January 4, 1982. Postmaster General William Bolger sends the first official E-COM message, Electronic Computer-Originated Mail, a brilliant hybrid system where businesses transmit messages electronically to the Post Office, which prints and delivers them. The concept could have made the Post Office your internet provider. Instead, AT&T used the Postal Rate Commission to kill it. They forced the Post Office to use outside telecommunications companies (meaning AT&T profits), jacked the price from 15 cents to 26 cents (60% increase), and designed restrictions guaranteeing failure. E-COM lost $5.25 on every letter and hemorrhaged $40 million before shutting down in 1985. Fourteen years later, the guy who designed E-COM started his own company doing the exact same thing, UPS bought it for $100 million. Episode 11 reveals how the 1980s became a decade of corporate strangulation: INTELPOST failed even worse (under $60,000 revenue on $6 million investment), creating institutional trauma that scared postal leadership away from electronic services right when the internet emerged. Meanwhile, Postmaster General Bolger rolled out presorted mail discounts that spawned the modern junk mail industry, bulk mail jumped 41% in one year, creating a $135 billion direct mail industry by 1986 while stamp prices rose 67%. Reagan's Grace Commission pushed privatization with 2,478 recommendations, but postal workers and rural voters had enough political power to stop it. The Heritage Foundation's plan to contract out 7,000 rural routes died instantly from constituent backlash. Private carriers got to cream-skim profitable routes after 1979 regulatory changes while the Post Office kept universal service obligations. The Post Office survived the decade but emerged traumatized, dependent on junk mail, and unable to compete in electronic services, exactly what corporations wanted. Key takeaways to listen for [00:00:00] Introduction  [00:05:33] Act I - The Electronic Mail Service AT&T Had to Kill: How Gene Johnson designed E-COM to intercept electronic messaging before it bypassed physical mail, why AT&T complained about competing with "a government agency with its own police force," how the Postal Rate Commission forced 26-cent pricing and outside telecom use that destroyed the business model, and why UPS paid $100 million for Mail2000 doing the exact same thing [00:15:52] Act II - INTELPOST and the Trauma That Lasted Decades: The "fastest mail on earth" satellite fax service that required post office visits on both ends, how it transmitted under 12,000 pages in three years while FedEx's ZapMail lost $300 million on the same concept, and why institutional trauma from failures made leadership avoid electronic services when the internet emerged [00:24:38] Act III - How Junk Mail Became the Business Model: Bolger's presorted mail discounts making bulk mail jump 41% in 1981, how the $135 billion direct mail industry emerged while stamp prices rose 67% (15 cents to 25 cents), and why worksharing discounts often exceeded actual cost savings, meaning the Post Office subsidized corporate mailers [00:33:37] Act IV - The Privatization That Almost Happened: Reagan's Grace Commission with 2,478 recommendations claiming $298 billion in savings (CBO said actually $98 billion), how the Heritage Foundation's rural route contracting proposal died from immediate backlash, cream-skimming after 1979 Private Express Statute suspension, and why annual Congressional appropriation riders protected six-day delivery and rural service levels [00:49:51] Act V - What the 1980s Teach Us About Defending Public Institutions: How 800,000 postal workers in every congressional district plus rural voters created political power corporations couldn't overcome, why regulatory capture (AT&T controlling the Postal Rate Commission) defeated unions that could stop direct privatization, and the lesson that defense isn't the same as thriving, the Post Office survived but emerged weaker Follow Us On Social Media Instagram @Peopleof_Agency TikTok @Peopleof_Agency YouTube @Peopleof_Agency   Connect with Us Ready to explore how ordinary people built extraordinary public institutions? Subscribe to People of Agency wherever you listen to podcasts. Find us on social media @Peopleof_Agency. Have stories about how the mail shaped your community, or thoughts on protecting public services? We'd love to hear from you! [email protected] Quotes: "The concept was brilliant. But AT&T and the telecommunications industry used the Postal Rate Commission to kill E-COM before it could succeed. And then UPS bought the same concept for one hundred million dollars." - Aileen "The idea was always viable. The technology worked. But when it was a public service that could benefit all Americans, corporations killed it through regulatory capture. When it became a private company making shareholders rich, suddenly it's worth a fortune." - Maia "The Grace Commission is DOGE's grandfather. Same playbook. Bring in corporate executives who've already decided government is wasteful, let them examine federal agencies, present predetermined conclusions as objective findings." - Aileen "The question isn't why do postal workers have good pensions, it's why don't Amazon workers have pensions." - Maia "Defense isn't the same as thriving. The Post Office survived the 1980s but emerged weaker. More dependent on junk mail, more scared of innovation, more vulnerable to cream-skimming." - Aileen "People power worked then. It can work now. But only if we fight like hell." - Maia Hashtags #PeopleOfAgency #AileenDay #MaiaWarner #ECOM #INTELPOST #RonaldReagan #GraceCommission #Privatization #RegulatoryCapture #JunkMail #BulkMail #PresortedDiscounts #ATT #UPS #FedEx #CreamSkimming #PostalHistory #USPSHistory #PublicInstitutions #UnionPower #RuralVoters #WorksharingDiscounts #PrivateExpressStatutes #UniversalService #InstitutionalTrauma #ElectronicMail #1980s #HistoryPodcast Credits  People of Agency is created and written by Aileen Day, with additional writing by Maia Warner-Langenbahn. It is hosted by Aileen Day and Maia Warner-Langenbahn. This episode was edited by the amazing Kelsi Rupersburg-Day. Our beautiful cover art is by Sam Woodring.  Sources Here are some of our other sources (use the tab function to review different episodes). How the Post Office Created America, by Winifred Gallagher, served as a significant guiding light for this project. Many of our sources were pulled from online Smithsonian resources and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Thank you to our anonymous Historian fact checker who reviewed many of our scripts and provided invaluable feedback.