『People of Agency』のカバーアート

People of Agency

People of Agency

著者： Post Office History - People of Agency
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概要

The Post Office is older than the United States, and that's not a coincidence. From the American Revolution to Rural Free Delivery, the Post Office has been a silent, foundational institution that literally built the roads and airways of modern America.

Join Aileen Day and Maia Warner-Langenbahn as they dig up the receipts and reveal the untold, radical history of this essential public good. This is a story about the unseen power that truly holds the country together, and why we all need to understand what's at stake when public institutions are under attack.

Copyright 2025 All rights reserved. 世界 政治・政府 政治学
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  • Breaking News: The Post Office Has 12 Months to Live. Here's How We Got Here.

    Breaking News: The Post Office Has 12 Months to Live. Here's How We Got Here.
    2026/03/19
    On March 17th, 2026, two things happened simultaneously: the Postmaster General told Congress the U.S. Postal Service will run out of money in less than twelve months, and Amazon, USPS's largest customer, announced it's walking away. This isn't a crisis that arrived suddenly. It's the bottom of a fifty-year fall, engineered by the same corporations and legislators who are now presenting privatization as the only rescue available. In this solo dispatch, Aileen breaks down what happened, who benefits, why the Constitution won't protect us, what we actually lose if this succeeds, and what we could build if we fight for the institution the Post Office was always supposed to be. What Happened on March 17 USPS will be out of cash as early as October 2026. On the table: 95-cent stamps, cutting a delivery day, closing post offices. The same day, Amazon announced it's cutting two-thirds of its USPS packages, six billion dollars walking out the door. USPS has received zero taxpayer funding since 1982. It is the only government agency required to fully fund itself while being buried under constraints no private business would survive. You've Met This Man Before David Steiner spent sixteen years on FedEx's board holding 8.5 million dollars in FedEx stock, then became Postmaster General. His first major act introduced a bidding platform that Amazon says blew up a year of contract negotiations and opens USPS's delivery network to FedEx. In February 2025, Wells Fargo published a privatization roadmap concluding a sale would "benefit FedEx and UPS." Institutions serve whoever controls them. The Constitution Is Not Going to Save Us Article One, Section Eight gives Congress the power to establish post offices, not the obligation. The Universal Service Obligation, Board of Governors' independence, six-day delivery, the mail monopoly, collective bargaining rights for 600,000 workers, all statutes Congress can change. The guardrails are political, not constitutional. The only real protection is an informed public that refuses to let it go quietly. What We Lose, and What We Could Have FedEx charges up to $83.75 per package in remote rural areas. USPS charges the same rate everywhere. FedEx and UPS don't deliver to military addresses at all. The VA ships 120 million veteran prescriptions a year through USPS. But the fight isn't just to preserve what exists, it's to reclaim what was always being prevented. A public postal savings system ran for 55 years and was killed by bank lobbying. A free public email address was proposed in 1998 and killed by AT&T. The 2006 PAEA then locked the door on any new services entirely. In 2021, USPS piloted postal banking. It worked. Congress defunded it in 2023. The Postal Banking Act would reverse that and generate up to 19 billion dollars a year while serving 25 million unbanked Americans. We are not fighting to preserve a failing institution. We are fighting to reclaim one that was set up to fail. Here's What You Do Call your representative today and ask them to raise USPS's borrowing cap, no bill has been introduced yet, and October is coming fast. Resources and legislation linked below. Follow Us On Social Media Instagram @Peopleof_Agency TikTok @Peopleof_Agency YouTube @Peopleof_Agency Connect with Us Ready to explore how ordinary people built extraordinary public institutions? Subscribe to People of Agency wherever you listen to podcasts. Find us on social media @Peopleof_Agency. Have stories about how the mail shaped your community, or thoughts on protecting public services? We'd love to hear from you! peopleofagencypod@gmail.com Quotes "Less than a year from now, the Postal Service will be unable to deliver the mail if we maintain the status quo." David Steiner, Postmaster General, March 17, 2026 (quoted by Aileen)"In the time since peak 2006 mail volume, the Postal Service was thrown overboard and instead of tossing us a life jacket, we were thrown an anchor." David Steiner (quoted by Aileen)"He's not wrong about the anchor. He just left out who threw it." Aileen"The U.S. Postal Service does not receive a single dollar of regular taxpayer funding. Not a dollar. It hasn't since 1982. It is the only government agency in the country that operates this way." Aileen"We are watching the Project 2025 blueprint execute in real time: manufacture unsustainable financial pressure, install sympathetic leadership, remove the regulatory protections that prevent a sale, and present privatization as the rescue." Aileen"I'm not telling you Steiner is corrupt. I'm telling you the man making decisions for a public institution came from sixteen years of making decisions for its primary private competitor." Aileen"Their actual, published conclusion was that privatization would benefit FedEx and UPS. They published that. In February 2025. Months before Steiner was appointed." Aileen Action Items & Resources Call Congress, most urgent: Capitol Switchboard: 202- 224-3121APWU Legislative ...
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    24 分
  • SEASON 2 TRAILER: The Fourth Estate

    SEASON 2 TRAILER: The Fourth Estate
    2026/02/16

    Season 1 told the 250-year history of the U.S. Postal Service, but we weren't really talking about mail. We were talking about how ordinary people build public institutions, and how power tries to take them back.

    Season 2 is about journalism. The free press and the postal service grew up together.

    In 1792, the Post Office Act subsidized newspaper delivery at rates way below cost. Not because it was profitable. Because democracy requires informed citizens. That subsidy created an explosion of diverse media: abolitionist papers, labor papers, Black newspapers, immigrant language papers, alt-weeklies, news that served communities, not shareholders.

