I am having some sneaky schadenfreude at the fact your postal service is in trouble too.
I've always been deeply distressed that in our nationalist and socialised country we are fighting a losing battle to keep the Royal Mail and yet you guys with your private industries and capitalisation seem to have no worries with your mail.

Now I know you do.
Nah, it doesn't make it better.
It makes me realise things will get worse here too.

I love the post.
Only today I was up early knowing that things would be arriving.
I only got two of an expected five, but that means a reason to jump out of bed tomorrow too. And in fact I posted two things off myself yesterday and am all excited that they will arrive as surprises later in the week.

We get post Monday-Saturday. It's a rare day when nothing arrives. Postcards, cards, bills, letters (for Mum), things from eBay or Amazon (Dad & me), official notices re tax and payments, payslips from Homesitters, catalogues or their deliveries (Mum). I guess it could all be done privately, but the need is there.

Bingo!

So what your saying is that if we eliminate the junk mail, then I don't get any more bills and it'll be too expensive to mail B-day cards... Sounds like a win-win.
thanks bruce

I would not mind losing Saturday delivery. My mail lady likes the idea. The only thing I get in the mail is appointment letters from the VA and catalogs, and magazines.

Of course we need the mail. We don't necessarily need very cheap, reliable, frequent delivery, because in the major part, the Internet and email have filled this function. But business people still send written correspondence; documents need to be conveyed in the original sometimes. Saturday is out.

I'd like my mail to be reliable. What's the point of mailing something if you can't be confident that it will arrive at its destination?

Cost and frequency are up for discussion but reliability shouldn't be.

Shoot. Sometimes my mail from STL takes 7 or 8 days. So five day delivery sounds pretty good.

I can count on my mail arriving 2-3 days later than my cow-orkers if we get a company-wide mailing.

That's 'cause the mailman is trying to avoid the stupid bicycles on the road. :p:

okay, yes--reliability is important. But I was thinking more of "nor rain nor sleet nor snow" type of thing--the post office actually has a pretty cool history, if you visit the post office museum in D.C. A functioning citizenry and govt need reliable hard transport lines, no question, but maybe we don't need the behemoth it is now. Chucking Saturday delivery is a no-brainer.

Last weekend we were driving through New Mexico (between Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos) and noticed that every little town has a post office. The PO might be save more money closing some of their offices then by eliminating Saturday delivery.

They need all those offices - thought control transmitters are not very strong.

That was true in the 1990s, but now they can just piggy back on the cell phone signal.

Why is there always so much angst when the price of stamps goes up by two cents? Heck, raise the price by enough to cover Saturday delivery, and Netflix will be fine.

So true. Some freak out and moan and complain every time the stamps go up. Guess what folks, prices go up. Call it a tax and we'll have a whole other newly old political party protesting.