I’ve had my Social Security payments deposited directly into my checking account (electronically) for as long as I’ve been receiving them. I don’t depend on the USPS for it at all. And I pay my bills online, so I don’t depend on the mail for that, either.
It’s optional now; becomes mandatory in March. Can’t remember if it’s March 2013 or March 2014, though. :smack:
If I’m not mistaken, FedEx and UPS are prohibited from stepping in to provide the sort of basic mail services that the USPS does. They can only provide express and package delivery.
March 2013, according to the SSA. And 85% of recipients already use direct deposit.
I live across the street from a senior center which I visit often and I have never know anyone who received a check via mail in recent years. Of those I know all have direct deposit. Some of these old geezers go to the bank and withdraw it all immediately and carry around cash for a month.
There are other ways that are quite similar to direct deposit. My wife gets a monthly payment from someone for some reason and that money goes to a Visa debit card. Someone somewhere must have an account but she doesn’t have to deal with whoever that is.
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By this fool, maybe.
But the power “To establish Post Offices” is specifically given in Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution. It would take a Constitutional Amendment to change this. That requires a bill passed by both houses of Congress (with 2/3rds majorities), then passed by 3/4ths of the states. And the chances of this happening in a single year is miniscule.
(I think the 12th Amendment, changing to separate counts for President & Vice-President, a result of the crisis with the 2 previous elections was the fastest, at only 7 months. All the rest took about a year or more to be ratified. One over 200 years!)
The power to do something implies the power not to do it.
How much do bulk mailers pay in postage, per piece? I had to pay a non-machinable surcharge for a couple of Christmas cards this year, because they didn’t sit flat enough in the envelopes. That added 20 cents to the cost of a regular first-class stamp. I understand charging more for something that can’t go through their readers, but your average envelope these days is totally readable by those scanners. If I’m paying more because my average flat envelope can’t fit into their automated processes anyway, why did I have to pay more when my envelope was too fat? I’m being charged twice for the same thing, aren’t I?
This always comes up when comparing the USPS to other delivery mechanisms, but I’m not sure why it’s so important that every household in the country have the same delivery costs. If you live in the North, it costs more to heat your home. Live in California, you pay higher income taxes. Live in the city, and the rent is higher. Is it so unreasonable that people who live out in the country have to bear the cost of running vehicles out there to make deliveries?
Obviously, there are political ramifications to removing an effective subsidy from rural voters, but there are always winners and losers in any change. That’s not enough reason to never change anything.
What countries don’t have postal service, run by their national government?
Think of all of the landfill operators who will be put out of business when there is no more junk mail.
But why should that even happen when the service as it exists works?
Think of how much more expensive mailing stuff would be without junk mail to subsidize your occasional first-class letter.
I’m usually one to complain that the average civil servant is a overpaid, goldbricking, surly, obstructive jackoff who resents being forced to perform his minimum duties and has no chance of gainful employment in the real world. See DMV.
The USPS, however, is fucking great. It’s cheap and astonishingly dependable. On the rare occasions when I can’t do my business at the self-serve kiosk in the post office, there’s a short wait and a helpful employee who actually knows how to do their job efficiently. The same cannot be said for the people at Kinko’s or whatever it’s called now.
With UPS and FedEx, there’s a good chance they will mistreat the parcel or make it difficult to receive. The Postal Service has never given me a package with a foot-shaped hole in it (complete with tread print), nor have they obstructed my front steps with drunkenly heaved, partially crushed, 70 pound box, nor have they ever stuck a note on my door with instructions to go to the other end of the city tomorrow night and wait for an hour to pick up a package that I specifically requested be left at the door.
I don’t know the specifics of how the USPS is doing. But we’re sending a lot less mail these days. And that trend isn’t likely to change. It seems likely to me that something will have to change at some point. Perhaps letting the price of mail delivery rise to some addresses could be part of that change.