Paul Waldman considers the Postal Services’ current challenges:
What can you get for 44 cents these days? You can get a fun-sized candy bar. Or 3 ounces of coffee. Or maybe one AAA battery, if it’s on sale. Or, you can have someone come to your house, pick up a letter you’ve written, take it 3,000 miles across the country within a few days, and deliver it to your Aunt Millie’s door. That’s something you can get for 44 cents.
You may have heard that the United States Postal Service is having financial problems and that its service might be significantly altered as a result. According to its latest annual report, the volume of mail it delivered declined 13 percent last year, from 203 billion pieces in 2008 to 177 billion pieces in 2009. This dramatic drop was partly due to the recession, which meant that companies were saving money by mailing out fewer catalogs and solicitations, and partly because of the growing use of e-mail. In any case, it meant less revenue. Now, the USPS has removed mailboxes in many places to simplify its collection task, and some post offices are closing. It’s also seriously contemplating doing away with Saturday delivery to save money. There are many reasons why its situation has become so dire, but mostly it’s because all of us Americans have come to expect that we’ll receive the service the Postal Service provides at an absurdly low price.
