This "consolidation" will, most likely, result in an increased reliance on outsourced services which is almost always more expensive. Is the U.S. Postal Service another target for Tea Party zealots? If so, it is just as misdirected as the witch hunt on Social Security. As this article points out, the postal service is an independent agency which receives no direct taxpayer dollars. Similarly, Social Security is funded by payroll taxes that come out of every future recipient's paycheck, not from the federal government.

Rick,
The postal service is a quasi / semi federal system. They do receive about 96 million through the postal service fund. They are a business? They do not pay taxes? And have regulatory authorities associated through federal law. They receive federal funding to pay for a variety of "free mail" for disabled people, voting purposes and a few other things. I am all for saving jobs, but really, the system is not efficient. The frequency of delivery can be curtailed I do not receive pertinent mail 6 days a week anymore. Especially bank statements. Get this.It's our money they hold and they charge us to send a statement about our money! because the mail is expensive and it's inneficient for most people, albiet a necessity for those w/out access to a computer. The postal service has exhausted its usefulness and is aburdeon to the taxpayer. Most of those jobs would be absorbed by the private sector.

Yes, Ira. The article is a bit misleading. The postal service is not without public funding, but speaking of the private sector, let's correlate this story with another recent news story: Bank of America (no doubt followed be every other major American bank) is going to charge a monthly fee to debit card customers. And where does this private sector windfall go? Probably offshore and, most significantly, into private coffers that are not accountable to the public. This is John Q Public's gift from B of A for being so nice as to bail them out when they were on the ropes for, you guessed it, pushing sub-prime mortgages on the very people who most need public services like the post office. When do we stop drinking the Kool-Aid which the Koch Brothers are selling the American Public, which brainwashes us into believing that any public service is corrupt and bad? Really? Remember when public arenas were dedicated to public servants instead of multi-mational corporations and tickets didn't sell for hundreds per seat??

It is interesting times for sure. Does every American need hard mail as a public service? has technology made paper mail obsolete? Perhaps we could eliminate that and start a new agency dedicated to serving people with technology public access to wireless service no matter where you are or who you are in the US?

No, Ira, every American doesn't need hard mail. Those affluent enough to have a computer and a credit rating that allows them to have an on-line bank account, and a car to get them to the grocery store and the pharmacy, and enough money to put gas in the tank: Those Americans could probably get by without hard mail. Unfortunately, this conversation completely discounts those millions of Americans in poverty, many of whom depend on the mail to deliver things like prescription medicine. And maybe getting that medicine in the mail on a Saturday means the difference between pain and relief. You'd need to go into a time machine to recall a period in this country, most notably under FDR, when compassion for the poor evoked a movement for the greater good. Now the angry talking heads on TV just denounce it as Socialism.

I realize I am digressing from the issue a bit. I am compassionate about poor individuals, and those with few opportunities. But I do see where our government enables poverty. For example after the last hurricane most of the Hudson Valley farm workers fled to the State of Florida for work. There are (or were) close to 200 seasonal jobs available to pick the apples in the Valley. Where are the people that need jobs? Just saying....its frustrating, I have worked contiguously for 30 years. Its not a lack of compassion it is daunting that people are not able to find the will power to take any job just to avoid or get off the system. We need real leadership. I am humbled that you are willing to put your name out there behind your words.

I appreciate you sticking with this dialogue, Ira, even though we're probably the only two people reading it (besides Nancy). Leadership today is most surely lacking, as you say. I think the fundamental shift that has taken place in this Country, and increasingly in the world, is the imbalance resulting from an acute bias toward the Free Market. The perception of worthiness is now based solely on stock price. This may be cynical, and maybe a bit too absolute, but I think it's true on balance. And holding this view doesn't make me a Socialist or a Communist. Key things, like revoking the Glass/Steagal Act as one example, have lead to this imbalance, in my opinion.