Let’s Save the Post Office, Josh MacPhee (2020); 15 stickers on perforated paper; 5.5 in x 8.5 in.

The image on these stamps was designed by Josh MacPhee, reworking a 1950s post office icon. The stamps were produced by The Portland Stamp Company. This text was adapted from @niruandbaku.

(It has come to our attention that some people thought these were actual postage. They are not, they are artist-created stamps and an educational project intended to encourage collective action to support and save the post office. Unfortunately, we can’t solve this problem by simply buying stamps from the post office—although that is a great thing to do!—but have to work together to leverage a political solution.)

The United States Post Office is in danger of running out of money by October 2020. Currently, the White House is opposing any emergency funding. The USPS delivers correspondence, prescriptions, checks, absentee and mail-in ballots, and packages to every single residence and business in the United States. From big cities to the most rural communities, it serves all of us. In the age of COVID-19, this service is needed more than ever. The USPS employs over 600,000 people. 100,000 are veterans. Those employed by the Post Office are essential workers.

It costs 55¢ to send a letter anywhere in the US. With a private delivery service, that same letter costs on average $11. Bringing packages to rural and hard to reach communities is not profitable for businesses like Amazon, FedEx, and UPS. They all rely on the USPS to go that last mile to deliver their packages. Eliminating the USPS cuts off vital deliveries and communication to rural communities who are already less likely to have reliable broadband internet service. In the coming months it will also help all of us safely vote by mail—without it, our electoral system will be in peril.

The USPS is not tax-payer funded. It is funded entirely through the sale of postage, products, and services.

Aside from the problems arising due to COVID-19 (including a severe decrease in mass mailings), since 2006, the USPS has been forced by Congress to fully fund pensions for all employees 75 years in advance. No other government or private business does this. The H.R. 2382-USPS Fairness Act will repeal the pension condition. It has passed in the House, but it needs to go to the Senate.