Being conservative in both temperament and political philosophy, we greeted the news that the United States Postal Service will soon cease Saturday deliveries with conflicting feelings.
There was a satisfying sense of vindication for our skepticism of government, of course. Saturday deliveries are ending because the Postal Service incurred a $15.9 billion dollar loss last year, with more red ink expected yet again this year, and according to the perverse incentives of government work cutting back a sixth of its service is expected to save the agency $2 billion a year. Several private enterprises provide the same services as the post office at a substantial profit, and they do so by working more rather than less, but we assume the government sector unions would never stand for such nonsense. Whatever inconvenience the end of Saturday delivery might cause, it is good to know that the post office still stands ready, in rain or snow, to stand as an example of bureaucratic inefficiency.
Still, something in the conservative soul hates to see yet another longstanding tradition come to a modernity-induced end. Much of the post office’s trouble is commonly attributed to the popularity of e-mail, which is postage-free and far, far faster than traditional mail, but we also lament the passing of the written-on-paper letter. For those of you too young to recall, actual letters would begin with “Dear” or some similarly endearing salutation, end with a cordial “sincerely” or perhaps even “love,” and in between care would be taken to communicate a message with a clear and correct style of English. E-mails tend to begin with a blunt “hey” or just rush right into whatever incoherent ramblings are on offer, then end just as brusquely. For those who can’t rise even to an e-mail level of literacy there are now “tweets,” which limit the rambling to such precious few characters that they require incomprehensible acronyms and shortened spellings that might mean anything.
The post office will continue Saturday delivery of packages, a burgeoning business that has largely offset the demise of the letter, but despite our fondness for capitalist innovation we have some misgivings about the internet sales boom that is behind this development. Ordering something through the internet might well be more convenient, less expensive, and in some locales sales-tax-free, but we find it rather impersonal and with none of the satisfaction of sifting through the racks at a favorite store. The modern world already offers too many reasons not to get out of the house, and we don’t need another one.
As a more practical concern, we’re unlikely to even notice the absence of mail on Saturdays. Except for a dwindling number of Christmas cards each December and some occasional correspondence from family, all of whom are quite prolific with e-mail, our mailbox is mainly devoted to bills and what is aptly called “junk mail.” A stubborn old-fashionedness compels us to continue paying the bills via the mail, now affixed with those chintzy new stamps that the machines print out, but we always drop those off at the post office anyway. We might have to wait an extra couple of days for the occasional Netflix delivery, but we will endure it as a patriotic chore.
— Bud Norman
The Central Standard Times 