PolicyGuy

Monday, December 29, 2003


Moments in the History of the U.S. Postal Service
I got someone else's mail today. Now, I know that's nothing usual. Periodically, for example, I have throughout my life gotten mail addressed to the previous occupant of my apartment or house--or if not that person, the occupant before that.

But today's mail takes this misdirection one step forward. Mr. A. wrote Mr. B. a letter and dropped it in the mail. It ended up in my mailbox. Checking the return address and the destination address with Mapquest, I find that A and B live about 2 miles away from each other--and 12 miles from me.

Now again, routing an item through a far-away destination is not unusual, either: FedEx packages from A to B would probably go through Memphis. But they wouldn't end up in, say, Montgomery.

"Justice Louis D. Brandeis'?s metaphor of the states as "laboratories" for policy experiments ... had almost nothing to do with federalism and everything to do with his commitment to scientific socialism. .... To this day, it continues to inhibit a truly experimental, federalist politics." -- Michael S. Greve

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