The eastern American colonies had a mail system established
by the Continental Congress in 1775 but, its ability to move mail was
limited. It was in 1860 that an answer
to the problem of sending communications across our country was solved with the
birth of the Pony Express. This solution
helped people correspond with one another, cross-country, prior to the
invention of the telegraph. Although
freight was readily moved east to west, those trips took a while and moving
personal mail was less than timely.
Several businessmen joined forces and established the quick
mail delivery system charging an astronomical $5 per half ounce of mail – the
equivalent of $20 by today’s standards.
It was a dangerous and elaborate maze of routes and riders that included
William Cody, otherwise known as “Buffalo Bill.”
A series of corporate buy-outs and government contracts
eventually morphed the Pony Express into the United States Postal Service
(USPS). By nearly anyone’s standards,
238 years should be enough time to financially break even. But, nearly everyone would be wrong.
The good news today is the USPS lost $1,300,000,000 in the
last quarter of 2012. That’s considered
good news because it was far less than the $3,300,000,000 in the comparable
quarter the previous fiscal year.
To offset these ‘lost’ dollars, the USPS decided to do what
any competent business would – raise prices.
The newest price increase was to stamps in the amount of
who-knows-what. It really doesn’t matter
to the USPS in as much as they have no competition, by law. They can – and do – charge whatever they want
because they are a monopoly when it comes to letters.
Price increases are regular activities for the USPS with few
Americans sure of what the current rate is or even was. I can tell you all that junk mail you receive
each day costs the sender only pennies, and presorted mail costs seven cents to
annoy its recipients.
The USPS now seems to feel that they need to cut back to
save monies ill spent for the past decades.
These cash-saving efforts include eliminating mail delivery on
Saturday. They promise to keep parcel
delivery for that day, for the time being.
This is really good news for me as my mail carrier cannot get my mail to
me Monday through Friday. He seems to be
dyslexic, delivering my junk mail to all my neighbors who kindly bring it to
me, expecting a beer as a reward, thereafter.
It must be borne in mind that in many places the USPS used
to deliver mail twice daily until the 1960’s.
One should also consider that Fedex and UPS run head-to-head
competition with the USPS for packages.
This is allowed because they don’t compete with letters. USPS advertises “overnight delivery” of
letters. This is just some sort of
advertising scheme because their “overnight delivery” is not overnight it could
be two days or more but, what the heck.
By the way, both Fedex and UPS are doing very well with their package
delivery. The USPS, not so much.
This is a prime example of a government operation and its
lack competence. People crying for more
government involvement in every iota of life should think about the USPS morons
who conjure up these hare-brained ideas before they so willingly turn over
important, major segments of society to government dolts. I’m just saying…