Thank your Mailman

Secret: I’m in LOVE with the new USPS ads.

Also a little in love w/USPS.

The problems they face are Congressionally-caused…and need to be Congressionally fixed…but that is not the point of this post.

The private-sector/public-sector debate is perfectly encapsulated in this Constitutionally mandated service.

The fact is, a for profit business will not do what we count on USPS doing. There is no bottom-line reason to have package delivery in certain rural areas. Not to say that the USPS is destined to lose money. There are plenty of profitable package-delivery areas to subsidize the rural ones. What this says is that there are areas of the country that for profit companies, whose sole goal is to maximize profit, just will never serve.

And don’t get me started on more “cost-effective” or “customer-oriented” argle-bargle.

Here’s a little true story to counter that argument. Up until this Fall semester my school had it’s own little post-office run by USPS. We each had our own little mail-boxes and everything worked. This fall, it went private. The new company got rid of the mailboxes in the name of efficiency. Now you had to go to the window for all letters and were timed (the CUSTOMER is timed) if you had a package that was placed in a keypad locked box.

Also, they have very minimal business hours. (think bank only less). Because…y’know…manning the window costs money.

The result? Loooooooong lines. Miserable students. Lost packages.

And a school that literally decided to have students go to offices to pick up forms rather than mail them out as they always had before. See…even they realized that that would be less of a hassle for the students than dealing with our “privatized” mail system. It is insane.

So…tip your mailman.

Thank your mailman.

Lobby your Congressperson….because,seriously, y’all don’t want this Smeg.