Postal Reform: A Modest Proposal

The US Postal Service is considering cutbacks in service (closing stations, no more Saturday delivery, etc) because people aren't mailing like they used to.  Apparently use of the Postal Service peaked at a historical high in 2006.   2006!  I thought it would have been much much earlier... I mean, the Internet went mainstream about ten years prior to that, and there had been fax machines for about 25 years prior.

There will always be a need to be able to have a physical object (a signed piece of paper, a stray set of car keys.. er.... birthday cards I guess) sent from A to B.  But if the Postal Service wants to continue to remain relevant they have to do a few things:

1.  Track every piece of mail.  This is a simple service that is attached to every item shipped via FEDEX and UPS.  The USPS already has the technology installed (available for an additional fee) so why not allow me to print out a tracking sticker online (or run an envelope through my printer) which then gets put on the envelope / package prior to being dropped in a mailbox.  They already sell this service; just make it standard.

2.  Charge $1 for every piece of mail, even a single sheet of paper in a #10 envelope, including "bulk"/junk mail.  Anybody who expects a physical object to be flown from Key West, FL to Honolulu, HI (or even walked ten city blocks) for less than that is out of their fucking minds.  While the Postal Service was traditionally a low-cost alternative to the commercial shippers it was also meant to be self-sustaining (i.e., not a subsidized service from the Federal Government).  Charging as little as they do is retarded (Hi, Sarah!).  It would also help reduce junk mailing, which can't possible be that profitable anyway in the age of spam email.  If somebody has something they really really want you to know about their business they can pay $1 for the privilege.

3.  Suspend weekend deliveries (except for priority/premium shipping).  If you're only paying $1 to mail something then it can wait until Monday.  Otherwise take a deep breath and pay... $5.

These three simple, doable things (which do not require fundamentally new infrastructure / workflow) can allow a valuable service to downsize and right-price for many decades to come.

This is going to be a hell of a mess

(Link goes to a NYT article giving, I fear, a too-rosy yet pssimistic prognostication of what the end-user experience will be like on Feb 18)

While not likely to cause as much economic upheaval as the sub-prime lending meltdown, say, or World War II, the switchover on February 18, 2009 to a digital-only television broadcast (making traditional over-the-air reception of television signals obsolete) is likely to be the first case of the general population having a piece of technology that they have had "forever" simply being taken away on a single day, never to come back. Even the next most sophisticated piece of electronics to be found in nearly 100% of homes over the last half decade (the telephone) has changed almost 0% in how users relate to the service.

"Forever", of course, in the sense that you would have to be older than 65 years old to have a clear memory of what it was like not to have it; ironically it is this group who is most likely to be affected by this forced transition since they are the ones who usually need to have any new technology rammed down their throats. And rammed it will be.

It is not hard at all to imagine Black Friday-like crowds rushing electronics stores on February 18-19 filled, not with the mindless cheerfulness of the Christmas shopping season, but with the mindless rage and frustration the only having something that they never paid for to begin with being taken away can engender.

From the article:

Those who have their converter boxes have discovered the “cliff effect.” If the over-the-air signal is not strong, the viewer does not receive a fuzzy picture as he might get with a weak analog signal; the viewer gets no picture at all because digital reception is all or nothing. In addition, depending on area, the rabbit ears intended to receive only VHF broadcast channels may need to be replaced with new digital units.
[...]
And on the day of the conversion, consumers will also need to direct their converter box to scan for channels. (If they want an up-to-date electronic program guide, they will need to have the box rescan the channels regularly.)
[...]
“We’re asking the elderly to go out in the snow to buy a converter box?” Mr. Kelsey said. “All we need on Feb. 18 is to have someone slip off their roof and get injured as they try to set up a new digital antenna.”

The fact that they could have avoided being without service had they redeemed a government issued coupon for a converter box can only be considered a sizable cherry on top. Nothing fires up the average American's joie de vivre like combining the simple everyday act of watching television with the bureucratic equivalent entanglements of filing one's taxes.