(TNND) — Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has resigned as the U.S. Postal Service faces an uncertain future over staffing cuts led by the Department of Government Efficiency, a possible merger with the Commerce Department, or even privatization.

A Cato Institute expert said the right path forward is clear in his mind.

“It's time to end the drain of resources and the inefficiency at the Postal Service,” said Chris Edwards. “And the way to do that is to privatize it.”

Edwards is a federal budget expert at Cato and an advocate for smaller government.

The Postal Service operates as an independent agency of the executive branch.

It’s required to operate like a business, though it runs losses that end up at the feet of taxpayers.

Edwards said he understands the reluctance to change an organization with more than 200 years of history, engrained in American culture.

“But dynamism is a reality of the American economy,” he said. “Every industry changes over time.”

People don't send personal letters much anymore.

A lot of people do their banking online.

Companies aren’t even sending as much junk mail these days.

The Postal Service registered a net loss last fiscal year of $9.5 billion.

And the amount of first-class mail plunged from 104 billion pieces in 2000 to 44 billion last year.

The National Association of Letter Carriers has rallied against possible privatization for the Postal Service, calling the move “misguided” and a threat to 640,000 postal employees’ jobs.

Edwards said the Postal Service has become less of a letter-delivery company and more of a package-delivery company over time, with the rise in e-commerce.

“The USPS competes with Amazon, UPS and FedEx in a major way now in delivering packages to households across the country,” he said. “But this makes no sense at all. We don't need a government agency to do something that private corporations are already doing in a very competitive manner.”

Edwards said the Postal Service has an unfair advantage over the private logistics companies because it doesn’t pay taxes.

President Donald Trump has said he might put the Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department.

Edwards said that’s the “exact wrong direction,” and Edwards praised a task force from Trump’s first term that suggested privatizing the Postal Service.

Edwards said the Postal Service is in a “deepening crisis of red ink.”

He said selling it would end chronic shortfalls, bring in tax revenues from the newly privatized operation, and generate tens of billions of dollars from the sale.

“Congress still very much meddles in USPS activities in negative ways,” Edwards said. “Being part of the government has made it so that it’s very difficult for USPS to make any rational cost-cutting reforms.”

The Postal Service has tens of thousands of locations across the country. Some of those only get a few customers a day, Edwards said.

“And yet they keep all these inefficient locations open just because members of Congress complain if a location closes in their district,” Edwards said. “Well, that's no way to run a business.”

Eventually, Edwards expects Congress will have the political will to privatize the Postal Service.

“We're in a real dead-end situation here,” he said.

The Postal Service could be sold in full to one company, or it could be privatized through an initial public offering, or IPO.

Discounted IPO shares could be offered to current employees to entice buy-in, Edwards said.

The U.K., Germany and the Netherlands have already privatized their postal services.

“Deutsche Post, the German postal system, was privatized over two decades ago. It does letters. It does packages. It's a big logistics company. And it's been very successful, and earns profits and pays taxes,” Edwards said. “That should be the model for our U.S. Postal Service.”

DeJoy wasn’t a proponent of privatization, Edwards said. But he was a proponent of whipping up the efficiencies at the Postal Service.

And Edward said he gives DeJoy credit for that.

“The more efficient the USPS we can make in government hands, the easier it'll be to privatize,” he said.