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Back to the Forum Archives This is a subject I have address before. The postoffice is in meltdown. I am convinced of that. I first though it would be enough to change my mailing address to a postoffice box. The postoffice has proved me wrong about that. It was easy enough for them to do. Even without the letter carrier involved my mail is not getting to me. One example is the case where my seed order for seasonal seeds was held in my local postoffice for four weeks. They finally gave the package to my wife one day and said it had been misplaced. It was too late to plant the seeds by then. Another example is the case where I was charged a late fee by a credit card company. I had never receive the statement. It disappeared somewhere between the company and my box. That statement never got out of the hands of the US Mail Service, so we can guess who made it disappear. Those are just two examples, but I find my mail is being delayed more and more as time goes by and sometimes even disappearing. I am constantly in danger of getting late charges on statements that are delivered too late or not at all. Where a first class letter once took no more than three days, it now takes an average of 6 days. That is in mail coming to me. By careful checking, I discover that mail I send is also going very slowly. Although I have produced several essays very critical of the postoffice, I don't think this is a vendetta against me. I doubt there is enough cleverness in the postoffice for them to conspire successfully. I sincerely believe the postoffice is in final meltdown. Now this collapse won't happen overnight. Please don't call me on this a year from now and tell me I was wrong. Just watch the gradual degeneration of performance as I have. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen in time. After all, getting rid of the postoffice is like killing a dinosaur. It doesn't have much of a brain to begin with, so when the brain decays, which is what's happening with the postoffice, it just keeps blundering around for a very long time. It is dying. Of course, this is true of any bureaucracy. They are always like dinosaurs. they will take a long time to die even after they lose what little brain they had. I predict it will take ten years or a bit less for the final dissolution. However, the postoffice will become completely dysfunctional in only a couple of years. Even after it becomes completely dysfunctional, it will resist the final dissolution for a long time. There are just too many entrenched interests for any other scenario. there are too many incomes dependent upon the continuation of the wallowing monster. In the meantime, these people are ever searching for excuses to avoid doing their jobs. Their latest dodge is the pretense that Flint is overrun with dogs that bite them. It is a major threat they say and dozens of postal workers have been bitten. Therefore they will no longer deliver mail to houses where dogs seem to be a threat. As always, the gullible media goes along with the charade reporting their claims as fact. It's nonsense of course. It is a deliberate lie. There have always been dogs and one occasionally bites someone. Perhaps over the last couple of decades, a few postal workers have been threatened by dogs, but their claims of widespread attacks is preposterous. This game is driven by nothing more than indolence. We have not heard anything like this from UPS or FEDEX, only from these so called Civil Service types. They are losing business to all kinds of competitors on all
fronts, but they continue to seek ways to refuse to do their
jobs. They will refuse to deliver the mail, but the citizens
cannot go to the postoffice to get their mail. They will refuse
to give it to us. That's what I am doing. Now, people may think getting completely away from these bozos is impossible, but I don't think so. The more I consider it the more options I find. There really are other ways to get the communication accomplished that are much more reliable and safer. For example I found that Citicards has a better way to get statements and pay bills. Fidelity has a way to get statements and make deposits. My pension fund and Social Security have better ways to transact business. And, e-mail is a better more reliable way to communicate with people. For many of these alternatives, internet access is necessary. In fact, a computer and internet access have become essential tools for everyone. If you do not have these things, I must ask you if you have mastered fire yet and if you have learned to cook your food before eating it? Have you seen any good cave paintings lately? Okay, I'll let up. There was a time, six or seven years ago, when I also thought a computer was a superfluous luxury for most people. Now the situation has changed. There is a great deal of good content on the internet and it has become the preferred method of communication. It is quick compared to the mail service and unlike the telephone, you do not have to be there to receive it. It will wait for you. I have found the escape from the postoffice with my Citicards account to be quite easy. Their website is quite easy to navigate and the alternatives are quite clear. All that is required is to establish a login ID and a password. This will give you access to your accounts. Once that is done, you can get e-mail notification when your statement is ready. You can view it or print it. You can mail a payment immediately rather that waiting for the US mail. You can also arrange to make direct payments from your financial institution. This is not an automatic withdrawal but a transaction that you must initiate each time. I like that. Another neat thing about Citicards is the unique system of virtual credit card numbers. This has nothing to do with the mail. It is just a way of doing online purchases without revealing your real credit card number. I wrote about this in a Forum essay called Identity Theft And The Numbers Game. As to receiving pensions and other income monies in the mail, it is completely unnecessary. Even Social Security can facilitate direct deposit. This is where, instead of sending you a check, they make the deposit directly to you bank or credit union account. Although I have sometimes sent checks to my investments at Fidelity, it is not necessary. I could also use direct transfer with them. I have done so. I also receive my required minimum withdrawals from my IRA by direct deposit. The real skinny is almost any money that you transfer can be done by direct deposit. As for package delivery, I have gone entirely to UPS. Once I decided to completely abandon the US Postal Service I considered two option. FEDEX and UPS. UPS won because they made it easier. They are completely computerized. As far as shipping to me is concerned, I don't care who gets the business so long as it is other that USPS. Now, what about other communication? I regularly use e-mail for most of my communication. All of the outfits I do business with have that capacity. I think if they did not they would lose my business in a hurry. Many of my friends and family have e-mail also. Some don't. If I have to communicate with them and it's important, I can use the telephone. If not, I sometimes wait until I see them. That may give them incentive to come into the 21st century. So, you see, there are other ways to communicate and deliver
without the USPS. I expect to have all of my own transfer problems
resolved in less than a year. Then I will still keep the PO box
for that occasional fluke, but it will not be important. The
USPS will not be important. I can sit back and watch the meltdown
with an "I-told-ya-so," smirk. as to the other essays
I have produced about this USPS debacle, they are in the Wesoomi
website archives. One is in the Forum called Crooks and Bureaucrats.
Others are in the Gaffer's Philosophy called Civil Service and
Civil Service 2.
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