The Post Office’s inspector General has proposed just that.  In a while paper released earlier in the year, the IG suggested that USPS start offering financial services such as check-cashing, bill payments, international money transfers and even small loans.

When you think  about it, it makes a lot of sense. Postal workers are looking for work, and there are a lot of them .  The USPS is second only to Walmart among civilian employers with 491,000 workers.  Meanwhile our poorest citizens are losing access to banks , which always seem to close their branches in the poor neighborhoods first. Poor people pay dearly for payday loans and check-cashing services. It has been estimated that 25% of American households are un-banked or under-banked meaning they have no or inadequate access to checking and savings services. These folks pay more for banking services than the rest of us do.

This arrangement may seem outlandish to us but many Asian and European countries have been doing this for years. Japan Post operates one of that nation’s biggest banks.  I once hosted a particularly obnoxious German tourist who wouldn’t stop complaining about the fact that he couldn’t make long-distance calls from our post offices. Hey, there’s another idea…

Anyway, the idea of expanding postal services, especially those helpful to our poorer citizens appeals to me. What do you think?

RCB WILL BE ON HIATUS FOR A FEW DAYS. Your comments are welcome and will be responded to by the middle of next week. See you soon!