The Post Office's woes stem from three factors: (1) The volume of first class mail continues to spiral down as electronic communications replace it, (2) The profitable package delivery service has been drastically curtailed by competition from FedEx and UPS who do it faster, more reliably and cheaper, (3) The Post Office continues to use defined benefit pension plans while the private sector has shifted almost exclusively to a defined contribution plans.

The only solution I see is to privatize the organization. Take congress out of it entirely. This will allow the private company to consolidate operations thereby reducing costs, shift to a defined contribution pension structure, combine operations with FedEx and UPS, eliminate Saturday deliveries, etc. As long as Congress is involved with determining how the Post Office is run, it will be run badly for the benefit of the individual Congressmen and Senators showing how many facilities can be kept open in their district/state.