US Post Office no longer delivering on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

I always feel strange coming to an on-line message board with the "luddite" point of view, but ...

In our house, we still send cards, letters, bills and even taxes via the U.S. Postal Service. My wife likes to keep copies of bank statements, credit card bills, etc., for a set period of time, and it's easier to do that and keep it organized if it's mailed to you.

And I'm still a letter writer, even if I rarely receive a written reply from anyone younger than 50. I don't like to stare at a screen constantly during my waking hours* and I enjoy the process of putting pen to paper and sending it off across the state, country, wherever.

So if that makes me a dinosaur, I'll lumber off into extinction with head held high.


* yes, I realize I come on SportsJournalists.com and exchange online pleasantries with you all. But that all changes when the print edition, "Reader's Digest" version of SportsJournalists.com comes out! ;D

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Geez, I get the lecture? I mostly agree with you! What I said is pretty uncontroversial even to Chicago school economics adherents like you: The purpose of government entry into the economy is to correct market failures. Now, we can argue about whether the lack of mail service to Montana is a market failure or not, but what I said is, again, pretty accepted.

Also, if you read the subsequent posts, I also noted that the people in Montana need to start getting used to the fact that this is where the world is headed and adjust. I just don't think it would be fair to pull the rug out from underneath them all at once.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Who's unwilling?

A proposal to do away with Saturday service was supported by 79 percent of the population in 2011.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Figure credit card companies will see a nice upturn on profits with the way they constantly tweak the billing cycle, the crunching of time between the time they send out the bill and the due date and the accruing interest.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

In terms of those suggesting a radical reduction in the number of days of mail delivery (two, three,etc.), keep in mind that the USPS is the largest single employer in the country (or maybe they've passed by WalMart and are second now.) Where you would be saving a lot of the USPS operating loss, at least some of those costs would simply be transferred to unemployment expense.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Buh...buh...no value judgments!

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

I do all my bills by mail and I'd still be fine with 3-day-a-week delivery. It would just mean more junk mail on those days instead of everyday. (I estimate 75-80 percent of my current mail is junk: solicitations, political crap, form letters, advertisements, etc.) Only change I'd have to make is sending Christmas gifts and stuff like that.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Hadn't really thought about how little I use the postal service anymore until I started reading this thread. Other than a couple of magazine subscriptions I don't get much in the mail I want or need.

That said, I think doing away with the USPS would be an exceptionally bad idea for most of the reasons outlined above. Not everyone can pay their bills on-line or through direct deposit or have access to email to stay connected with friends & family.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

There are a lot of people in the US, who live in outlying areas, who really do depend on the USPS to stay connected to the world. And maybe it's just me, but I think having a backup in case something happens to the Internet is a good idea.
Another loser in this - the various charities who benefitted from the Saturday pickups of canned food etc.

 

I'd guess there are a lot of people in major metropolitan areas who rely on it just as much as people out in the boonies.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Isn't the USPS debt caused by having to pre-fund retirement health plans for every employee - a restriction Congress has imposed on no other agency?