boxes throughout the United States. 

While these changes may seem economically reasonable, critics claim they had political motives as well. Together, the changes substantially slowed down the U.S. Postal Service system and resulted in mail taking almost twice as long to reach its destination. Many of us probably recognize how this problem would affect the election in November. Our very own Technician staff writer, Destry Adams, wrote a compelling piece explaining the possible political effects, but politics isn’t the only thing being affected by these changes. 

According to CNN, about 90% of all mail-order prescriptions from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have been delayed because of the new changes to the postal service. Some examples of these medications include necessary blood pressure and hypertension medications, insulin supplies and pain management medication. A delay in the delivery of these medications pose a major health risk for American veterans, and they are not the only group being affected. 

Any American who receives medication through mail orders will be affected by these changes once they go into effect. Think about what would happen if you needed life-saving medicines to come in by mail. What would happen to you if those medications didn’t come in time?

This has already affected me personally, and the changes haven’t even gone into full effect yet. I have a mental illness, and up until last week, I had three of my major medications on mail order. However, after almost having to go cold turkey off of my antidepressants because the medication was delayed by the U.S. Postal Service, I made the decision to switch all my medicine off of mail order. The risk of not getting my antidepressant, antianxiety or antipsychotic medication in time was too serious for me to trust the U.S. Postal Service system anymore. Not everyone has this option though. 

These changes are also affecting mail-order paychecks, social security checks and bills. As college students, the timeliness of these three things may not seem significant, but they are to our families and our neighbors. What would happen to one of your loved ones if their only source of income got delayed by a week when they are already living paycheck to paycheck? 

It is true that the suspension of postal service changes until after the 2020 federal election solves the problem of delayed mail-in and absentee voting, but it only suffices in postponing all the other negative effects. If you have any empathy for how these changes are affecting your community, then you need to take a stand and use your 2020 federal election vote to kick Postmaster Louis DeJoy and all of his supporters, including Donald Trump, out of office. If you don’t, then you will be enabling the ticking time bomb that is our current U.S. Postal Service system. 

Many people have argued that the privatization of the U.S. Postal Service system could be another solution to our current predicament. These people argue that the current structure of the postal system results in a monopoly of mail that is led by corrupt politicians like DeJoy. Supporters of this solution point out that the U.S. Postal Service system is already a business-like system and could therefore be improved upon if it was privately owned by entrepreneurs. They argue that it would reduce costs and increase benefits for citizens by allowing competition within the postal industry. 

However, the privatization would not fix the current problems of the U.S. Postal Service and would instead result in the creation of worse human rights problems. Privatized businesses are not held to the same federal standards that government-controlled businesses are. This means that while costs for consumers may be cut, wages and working conditions would also be reduced. The privately-owned mail service, Amazon, is a prime example of this. 

The only way to fix the problems of the U.S. Postal Service system is to vote the corrupt government officials out of office in November. If you still believe the U.S. Postal Service system is fixed or that it doesn’t affect you after all of this, then congratulations. You are now the problem too.