06 December 2011 | Pulling at the Heartstrings, Or...

I don't like seeing people out of work, or fearing the prospect of being out a job. Yesterday though, I kept wondering if the incessant reports about the Post Office possibly going bankrupt or needing to make billions of dollars (!) in cuts wasn't a cynical ploy to pull the heartstrings or create a sense of panic among people.

Like I said, I am not for people losing their jobs, but the financial problems of the USPS seem to be one of not only their own making but of Congress. The threat right now is that first class mail will not result in next-day mail. That we all need to go back to the old, old days of figuring out how long it will actually take for payment on a bill to arrive on time. Stations will be closed, Saturday mail might be a thing of the past; there was a litany of Doomsday-like scenarios that started to irritate me.

Why? Well, it seems that the purpose of the reports was to scare people, not inform them at all. Is the USPS really this badly mismanaged? Did no one see the threat of the Internet and the convenience of electronic payments, obliterating the need to buy a roll of first-class stamps? Oh, and on that subject, why should I pay for first class stamps if I'm being told to expect second-class delivery? I'm not sure this was fully thought out before it was splayed for the public because I'm even more disinclined to get those stamps and just come what may. 

Like I said, I'm not trying to heartless and mean, but I did find myself curiously unmoved by the dire reports of the state of the postal service in this country. Why Congress can't amend the law that causes the Post Office to overpay into the federal retirement fund is beyond me, but then again, this Congress won't take up that issue at all because it's much more fun to compound problems than solve them.