Going Postal?
The Postal System Becomes An Anachronism {Excerpt}
The US Postal System, which has been dying for years due to the advent of the fax, e-mail, and overnight delivery, may finally be close to its last act.
The agency lost nearly $2 billion in its last fiscal year and is faced with cuts of up to 3,100 offices potentially eliminating thousand of jobs. Media reports say that first class mail volumes are plunging.
What is killing and will probably eventually finish off the Post Office? In a word “broadband”, a system that the current Administration plans to build out quickly in the next two years. According to MarketWatch, the Post Office is already looking at stopping Saturday delivery. The next moves will probably cut the number of weekdays the mail is dropped off, particularly outside urban areas where the cost of reaching homes and businesses spread over a wide geography is enormous.
Broadband has taken away the need for sending letters and may large documents....Payment systems which wire transfer money have nearly eliminated the role of the check in paying bills. This will only increase as e-banking does.
Even the magazine and newspaper industries which relied on physical delivery systems for decades now use the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle as a way to get the printed word over the internet and downloaded onto the device. Almost every major print product also has an Internet version. Sending magazines via mail is expensive. Cutting back on that form of delivery would be a blessing. The modern postal system killed the pony express. The USPS could only last so long before it way itself replaced. That time has finally come.
Douglas A. McIntyre {24/7 Wall Street}
The agency lost nearly $2 billion in its last fiscal year and is faced with cuts of up to 3,100 offices potentially eliminating thousand of jobs. Media reports say that first class mail volumes are plunging.
What is killing and will probably eventually finish off the Post Office? In a word “broadband”, a system that the current Administration plans to build out quickly in the next two years. According to MarketWatch, the Post Office is already looking at stopping Saturday delivery. The next moves will probably cut the number of weekdays the mail is dropped off, particularly outside urban areas where the cost of reaching homes and businesses spread over a wide geography is enormous.
Broadband has taken away the need for sending letters and may large documents....Payment systems which wire transfer money have nearly eliminated the role of the check in paying bills. This will only increase as e-banking does.
Even the magazine and newspaper industries which relied on physical delivery systems for decades now use the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle as a way to get the printed word over the internet and downloaded onto the device. Almost every major print product also has an Internet version. Sending magazines via mail is expensive. Cutting back on that form of delivery would be a blessing. The modern postal system killed the pony express. The USPS could only last so long before it way itself replaced. That time has finally come.
Douglas A. McIntyre {24/7 Wall Street}
Comment: Part of the problems with a modern economy is that technology improves efficiency and in the process human jobs are lost. Usually these are lower skill level positions. Let's face it. I like my mail lady a lot but walking & delivering mail is not a job requires much in the way of of intellectual thought. In my business I can do with myself and a part time assistant what I would have needed at least two people to do 10 years ago. This is going to be continue to be a hurdle to bringing down unemployment. Government's continued regulation of employment and the cost of employees simply means businesses will continue to do more with less. According to its own sources the USPS employs more people than any company other than Walmart. In 2003 that was 790,000 people. It's safe to say that this number is likely to shrink in the coming years as mail service is used less and less. These are good paying jobs that once gone will likely never come back.
*Long AMZN for one client account.
posted by CR English at 7:03 AM
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