We sent out a Christmas card that was postmarked West Palm Beach, December 23, 2024. The destination was Brooklyn. It was returned as undeliverable (my friend moved) on March 18, 2024, nearly three months after being mailed. An opportunity for DOGE?
If the USPS were eliminated completely, I wonder if Amazon or UPS would replace it by installing a print-on-demand system for creating junk mail in their existing trucks. The trucks would go from house to house, as they already do now for packages, and drop junk mail, plus the occasional first class communication, on doorsteps. If the junk mail printer also stuffed everything privately into an envelope maybe this could replace mailing physical documents in most cases, e.g., medical bills and bank statements. The bank would pay UPS/Amazon to print out the statement right at the point of delivery.
Separately, the folks in West Palm Beach were stamping outgoing mail with a snowman. The most recent snowfall in Palm Beach County was January 19, 1977 (that was the only snowfall on record, though I guess we could attribute the lack of snow since 1977 to Climate Change).
Related:
- USPS first class letter delivery times 2025 (two weeks for first class)
Rent in Washington DC rose 2.5% since the beginning of DOGE, so good luck with any shrinking of the government. What is happening is return to office mandates.
In June 2024, I mailed a package to Israel. According to tracking, it reached Tel Aviv but was never delivered. I received it back intact a month ago. Yesterday, I gave it to my friend when I had dinner with him here in the US. I don’t know why it wasn’t delivered—perhaps it was the fault of the Israeli postal service—but after it returned to the U.S., it took six months to arrive back at my home.
The only hope for the USPS is to copy the European postal service model offering banking and financial services.
Years ago, as a young lawyer, I traveled to Libya on business. At the time, I was in a serious relationship, and sent my gf a postcard with that sentiment.
Relations between the US and Libya were very strained at that time, and my card did not arrive until 11 months later. However, she did not realize it and assumed I had just recently sent the card.
But in the interim, we had broken up, and so she was surprised to receive such an affectionate message from me. She replied by letter, politely thanking me for the card, but letting me know that she had become engaged, and that it was best that we not remain in touch!
Epilogue: Many years later we got back together and married, though it didn’t last.
I see signs outside and inside the Post Offices in my FL community and on USPS mail trucks advertising that the USPS is Hiring! Great health and retirement benefits! It looks like all those jobs go to military veterans. The USPS clerks in the local post offices all seem a little angry. The mail carriers seem to be mostly black females (as are the Amazon drivers). My employer just hired a 50 y/o retired UPS (not USPS) driver for a $50K/yr warehouse job. Should nicely supplement his $50K UPS pension.
I’ve got a stack of mail to old residents at my rental. Am I a bad person?