There have been news reports the past several years about the U.S. Postal Service’s severe financial condition. It has reached a crisis this year as revenue has declined along with a 20 percent decline in mail volume. The Postal Service is on the verge of going bankrupt and closing. If that happens, it would be a disaster of catastrophic proportions. It would put a large number of postal employees out of work and hurt an already bruised economy. The Postal Service is 7 percent of the U.S’s gross national product, and millions of Americans use the Postal Service to mail money, goods and communicate all over the world. The problem is caused by new communication technology, such as email and texting, which are quickly replacing postal mail, especially first-class mail.
To save the Postal Service I urge Americans to stop sending so many emails and go back to postal mail. Write letters and pay your bills by postal mail. It is fast, inexpensive and unlike email, it is reliable and dependable. With computers information is sometimes lost, screens freeze, viruses invade, servers crash and other problems occur. According to USA Today, 6.5 million computer users had their computers affected by viruses and other malicious software. This is but one example of the many disadvantages digital communication has that postal mail does not.
As a result of growing communication technology, we have a generation of young people stricken with the attitude that they can overtly rely on digital interaction with the outside world — a generation that now suffers from health, safety and social problems. People are not just incorporating technology into their lives, they are addicted to its usage.
We need to do our best to utilize tried-and-true methods of communication, such as postal mail. Write or call your local senators and representatives and ask them to support legislation that will end the financial crisis for the Postal Service to put it back on financial footing.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau 25 percent of the population lives in a household without an internet connection. These people are students, adults and seniors — people of all walks of life. We cannot allow these people to lose their ability to communicate with the world.
