Besides privatizing the USPS and turning it into an employee-owned operation, the former PMG also said the postal service's current monopoly on addressed first class and advertising mail should be eliminated.

The Direct Marketing Association applauded Henderson's idea as most postal workers ripped it in postal chat rooms on the Internet. But the current fiscal crisis is a serious problem, said Jerry Cerasale, the DMA's senior vice president of government affairs. With the USPS facing a $1 billion-plus deficit this year and next, Cerasale doubted that there is "time for a full discussion on privatizing the postal service."

Neal Denton, Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers executive director, observed that "the current atmosphere on Capitol Hill is not conducive to the massive postal reform" Henderson spelled out in his opinion piece.

Henderson wrote that while the idea of privatizing the USPS might seem far-fetched and radical, "it's a concept the rest of the world has been taking seriously for years."

Turing the USPS into an employee-owned operation, he said would motivate postal workers to do better at improving service and improving the postal service's finances. He admitted, though, that it would be difficult to get postal worker union support for the idea.

Henderson, who left office three months ago, was scored by the vast majority of postal workers on postal chat rooms. While only a few postal workers actually agreed with the former PMG, most said privatization would lead to skyrocketing prices, employee layoffs and an end to universal mail delivery.

"Exactly how the postal service should be privatized is a public-policy question," said Henderson, noting that however it is done must be supported by the president as well as members of Congress.