    What We'll Cover:

    • How news distribution was treated as democracy infrastructure for 200 years
    • The shift to the 24-hour news cycle and clickbait economics
    • Corporate consolidation and the death of local journalism
    • How we're told there's "no business model" for news, when we had one for two centuries
    • The pattern: defund public infrastructure, let it fail, claim it's obsolete, privatize what's left

    We subsidized news distribution as public infrastructure. Then we stopped, called it "letting the free market work," and now journalism serves shareholders instead of citizens.

    Just like Season 1 showed with the postal service, the history isn't just loss, it's also resistance. Muckrakers, underground papers during McCarthyism, the alternative press movement, community radio. Ordinary people fighting to keep news serving communities instead of profits.

    Season 2 will show how we built a free press, how it's been contested and controlled throughout history, and what it would take to make it serve democracy again.

    The fight over who controls information? That's never been more urgent than right now.

    Season 2 coming: Summer of 2026
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    2 分
  • (Ep. 14) - The Postal Service We Choose: institutions serve whoever fights for them

    (Ep. 14) - The Postal Service We Choose: institutions serve whoever fights for them
    2026/02/09
    In August 2020, three months before a presidential election, during a pandemic, postal workers watch perfectly working mail sorting machines being dismantled, some cut with blowtorches, some thrown in dumpsters. 711 post office machines removed in a few months (double normal rate), 10% of national sorting capacity gone. When union leaders ask why, management says they're "no longer needed" while mail volume surges. Episode 14 of our postal history tail, the season finale, covers the last five years of postal crisis and resistance. Louis DeJoy becomes Post Office Postmaster General with zero postal experience, $1.2M in Trump donations, and $30-75M in XPO Logistics stock (a USPS contractor) the Board hired him without official candidate search. He bans overtime, machines get dismantled, mail slows dramatically. Federal judge rules in September 2020 that DeJoy's actions were "voter disenfranchisement." But postal workers delivered anyway: 99.89% of 2020 ballots within 7 days, 900 million COVID tests (average 1.2 days delivery), 91% public approval rating. The organizing worked. Grand Alliance coordinated 80+ organizations, demonstrations at 300 post offices, and April 2022's Postal Service Reform Act eliminated the prefunding mandate with overwhelming bipartisan support. Then July 2025: the Post Office turns 250 while privatization forces circle. DeJoy resigns March 2025 after fighting off DOGE's merger attempts. David Steiner (former FedEx board member) becomes the 76th Postmaster General. Amazon contract expires October 2026 ($6B revenue loss), USPS launches reverse auction platform diversifying beyond one customer. Wells Fargo publishes actual privatization roadmap recommending 30-140% rate increases. DOGE, Koch network, Heritage Foundation all pushing dismantlement. But 102 million Americans would face higher prices under privatization, 16 Republicans cosponsored anti-privatization resolutions, rural senators defending universal service. The lesson after 250 years: institutions serve whoever fights for them. The 2022 Reform Act proved organizing works. Public support exists (91% approval). The infrastructure exists (Grand Alliance, 500,000 union members, bipartisan rural defenders). The choice is whether we organize or surrender by default. Key takeaways to listen for [00:03:00] Act I - The DeJoy Era & COVID: Louis DeJoy appointed with zero postal experience, $1.2M Trump donations, $30-75M XPO stock (didn't divest until 2022), no official candidate search; 711 machines removed (double normal rate), overtime banned, mail leaves unloaded; 83 postal workers dead by Sept 2020, 18,000 out sick daily at peak, but 900M COVID tests delivered averaging 1.2 days, 91% approval rating (highest federal agency, bipartisan)[00:19:45] Act II - When the Post Office Shows Up: August 2020 warnings to 46 states about ballot deadlines, Trump openly linking USPS defunding to blocking mail voting, federal judge ruling DeJoy's actions were "voter disenfranchisement"; 99.89% of 2020 ballots delivered within 7 days (1.6 day average), 99% within 3 days in 2022 midterms, 94% on-time in North Carolina despite Hurricane Helene devastation; contrast with UPS suspending 1,000 Florida ZIP codes during Hurricane Ian while USPS legally required to serve everywhere[00:37:57] Act III - The Reform Act, Birthday, and Threats: April 2022 Reform Act eliminating prefunding mandate, wiping $57B accumulated debt, codifying 6-day delivery, passing with overwhelming bipartisan support from COVID organizing; July 2025 250th birthday while privatization threats circle; DeJoy resignation March 2025 after fighting DOGE merger attempts; David Steiner (FedEx board) as 76th Postmaster General; Amazon contract expiring Oct 2026 ($6B loss), reverse auction platform diversifying customers; Wells Fargo publishing privatization roadmap with 30-140% rate increases[00:51:50] Act IV - What We've Learned + How We Get There: Pattern across 250 years: every time USPS proves it works, someone tries to kill it (COVID tests→remove machines, postal savings→50 years lobbying to destroy, E-COM→Congress kills it); spoils system never died (DeJoy appointment); 1970 "run like a business" restructuring planted seeds of crisis; 2006 prefunding manufactured 87% of losses; organizing during COVID (Grand Alliance, 300 post office demonstrations, 91% approval) created political pressure for 2022 Reform Act[01:03:36] Act V - The Tug-of-War & The Choice: Wells Fargo publishing step-by-step privatization guide, James Comer saying private companies "interested" in mail processing, Koch network/Heritage/Cato pushing dismantlement; but 102M Americans would face higher prices (Institute for Policy Studies), 16 Republicans cosponsoring anti-privatization resolutions, rural senators defending universal service; proposals exist (Postal Banking Act, expanded government services, pension reform, $6-10B annual appropriations); 2022 Reform Act proves organizing works, ...
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    1 時間 14 分
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