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...... Some of America's poorest communities - many of them with spotty broadband Internet coverage - stand to suffer most if the struggling agency moves ahead with plans to shutter thousands of post offices later this year, a Reuters analysis found. Nearly 80 percent of the 3,830 post offices under consideration are in sparsely populated rural areas where poverty rates are higher than the national average, demographic data analyzed by Reuters shows.
The post office is trying to run itself out of business. Another major mistake they're making is closing on Saturdays instead of a weekday. If you're closed on Saturday and Sunday people who work can never use the post office. It will force a lot of people to find ways to stop using the post office.
The drastic downsizing of the revenue stream into the Post Office coffers can be laid, primarily, at the feet of the internet and email. Then, in an effort to compensate for that lost of revenue, the Post Office has drastically raised rates, resulting in even further loss of revenue as people started paying bills online. The SIZE of the revenue stream needed to meet expenses is due to their PENSION OBLIGATIONS and the mismanagement (i.e. THEFT) by the federal government of pension funds. (Exactly what they have done with Social Security contributions over the years--diverted them to other spending projects). Our local post mistress, in our little town of about 125 people, gets a pension of $4000 a month, thanks to the power of the postal union over many years. Now that the Post Office can no longer meet its pension obligations, they are downsizing in an effort to reduce spending.
My town is also on the Post Office hit list but no decision has yet been made. Our next closest Post Office is 13 miles over a gravel road--treacherous in rainy or snowy weather--so, if ours is closed, our "designated Post Office" will be one that is 32 miles away (but over paved roads). Post Offices in three other small towns in the area have closed over the past 7-8 years. (Ditto with small rural schools.) Reckless spending and exorbitant pension obligations have caught up with the Post Office.
The drastic downsizing of the revenue stream into the Post Office coffers can be laid, primarily, at the feet of the internet and email. Then, in an effort to compensate for that lost of revenue, the Post Office has drastically raised rates, resulting in even further loss of revenue as people started paying bills online. The SIZE of the revenue stream needed to meet expenses is due to their PENSION OBLIGATIONS and the mismanagement (i.e. THEFT) by the federal government of pension funds. (Exactly what they have done with Social Security contributions over the years--diverted them to other spending projects). Our local post mistress, in our little town of about 125 people, gets a pension of $4000 a month, thanks to the power of the postal union over many years. Now that the Post Office can no longer meet its pension obligations, they are downsizing in an effort to reduce spending.
My town is also on the Post Office hit list but no decision has yet been made. Our next closest Post Office is 13 miles over a gravel road--treacherous in rainy or snowy weather--so, if ours is closed, our "designated Post Office" will be one that is 32 miles away (but over paved roads). Post Offices in three other small towns in the area have closed over the past 7-8 years. (Ditto with small rural schools.) Reckless spending and exorbitant pension obligations have caught up with the Post Office.
What you state is true, however, the article emphasizes that the 80% of closures in the rural areas are those largely not "online" and who depend on the post office for delivery of vital products throught the mail like medications or those remaining rural small businesses getting their product to consumers. It points out these same areas where the closures are to occur are also higher on the poverty scale and there will be a surcharge for UPS/Fed-Ex deliveries.
I think about in larger urban areas where post offices are spaced only 5-7 miles apart, roads are good, and cell coverage/internet access uninversal. The post office closures would seem to be a mere inconvenience in those settings vs. the impact in rural America.
Frankly, if the object is to save money, why not set up a subscription/fee service for delivery to the mailbox on rural routes but leave the local post office intact so those who choose can continue to pick mail up in person, closer to their community? With rising gas prices cutting roadside delivery would seem to me to be a bigger cost saver.
If our local post office is closed, we will still have delivery to our homes--at greater expense to the rural carriers that what they now have as the rural carriers will cover a greater area. However, if something requires a signature and no one is home to sign, we will have to go to our designated post office to sign for it.
The Post Office fiscal problem is the canary in the coal mine for the greater problems that lie down the road.
With rising gas prices cutting roadside delivery would seem to me to be a bigger cost saver.
I agree. Many towns and villages here (including my town) don't have home delivery, but even some of the post offices in those places were slated for elimination. Many of the post offices that were to be closed here are in remote villages with no road access to other towns, with very expensive and limited goods available locally, but 25 of the very remote post offices have been given a reprieve.
Good idea about picking up mail. I grew up in a rural area and my Dad would go to the post office once a week to pick up the mail.
Also I can see WHY the rural and such would be closed. Population analysis would make it not efficient or cost effective to keep that kinds of post office open.
+1 for the beancounters, always the bottom line over human beings.
Maybe the PO should have drastically raised the rates on bulk mailing instead of closing these offices.
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