This post explores why we still have post offices, at least in the United States, and what would happen if we were to simply get rid of them. The United States Post Office (USPS) was revolutionary when it was established in 1775 and did well to survive the ages of horses, trains, and planes, but the internet has made their services unnecessary. People don’t send mail to each other with physical letters anywhere close to how much they used to. It has been entirely replaced by text messaging, email, & social media.
Today, when most people don’t expect traditional mail and letters. Instead, they expect Amazon packages and parcels that they have ordered from all over. Not to mention the many coupons that usually get thrown away. Mail is no longer the communications medium it used be. Instead, it is currently more of a broadcast one at best. What about all of the packages that the USPS delivers? FedEx & UPS already cover that. If you are singularly worried about Amazon deliveries? They are already trying to set up their very own delivery segment of their business. Plus, when you want to get/send something fast, you never think about going to the post office. These 3 are much better at that anyways. We must face it. The USPS is nowhere near to as relevant as it used to be.
How about the environment? How is the Earth impacted by the Post Office? Well, looking at coupons alone, over 3.2 billion were distributed in the US in 2017. But who still uses coupons? Of those, 0.4% were actually used in their stores. The rest either went into the recycling bin, or, in most cases, the trash. But, coupon distribution is just a percentage of the post office’s operations. We have yet to consider the rest of the waste that comes from the boxes, paper, natural gas, and work hours involved in what they do. According to University of Southern California Professor Greg Autry, “the post office is a government subsidized organization made to put trash on your doorstep, just to get picked up by another government subsidized organization”, in his SFGate article Do not call, do not spam, do not mail. Unfortunately for us, Professor Autry is correct, in more ways than one.
In 2018, the post office’s operations cost the United States $2.7 billion. There is so much that such funds could be used to improve. Others have stated that the USPS needs to remain as it employs so many. They are technically correct. In the study, titled Studies of Social and Commercial Benefits of Postal Services: Economic Effects of Post Offices, it is stated that there is , “small, negative impact on employment in the ZIP codes with post office closures.” The closing of post offices in such areas has had a negative effect, but its small. The government has USAJOBS, their own employment website, and many of those positions are still left empty. My zip code had 451 open, well-paying positions itself, so clearly we could benefit from knowing about those openings instead of so many across the country feeling that there aren’t any opportunities out there. I don’t know, maybe something like a blast notification to all eligible unemployed people in a given area, using the information that the government already knows about.
Aside from the prevention of the aforementioned environmental and economic damage, here is how a future without the post office would look like. Advertisements and coupons would go to your email box, and then probably further into your spam folder as such things already do. The lack of such spam mail showing up on your doorstep or in your physical mailbox will mean an easier trip of carrying delivered post into your home, and less paper thrown away, so less trees wasted. According to the USPS’s own website, “our vehicles used more than 171 million [gallons]“ in 2015, so we can expect millions of gallons of gas becoming available for everyone else. As stated earlier, there other major companies that would be more than willing to have the extra business, all without costing the government the billions of dollars that could get elsewhere. Luckily for us, bills and taxes could then be handled online. No need to worry about sending it ahead of the due date to make sure they are submitted on time, when you can just input your card information a few times and get that all handled. We can already join the push to have increasingly paperless government filings that has swept the globe from Mexico to Estonia.
There is something to be learned from this for us as a nation. The USPS is outdated & is beat out by businesses that have risen in the age of the internet. And that applies to other governmental processes that are kept around for illogical reasons like, “this is how things have always been done.” The advent of technology is great and can make people’s lives so much better. Smaller parts of the country have recently begun embracing this concept. San Francisco now sends out texts to people on food stamp programs to remind them to sign up again after their registration with the program expires. Like many others in the nation, the Boston legal system is understaffed, so they implemented an online service like LinkedIn to introduce teens and young adults to the open positions they offer. This has reduced unemployment and has put these people on better paths in life, as crime & poverty in their demographic have declined. These are just some examples of how technology is used to improve what our government does, with so much potential still out there. We, as a society, just have to go and do it.
Sources:
- https://blog.boomerangapp.com/2016/10/whats-killing-the-post-office-its-not-email/
- https://www.pb.com/docs/US/pdf/Our-Company/Corporate-Responsibility/The-Environmental-Impact-of-Mail-A-Baseline-White-Paper.pdf
- https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Do-not-call-do-not-spam-do-not-mail-3214545.php
- https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pgkpzn/why-is-the-post-office-still-a-thing-outdated-technology-mail-letters-usps
- https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/368753-theres-more-than-one-reason-the-postal-service-is-losing-money
- https://www.vox.com/2017/12/29/16830128/amazon-trump-twitter-postal-service-feud
- https://www.urban.org/research/publication/studies-social-and-commercial-benefits-postal-services-economic-effects-post-offices
- https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/nedpw8/more-than-99-percent-of-coupons-are-thrown-away-so-why-do-they-exist
- https://ideas.ted.com/how-the-bail-system-in-the-us-became-such-a-mess-and-how-it-can-be-fixed/
Science & the Public Intellectual 
Great article! This is so relevant — just last week I told a friend I was mailing him a birthday card (I’m kind of old fashioned I guess) and he literally said “nobody mails things anymore, the postal service is so 2000s.” (shortly thereafter I decided I didn’t really want to be friends with him anymore…kind of a jerky thing for him to say to someone sending a damn birthday card…) Anyway, I had no clue the postal service was so unnecessary, but after reading your article I guess it truly is! Plus, a world without spam would be awesome. (I wonder if evil spam companies will finally throw in the towel and stop creating their spam once they find out it’s automatically being redirected to junk mail!) Hopefully, in the future companies and organizations will continue to go digital, keep saving space and energy to use more purposefully, reduce environmental damage, and prevent unnecessary problems.
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Interesting article! Personally, I’m a traditionalist and have always liked receiving letters in the mail (granted I could do without the endless junk mail that I receive). That being said, do you think there would be a decrease in security as a result of moving entirely digital? Because government (and all other businesses) would need to rely on online forms of communication for official purposes do you think this would invite more regulation? It’s becoming less and less of an issue as we progress as a society but what about those that may not have access to regular and reliable internet?
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Very interesting and I actually have had such a difficult time with the USPS system while working in real estate development believe it or not. Did you know that when you develop a new unit or single family home USPS has to come to your site and identify the best place to put the mailbox so that it is convenient for them and they also have rules and regulations on the mailboxes you buy for your development? That all doesn’t seem so bad BUT the USPS system takes forever to get them out to the site and can prolong your project and cost you a lot of money. We had presold a townhouse in Redondo Beach that was delayed for the buyers to move in because of the inefficient post office.
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Great read spearheaded by a great question. Removing the post office…hmmm. Its an interesting proposal considering the United States government was established for two main reasons outside governing laws. These reasons were: maintaining a defensive militia and operating the post office. In the wake of technological revolutions life has changed so radically, the government has permeated itself into every nook and cranny. And now it is becoming obsolete in doing one of the main tasks it was originally given.
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Thank you for the very interesting read. It saddens me that looking at coupons alone, over 3.2 billion were distributed in the US in 2017 and only 0.4% were actually used in their stores. Such wasteful actions like these seem ridiculous in today’s day in age. We are aware of all of the repercussions, and however, we still do nothing about it. Although I also like receiving letters in the mail (I find it to be quite authentic and heart-felt). I could most definitely live my life without the endless junk mail that piles up. With all of the technological advances, I think we need to focus on shifting coupons and receipts to a paperless form. I can’t help but wonder how many trees we would save in the process.
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