Americans Want to Keep Postal Service Public But Cut Delivery to Five Days
Although many Americans today rely on electronic forms of communication, they still believe there is a need for the U.S. Postal Service. But they're okay with cutting back snail mail delivery to five days a week.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 31% of Adults think the government should consider selling the money-losing Postal Service to a private company. Fifty percent (50%) disagree and think it should remain in the public sector. Nineteen percent (19%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The Postal Service is seeking Congress' permission to drop Saturday mail delivery as a way to cut costs, and 52% of Americans think that's a good idea. But that's down six points from 58% last March. Thirty-four percent (34%) now want to keep Saturday delivery, while 14% more are not sure.
In July, 68% said they would rather see mail delivery cut to five days a week and avoid raising the price of stamps as opposed to keeping the six-day delivery and raising stamp prices.
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The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted on February 13-14, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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