# Post Office Closings to Be Announced Today **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 23, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743 "2012-02-23T16:47:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743/81 "2012-02-28T18:57:19Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Where in the country do you live where you don’t have mail service? Even UPS and FedEx require postal addresses for delivery, as far as I know. Oh, we have physical addresses and street names and such. In fact the department I work for (GIS) in County gov assigns them. You have to have them for emergency services. USPS does not deliver here though. Here being the central Colorado Rockies. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743/82 "2012-02-28T19:18:48Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > So how does theusps pay for its monopoly on handling letters? As I said, they [deliver mail for free for members of Congress](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franking#Franking_privilege). If my Congresscritters are typical, that’s four mailings a year to every address in the US for each Representative and Senator. By the way, I’m in the middle of a reasonably large urban area, and I received a package sent via UPS this morning. And delivered via a USPS truck. If the USPS wasn’t MORE efficient than UPS, UPS wouldn’t be hiring them to perform these services. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743/83 "2012-02-29T03:15:52Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > The usps is cheaper because it is paid for with tax revenue–it’s a publicly supported failing business. That doesn’t mess with my worldview, it show its merit (ie, that it is ridiculous to have a publicly supported entity performing a private function). Except that the postal service isn’t a private function, but a variety of vital public functions. So no, it doesn’t at all show the merit of your worldview. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743/84 "2012-03-01T13:00:34Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > I said that (and was incorrect and admitted as much if you bothered to read my subsequent post) in response to someone bitching that everyone at the post office is “uneducated”, not as a way to prove that they all have postal science degrees or whatever. What a weird way to interpret my post. I was focusing on “why is that important?” which is pertinent regardless of the accuracy of your initial statement. ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743/85 "2012-03-01T14:30:53Z")
I am probably in the minority on this, but I would not only keep the post offices that currently exist, but I would also allow them to administer savings [accounts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_savings_system) as they do in many other countries, and as they once did. I think the ubiquity of locations, particularly in urban areas, could provide banking services to a badly underserved population. Now that banking is largely automated, the changeover would not require many more employees assuming much of it could be done via ATMs. This would hopefully encourage the poor to save more, especially if you could offer incentives for saving, and provide more flexibility than current banks do. Since banks have largely decided that it’s not worth having poor customers, the PO can step in. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743/86 "2012-03-01T15:23:19Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > The USPS generates income via payments for services it provides. You are trying very hard to cover for your earlier misstatement by dragging this monopoly nonsense into the conversation, when it has nothing at all to do with the USPS’s revenue model. If you feel that the first-class mail monopoly held by the USPS is unfair, that’s a different conversation, and as I said before, it’s one that you’ll need to take up with the Constitution. > > Edit: Thanks for the additional info, **lorene**. Please. You are just being willfully ignorant at this point. You are trying to portray the usps as some wholly private enterprise like McDonalds or something when that is the furthest thing from the truth. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743/87 "2012-03-09T13:22:54Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > I am probably in the minority on this, but I would not only keep the post offices that currently exist, but I would also allow them to administer savings [accounts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_savings_system) as they do in many other countries, and as they once did. I think the ubiquity of locations, particularly in urban areas, could provide banking services to a badly underserved population. Now that banking is largely automated, the changeover would not require many more employees assuming much of it could be done via ATMs. This would hopefully encourage the poor to save more, especially if you could offer incentives for saving, and provide more flexibility than current banks do. Since banks have largely decided that it’s not worth having poor customers, the PO can step in. Sheesh… that’s about the last thing I want to deal with on the rare occasion that I actually have to go to a post office. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743/88 "2012-03-09T14:07:47Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Please. You are just being willfully ignorant at this point. You are trying to portray the usps as some wholly private enterprise like McDonalds or something when that is the furthest thing from the truth. You’re right. It’s not like McDonald’s. McDonald’s is not beholden to the US Congress for major business decisions like how much retiree health care to prefund. However, it is like McDonald’s in that it generates its own revenue without federal funding. Not a very reasonable situation, if you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743/89 "2012-03-09T15:15:40Z")
The usps generates its own revenue using an asset given to it by the government. That’s the difference you keep refusing to acknowledge. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743/90 "2012-03-09T17:12:33Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > The usps generates its own revenue using an asset given to it by the government. That’s the difference you keep refusing to acknowledge. Another difference is the stamp price that generates that revenue you reference is, by law, tied to the inflation rate. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743/91 "2012-03-09T17:21:40Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I loathe getting stuff via FedEx. The drivers are notorious in my neighborhood for not even attempting delivery, arriving at the door with a sticker already filled out. > > . Right. The USPS actually delivers the packages, FedEX and UPS delivers notices. You know why the Post offices are closing and why mailing time is going to be longer? Simple. Postal Workers belong to a Union. Unions support the Dems. FedEX is a huge supporter of the GOP, and not only that, Cogress made sure that FedEX workers cannot join a Union. So, we’re getting screwed due to GOP politics. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743/92 "2012-03-09T17:33:14Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Right. The USPS actually delivers the packages, FedEX and UPS delivers notices. YMMV. UPS and Fedex always leave the package on my porch. USPS never does. If it fits in the mailbox, they leave it there (nowhere near my front porch, but at the end of the driveway). If it doesn’t fit, they leave a notice and I must go to the PO to pick it up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-office-closings-to-be-announced-today/613743.md?page=4)