Other than my Netflix DVDs, the vast majority of the mail I get is junk. Sometimes I get something interesting, such as a check addressed to me or a birthday card or a letter from one of our sponsored children. But generally the mail consists of ads that I don’t want, credit card applications that I don’t want, and legitimate business mailings that could and should reach me via email instead.

As a case in point, I recently made some changes to my retirement investments, moving money around and changing my future contributions. I made four separate changes. Yesterday I received four separate confirmation letters from JP Morgan Chase.

Really?

A recent article on CNN highlights some of the current and future difficulties of the United States Postal Service. In a nutshell, because our society is shifting to electronic communications and transactions, the volume of snail mail drops every year, meaning less revenue for the USPS. Meanwhile, the service is shackled by numerous laws imposed by Congress and contractual obligations secured by the postal workers’ union. These chains limit its ability to cut costs to match the reduced demand.

The result is easy to predict: the USPS is running out of money. Unless some things change, sometime next year it won’t be able to pay its employees anymore. Beyond the financial issues, it also has a more basic problem: it spends billions of dollars a year in gas and trucks to drive billions of miles delivering materials that the recipients often don’t even want.

This crisis is forcing us to ask some tough questions. Do we really need the postal service? If so, do we really need deliveries six days a week? Could we get by without Saturday? What about three days a week? Do we need all those post offices everywhere? Are we willing to pay the postal service’s actual cost of mailing a letter, even if it means a significant increase in the cost of a stamp?

First off, I don’t think we can function without a postal service. Yes, FedEx and UPS offer a great product for shipping many items, but delivering billions of pieces of mail among hundreds of millions of addresses doesn’t fit their business model, and I doubt they could do it as cheaply as the USPS does. Email and electronic transactions work great in many cases, but physical items such as medication obviously can’t travel digitally unless someone builds one of those teleporter machines that Willy Wonka invented. Plus many people still don’t have computers and/or internet access, and some of those who do still don’t trust computers for financial transactions.

However, the world is changing, and the USPS must change with it. I don’t know how representative I am of general mail habits, but I just don’t use the postal service that much. The main thing I send out via snail mail is my Netflix DVDs, and eventually Netflix will likely abandon its mail-order business in favor of streaming. I pay all my bills electronically except for my property tax bill. That one I pay via check only because the county charges a hefty processing fee for credit card payments. I very rarely mail cards or letters. I prefer getting information electronically since it’s easier to store and doesn’t kill trees.

I only think the USPS can survive long-term in a significantly shrunken form. Service frequency must drop, probably by eliminating Saturday delivery or perhaps even switching to thrice weekly delivery. Rates must rise enough to cover expenses, which will significantly reduce demand. If you really want to mail something, you’ll have to pay good money for it. The USPS should eliminate all bulk rates for businesses and free postage for non-profits and government agencies. The new, higher rates will significantly reduce junk mail by making it less profitable or perhaps unprofitable. Sound good?

What are your thoughts? How much do you depend on the postal service?