Last Thursday Erin and I headed into San Francisco to attend a post office rally with her parents – Jeff and Sylvia – who are both letter carriers. We went to protest a move to 5 day mail delivery. While most of us would survive if we didn’t get mail on Saturday – this contraversial  measure  would mean the loss of 80,000 jobs!

The  post office has suffered as a result of a move to online bill paying and green initiatves to reduce paper waste. However, the USPS is the only self sustaining government agency. The price we pay for postage keeps the post office running – entirely. The post office has also overpaid millions of dollars into retirement – money they would like to borrow (and pay back) to keep the post office afloat. (Remember the big bank bailouts? This is nothing like that – the post office would like to borrow their OWN money!)

Now – for those of us who have ever received mail in a foreign country – we no doubt appreciate not having to bribe the postal worker for our packages. Not to mention the USPS delivers mail anywhere. Anywhere. People who live in rural areas where FedEX doesn’t deliver – USPS is there. In fact, FedEX pays the USPS to deliver to certain rural areas where they will not go.

If for no other reason – the loss of 80,000 jobs should be convincing enough that 5 day delivery is not the answer. Beyond that – why is  the government willing to bailout greedy and irresonsible corporatations, allowing banks to inflate salaries and bonuses, but not  allow the post office to borrow against their own money to keep jobs that pay workers a reaosnable amount to live and support their families.