[Cdt-l] post office closures

[Brian Lewis]

Blisterfree said:
"USPS would do far better to focus on larger population centers, consolidate
and streamline operations there, where the drive to another postal facility
or business is reasonably convenient, then to shutter small town post
offices and completely shut out wide swaths of the countryside. Ben Franklin
would have been appalled and we should be too."



Early last month the very, very nice post master (mistress??) in Mimbres
gave Lucky Joe and I a ride into Silver City and then back the next morning,
and talking with her en route got me thinking about this issue a little.
I've been a city/suburb boy my whole life, but walking through all of these
small towns makes a person think (or at least, it should do .).

An interesting point to me is that, apart from how fundamentally important
these rural post offices are to their communities, there's not a huge budget
win from closing them.  According to a publication aimed at postal
employees,  
"Closing 3700 Rural Post Offices Would Save Less Than 3/10s Of One Percent
Of USPS Operating Budget".    

Here's the full article:      http://tinyurl.com/6uek8ao

Folks of different political stripe have different philosophical views on
the proper role of government.  IMO, most such views would best acknowledge
postal service --- even in the age of the internet --- to be a fairly basic
role of government, to get the mail to even relatively rural places. To
include places where that's not economic for the likes of UPS and FedEx to
compete.     

 

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