WASHINGTON – Last summer, The Journal Gazette ran a perky news service story that began this way:
“You can find a bright spot in the recession as close as your mailbox: There are far fewer hefty catalogs, bulging coupon packets, unwanted credit card offers and glossy fliers clogging it.”
Typical reaction from many readers to less junk mail: Yay!
The next month, my colleague Amanda Iacone wrote a story that started out:
“About 1,100 Waynedale post office customers have signed a petition in a fight to keep the branch open.”
Typical reaction from most readers about the possibility of fewer post offices: Boo!
There’s a connection between the dramatic decline in junk mail and the possible closure of the Waynedale and Diplomat Plaza branches. People and business are mailing less – 28 billion fewer pieces this year than last – and the Postal Service is looking at a $5 billion deficit.
There are more reasons for the red ink than the fact that many of us now send Facebook birthday greetings instead of a Hallmark card with a stamp. But the trend is away from posted mail and toward electronic bill paying, e-mailed notes, online banking, E-vites.
Yet when Postmaster General John Potter says those trends have to be reflected in the agency’s business plan – fewer retail outlets, fewer mail carriers, fewer blue boxes on the street corner, fewer delivery days – people go ape poopie.
Potter knows a step that would make the single-largest reduction of that $5 billion deficit is a political non-starter. Congress is decidedly cold toward five-day mail delivery.
Wild guess, here: I bet there are two things many of the 1,100 who signed the “keep Waynedale open” petition have in common: They groused in the past year about runaway spending in Washington, and they would scream incessantly if Saturday mail delivery disappeared.
And I bet they wouldn’t immediately see the irony.
I know I’m picking on the Waynedalers, and I’m sorry about that. But they are typical of why members of Congress are rarely as vigorous about cutting public spending as they promise in their campaign literature.
There are all sorts of reasons not to close the Waynedale post office – dozens of people won’t be able to walk there, and the lines at the nearest branch might get as long as 12 minutes. The world would end.
In the face of a $5 billion deficit, closing branches and stations is peanuts. The closures will save $20 million to $100 million, Potter said.
Ending Saturday delivery would reduce the Postal Service’s expenses by $3 billion.
If we get all futzy about buying stamps at a different location, what kind of protest marches do you think we’d sign up for if we had to wait an extra couple of days to see the Bed, Bath & Beyond 20 percent off coupon slide through the mail slot?
Potter says we have a choice: Get realistic about the financial mess the Postal Service is in. Or else.
“We have to make some monumental changes to the Postal Service because if we don’t, we’re going to become an albatross. We’re going to become an albatross in terms of the federal government. And we’ll dig a hole so deep that we can’t get out,” Potters said.
The financial decisions the Postal Service is facing and our collective reaction to the possible ways of coping (we don’t want fewer branches, higher stamp prices or mail-less Saturdays) is a good example of why the federal deficit is heartbreaking.
Medicare Advantage is subsidized an average of $849.90 per person per month, yet seniors (Dad, are you reading this?) are furious at President Obama’s suggestion to trim that as one way to pay for making sure more uninsured people get coverage.
We sputter that there’s too much pork in the spending bills and that members of Congress are irresponsible in loading on the projects. But we want our mayor to ask our members of Congress to get money for a sewer/road widening/new university building in our community.
So, back to the Postal Service. It’s obvious that the agency has to reduce the gap between income and expenses. It’s also obvious that the entire menu of steps – closing branches, eliminating Saturday delivery – have to be adopted.
Even though I mail very little any more, I love the noise of envelopes hitting the floor when they come through the slot. It’s a sound of possibilities: an unexpected “I love you” card, a wedding invitation, a Staples refund check I forgot I applied for.
I would not like adding an additional day of no possibilities to my week. But, honestly, isn’t that a cheap price to pay for having mail brought to my home every weekday?
