U.S. Postal Service: RIP

[vivfox]

Jun 15 2009

The U.S. Postal Service, which has been dying for years due to the advent of the fax, e-mail, and overnight delivery, may finally be close to its last act.

The agency lost nearly $2 billion in its last fiscal year and is faced with the serious consideration of cuts of up to 3,100 offices, potentially eliminating thousand of jobs. Media reports say that first class mail volumes are plunging.

What is killing and will probably eventually finish off the Post Office? In a word: “broadband,” the high-speed Internet system that the current Administration plans to build out in the next two years.

According to MarketWatch, the Postal Service is already looking at stopping Saturday delivery. The next moves will probably cut the number of weekdays the mail is dropped off, particularly outside urban areas where the cost of reaching homes and businesses spread over a wide geography is enormous.

Broadband has taken away the need for sending letters and may large documents. Broadband connections allow users to securely download encrypted files, some of which are the equivalent of thousands of pages of paper. The files can be sent and received in a few seconds compared with days to move them by mail.

Payment systems which wire transfer money have nearly eliminated the role of the check in paying bills. This will only increase as e-banking does.

Even the magazine and newspaper industries which relied on physical delivery systems for decades now use the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle as a way to get the printed word over the Internet and downloaded onto the device. Almost every major print product also has an Internet version. Sending magazines via mail is expensive. Cutting back on that form of delivery would be a blessing.

The modern postal system killed the pony express. The USPS could only last so long before it was itself replaced. That time has finally come.

http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/to...ystem-rip.aspx

[vivfox]

I am not happy about this at all. I still write letters to people and have many magazines arriving to me in the mail. I love to have magazine pictures to put on my wall in my music room. I don't want to print them off the net. Every letter I send to someone I decorate the envelopes with stickers and color them with magic markers. It makes people very happy to get a letter from me when all they usually get in the mail are bills.
Every time I go to the post office to mail a package there is always a wait. I'd really hate to lose this service.

[JWS]

Originally Posted by vivfox

I am not happy about this at all. I still write letters to people and have many magazines arriving to me in the mail. I love to have magazine pictures to put on my wall in my music room. I don't want to print them off the net. Every letter I send to someone I decorate the envelopes with stickers and color them with magic markers. It makes people very happy to get a letter from me when all they usually get in the mail are bills.
Every time I go to the post office to mail a package there is always a wait. I'd really hate to lose this service.

Don't worry. There are still plenty of people without internet service at home. And, there is still a market for print magazines. The USPS can cut some locations and delivery, but they're not going away.

[Macfanforever]

They got to jack up the bulk rate for the junk mail companies,

[wheart]

Originally Posted by JWS

Don't worry. There are still plenty of people without internet service at home. And, there is still a market for print magazines. The USPS can cut some locations and delivery, but they're not going away.

I agree. The USPS will certaintly need to downsize in the future, but I think it will always been around, in some capacity. I hope!

[starshine]

I still love getting some of my 'snail' mail....though you can go through many different companies (that is UPS/Fed-ex etc...other than USPS ) to send packages etc......you can't send packages on the Net.....so I still love my snail mail.....except bills of course.....

[kathy1]

i agree also.