Ready or Not, Here It Comes: Goodbye, Post Office
Feb 14, 2011
Everybody knows times are changing – they always are. But there are several major changes taking place right now that you might not be aware of. And these changes will fundamentally alter this country as we know it.
First up, the post office. Yes, that’s right: The United States Postal Service (USPS). Most of us take it for granted that mail will be delivered to our mailbox six days a week come rain or snow. But do you realize that USPS is in SERIOUS, SERIOUS financial trouble? Since it was established as an independent agency of the government in 1971, USPS has borrowed approximately $13 billion from the US Treasury to pay its deficits. According to an article on CNN Money, “The Post Office was $10 billion in debt as of Sept. 30 [2009] — not far off from its $15 billion debt limit, which the agency expects to hit in its 2011 fiscal year.” Wow!!!
USPS has tried to get itself out of trouble. It has instituted a variety of cost cutting measures and has increased the price of stamps more times than I can count. It isn’t working!! The decline of mail volume and the rising popularity of private package delivery services equal lower revenue, and USPS simply can’t keep up.
Let’s face reality: the post office isn’t necessary anymore. With the rise of email and services like Fed Ex and UPS, it’s become an outdated dinosaur. Did you know USPS operates the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world? In 2009 alone, it cost $1.1 billion to fill its fleet of 218,684 vehicles with 444 million gallons of gasoline. And why do we really need it? The majority of regular mail is junk mail and bills. Virtually all of our regular mail needs can now be taken care of quickly and easily online.
I know one of the major arguments against getting rid of the post office is that it will cost hundreds of thousands of Americans their jobs – USPS employs almost 600,000 people. Unfortunately, keeping the post office running is currently costing hundreds of thousands of taxpayers their hard-earned money. Instead of burying our heads in the sands and trying to figure out how to fix something that can’t be fixed, let’s figure out how we’re going to handle the ramifications of shutting it down. Because that’s where we’re headed one way or another – it’s only a matter of time.
Come on, people, let’s get real: the post office may have made sense when Ben Franklin first conceived it in 1775, but it doesn’t make sense today!!
Stay tuned for my next post about the demise of the check…
LINK:
Wikipedia – United States Postal Service
I agree, shut down the USPS! Government has no business running a business!
I am sure if the proposed , or soon to come $15b postal deficit were put into the hands of a capitalist with a sound business strategy , it would do more than provide 600,000 people jobs. In fact , do the math, we could probably retire each of the 600,000 postal employees with a healthy retirement plan , medical benefits for life and still have plenty left over for positive social change.
how many more incompitant, gvernement controlled entities are out there burning cash that need to be plucked from our system. c’mon , when is someone , non-politically motivated , independent of lobbiest, true-leader of the people going to rise and put a STOP to this non-sense ….. 1971 to now, $13b in debt and the goverment still thinks USPS is a viable service to our country !!!
I nominate Mit Romney ……………………. but dam-it Mit , do something will you, like get rid of this post office crap, truth is, governement is probably the biggest user of the USPS !! If so I want my money back !!
Thanks Jordan Zimmerman!
I love inspirational posts now and then, but much prefer business related posts like the one posted today regarding the US Postal Service. I have followed the woes of the USPS for many years, yet still learned a bit more about the money being wasted in your well researched and nicely written post.
I used to love sending and receiving postcards and letters, but those days are definitely gone forever. Buggy whips in days gone by, incandescent light bulbs and wristwatches in the more recent past. Nostalgia is great, but the world is moving much too quickly support unsustainable industries.
I appreciated you addressing the many employees who will likely be losing their jobs as a result of cutbacks, especially since this seems to be the political reason for less drastic cuts long ago.
I’m waiting anxiously for your post on the bank checks, which you should probably follow with one on landline phones.
The post office can and would make money if it charged more to send mail. It still wouldn’t be as high as UPS or FedEx which would keep those prices in check. Also charge more for the bulk advertisers, so they pay a premium to inundate us with the junk mail.
Sure, you might argue that not as many would use the service when it was higher, but when faced with the even higher prices of the competition, then I think they would.
If you want to stop any of the non-sense involved with the company, take the company private and release the strings that congress has kept over it so they can run profitably. As you have pointed out – UPS and Fed Ex do it.
USPC won’t disappear. Vast amount of private, public, government and business mail is delivered by USPS as is a huge volume of parcel post. It’s efficiency will lie in ending home deliveries and the use of community PO box banks for deliveries where we pick up our own mail. That and the closing of those archaic post offices where customer service is something they read about online. You need to get out from behind your desk more Zimmer-man.
Mr. Zimmerman:
Thanks for your post about the US Postal Service. I agree with your opinion, as well as those of the people who commented, but I would suggest a more measured approach rather than shut it all down now. Anything founded in 1775 and as venerable as the Post Office is entitled a little respect and is deserving of at least another generation of transition, albeit on a schedule.
Please keep in mind, the Post Office serves everyone, including the growing immigrant population, as well as a large and growing group of senior citizens. Both groups, may not be comfortable using the Internet and e-mail for all their correspondence. Additionally, the United States has international postal agreements with countries worldwide that cannot be severed without forethought.
I agree, we should not coddle a failing agency, but shutting it down without a transition seems foolish and cavalier. Keep in mind, the Post Office serves many functions beyond simple mail delivery, including Money Orders, which provide an inexpensive payment medium for individuals less fortunate than yourself while providing competition for some banking services.
The Post Office is making what some would call drastic cuts by shuttering multiple offices in a single ZipCode, but this all requires planning and additional thought. The trademark for ZipCodes, used for everything from real estate data bases, public school boundaries and voting records is also owned by the Postal Service.
Like one of the other people commenting on this story, I’m looking forward to the story on checks, which are definitely OVER, especially in the grocery store when someone pulls out a checkbook and ID. Even my elderly senior citizen mother knows how to use a debit card to buy groceries. Let’s take on checks first, then work on the Post Office.
Last year I hired a former Postal Worker who went back to school. She made almost $65,000/year plus a ridiculous pension and benefit package…just to deliver mail (something a minimum wage worker could do).
Cutting deliveries down to 3 or 4 days a week, cutting out these ridiculous wage and benefit expenses, and getting an intelligent plan in place might allow it to survive a bit longer.
Regardless, I’m with you, the days of the USPS in its current form are numbered.
I agree with you that “virtually” all of our mail these days can be managed through electronic media. It is the precious minority that I believe cannot be conveyed sufficiently this way – that is, the meaningful handwritten thank you note, birthday greeting card, notice of bar admission…
I appreciate the financial dimensions of the situation, but would nonetheless miss certain mail. Call me old fashioned, but it is amazing how far 44 cents can go to brighten someone’s day!
Perhaps they need to reform themselves. They are in the mail delivery business and that doesn’t have to be limited to stamps on envelopes. What if they saw themselves as an electronic delivery system as well?
This is a situation the oil companies will find themselves in in the not so distant future.
They are not “Oil Companies” they are energy/fuel suppliers. They should take note and start to supply the fuels of the future or soon enough they will be faced with the same thing.