The Postman Is Coming and Hopefully Going

Yet another Bail Out! The Senate has saved the day for the US Postal Service afloat. Whether the House has the same votes is unknown.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- The Senate on Wednesday passed a plan to save the struggling U.S. Postal Service, an effort that could save thousands of jobs and 100 mail processing plants now slated to be closed or consolidated next month.

Don't get me wrong. I like the Postal Service- and the people who work for it. They are some of the most committed people I know. They will work in terrible conditions and for relatively crappy wages. BUT, in the modern society, snail mail is quickly becoming unnecessary.  Computers, Internet Access and email, along with Smart Phones, have all but made the Postal Service irrelevant. It's a victim of technology, the Postal Service.


I've thought about what could be done with the forced to retire postal workers. They would need to be trained for other work, for sure. Since we know this is now inevitable, one would think the mail men and women of the country would start some career re-training NOW. But like all dying industries, this won't happen. The good folks will wait for the government to bail them out; once that is exhausted, they will fight tooth and nail to force payouts for lay offs and job terminations. Then and only then will they see the writing on the wall: GET A NEW CAREER.  Yes, it's painful to watch this American tradition (US MAIL) go away. YES it's painful to know all those marble walled, stone tiled floor buildings will no longer be useful; YES it's very painful to know so many of our peers will be in need of work. But it's not appropriate for the people to be subsidizing a dying industry. Not at all.