Neither snow nor ice nor dark of night

Have you been to a United States Post Office recently? When my wife Martha and I moved onto our boat some years ago we got a Post Office box and kept it even after we came ashore. So I have been watching the comings and goings at the post office each week since.

I am not at all surprised that they are 7 billion dollars in debt this year. Most of the people I see at the post office are either elderly or first generation immigrants. There can’t be a big profit margin on sending aspirin to Honduras or books to the grandchildren.

Business people, young adults, even some of us oldsters have found other ways to communicate. I think the future for this so called “snail mail” is dim indeed. And on top of lost revenue, they are still delivering mail to every little hamlet in America six days a week.

I support moving to five day delivery now and it wouldn’t surprise me if it was reduced further in years to come. Federal Express doesn’t go everywhere and certainly doesn’t go there five times each week. UPS has creamed the best markets with the biggest volume so what is left?

We may be witnessing the end of something here, like the Pony Express and the telegraph.