Postal Letter

How long will it take for the US to adopt using the internet for most mail?

Think about all of the man hours, equipment, trucks, fuel, paper, employee benefits, etc are required to deliver mail. Virtually all of this mail is thrown away. Is the US postal service a jobs program ?

Public Comments

1. Liberals are against it
2. USPS is the only way to ship physical pieces of paper. I prefer receiving and paying bills by mail because it creates a physical paper trail. It also reminds me of my expenses each time I spend three minutes writing a check. I have sent and received over 10,000 pieces of mail through USPS and have yet to lose a single letter. The USPS is extremely efficient and accurate. Yeah, sometimes a letter or mine is delivered to my neighbor or vice versa. However, we always seem to figure it out.
3. We aleady use the Internet for most mail. In fact more than half of postal mail -and- e-mail is spam, so the argument is not the best one. Junk mail companies keep the Postal Service going. The Postal Service is mandated by the Constitution, so it would take a constitutional amendment to get rid of them. But really, there's a lot of the country Fed Ex and UPS don't cover, so it's good to have a delivery service to those areas. (BTW did you know a postal van has right-of-way over a fire truck or amublance or police car? Because it's a federal vehicle!)
4. Most of my mail is junk mail advertising. I throw it away but apparently some people don't or businesses wouldn't waste money on it. On email I have spam filters and don't even have to look at it.
5. I hope it doesn't go away anytime soon as I still pay all my bills thru the snail mail. Don't trust the Internet yet at all or online bill payment. Don't be fooled. Those are still WAY in their infancy and at least every few weeks you here about some type of hacking or scam, etc. I don't give a crap about the password protected icons, etc. Nothing is safe on the Internet right now or companies' private bill payment systems. Yes, it may be a jobs program but I prefer that over possible identity theft any day of the week.
6. As soon as SOPA passes, they're having difficulty getting the mail couriers to allow then to read the letters, but once SOPA is in place, they will be able to read all the email they want.
7. The United States Postal Service (also known as USPS, the Post Office or U.S. Mail) is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution. Congress's powers are enumerated in Article One, Section Eight: "The Congress shall have Power...To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;" Conservatives claim they support the Constitution, but few have actually read it. That said, note that while most FIRST CLASS mail is sent by Internet, and most BULK MAIL (subsidized for private industry) is thrown away, the Post Office provides a valuable role even today, especially for people in rural areas. This role is bound to become more essential as more people use Internet for more things. If you order something online, how is it delivered to your house? If you live in a rural area, the Post Office delivers it. If you get a telegram (such as a money gram), how do you get the notification? Again, through the Post Office. No, the Post Office isn't a jobs program, it's a Constitutionally mandated government service that is essential in today's society. It is facing economic problems because of a Congressionally-mandated requirement that it fund its pension fund 75 years into the future. If that ridiculous rule were repealed, USPS wouldn't have financial problems.