The price of a stamp has quadrupled since 1971 in virtual lockstep with inflation. The premium on efficiency has, according to the Washington Post, driven a few desperate workers in West Virginia to rig the independent audits of their on-time delivery. Union leaders are becoming bellicose over what they call management's failure to share bonuses with workers. No competitor can touch that. None want to, in fact, because of the high costs of delivering to all those remote mailboxes.
Electronic delivery is already a huge threat.
The damage could spread as software makers perfect electronic signatures that senders can use to authenticate their E-mail messages, thereby reducing the need for hard copies of such documents as wills and contracts. The USPS compiles and sells the country's most complete demographic data on consumer tastes and interests. Such detailed information can serve as the basis for targeted advertising, as opposed to plain old junk mail. Internet services can play the same game, of course, and have been compiling their own data banks to lure advertisers online. Changes are on view at your now friendly post office, or should we say postal retail outlet.