It’s doubtful that anyone doesn’t know the meaning of the analogy that something is “like putting lipstick on a pig.” With no offense intended to pigs, it simply means that the fundamental nature of something isn’t changed or improved by the addition of superficial or cosmetic devices.
The analogy applies to the recent press release (and accompanying Industry Alert and DMM Advisory) from the Postal Service informing readers that it is “enhancing service standards,” and that they should “prepare for the changes.” The release touts the benefits of the “enhancements” to the agency, claiming it will allow savings of “at least $36 billion over the next decade through reductions in transportation, mail and package processing and real estate costs.”
The USPS publicists outdid themselves, using a new level of disingenuous spin in a poorly veiled depiction of reduced service as something good for customers. Claiming that the USPS is “enhancing service predictability and reliability” is a clever attempt to recast service being slowed – again.
Asking customers to adjust their “service expectations” and to rely on such tardiness doesn’t improve the service they actually receive or make them any happier. The 47% of America’s population whose service is declining doesn’t care about Louis DeJoy’s fixation on full trucks or his delusion that the USPS can be restored to self-sufficiency by ever-increasing prices and ever-worsening service.
Moreover, the USPS isn’t meeting its service targets now, so ratepayers have no reason to expect sudden improvement from the forthcoming “enhancements.” The postal publicists will try to convince us all otherwise, but there just isn’t enough lipstick available for that pig.
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