20th September 2011, 7:56 AM
A Black Falcon Wrote:Um, what? Of course the postal service is something we need. People need to be able to get mail. The internet can't replace all physical products, not unless we all had cheap 3d printers (that could make anything) or something! And even then, for some things paper mail would make sense.
Why is mail vital?
I've pretty much cut out all paper mail from my life. I get perhaps three or four pieces of mail per month that are actually of interest. Almost everything else comes to me electronically. Which means I get informed immediately and there's no chance of things being lost. Of course, I do get about seventy piece of mail, total, each month. It ends up in the trash. Along with millions of tons from other people.
It's an antiquated relic of a time when better options simply didn't exist. Instead of subsidizing a service which is failing because people don't want to use it, we should subsidize services people actually need and do want to use, like improving our woefully-inadequate broadband infrastructure.
Quote:That's ridiculous, all mail isn't junk mail.
I'll bear that in mind when I throw away 95% of what comes to me in the box this month.
Quote:Weltall, I'm not talking about letters. I'm talking about packages. FedEx and UPS simply don't do nearly as good a job at package sending as USPS.
So, let the USPS become a courier to compete with the other major couriers. It will survive if it really does provide adequate service. If they culled down most of the mail service, they could streamline and improve, even further, their package delivery capacity.
And, of course, there will always be some margin for the existence of paper mail, but make it a premium service. It will be more profitable in the long-term than to devote huge amounts of resources to keeping it around as a base-level system used almost exclusively by large groups (who are the only ones who benefit, because they get to flood the world with shit mail for a modicum of expense. If companies had to hire courier services, bulk mail would almost certainly cease to exist, and how can that be anything except awesome?)
Quote:Also, addresses exist because of USPS. Where will those other two send things if addresses and mail boxes cease to exist? ALSO, I happen to like services like PO boxes and so on.
I'm not sure why you think addresses would cease to exist if the postal service disappeared, as if street addresses existed only to ensure mail delivery and not for any of a hundred other vital categorical functions. The postal service was responsible for the concept of street addresses being conceived, but to think that it is necessary for the concept to continue existing is just silly. Do you really think your house will cease to be 877 Diddlepoop Lane, Godhelpme, OK if the USPS went away tomorrow? You should know better than that.
Quote:This rant is "prompted" by crazy people saying "let the postal service die and let us become the only first world nation without such a service". Again, until we have worm holes, we'll need some system of addresses and shipping packages to said addresses. Fact is, FedEx and UPS are piggybacking on USPS's great work.
We don't need a national postal service. The very idea is as obsolete as the telegram. We're long past the point where such a service is vital to anything except the circulation of junk mail. Propping it up because you're the most conservative liberal ever (ABF) or because it just happens to be your favorite parcel service (DJ) just isn't adequate.
The USPS should be restructured into a service which primarily focuses on package delivery. It has all the infrastructure needed to pull this off, and they can still float some mail service along for the minuscule fraction of mail which actually serves a purpose. Keeping P.O. boxes around would serve the few people who actually care, but mail could still be delivered. It would just have to become more expensive. Bearing the burden of cheap mail in huge bulk is why the postal service is hemorrhaging money as it is; it doesn't return a profit. Do you really want your tax dollars to go towards the continuing proliferation of junk mail (and all the environmental waste it creates), or would you rather spend $2 to send a letter the half-dozen times a year you actually need to send a letter?
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