The Seasonal Tsunami of Senior Mail; No Longer a Pandora's Box

Nevertheless, we bear in mind the old adage about Nature abhorring a vacuum, hoping daily to apply that law of physics to the inside of our mailbox. We may even derive some consolation in the special or seasonal mail dumps that predictably make up for long, dry spells. Right now, for instance, I'm experiencing a deluge of mail. But rather than welcoming it, I feel like running for cover.

Not that I the storm surge comes as a surprise. Combine the end of a rambunctious presidential campaign with the usual enrollment period for Medicare plans, and the expectation is that seniors' mailboxes will be stuffed. If I'm not everybody's favorite year round, at least I'm being romanced by politicians and insurers climbing through a narrow autumnal window. Obviously, these solicitors want me to want them — and that's not such a bad feeling, even if I'm not blind to the underlying motive.

Anyway, advertising — sometimes unflatteringly referred to as junk mail — is what keeps our postal service barely afloat. Whether we use it or not, the US Post Office gets an annual $18 billion gift from taxpayers, despite its having spent a considerable part of its history in the red. The worst calamity occurred fourteen years ago when the USPD lost a whopping $159 billion dollars.

Former Treasury undersecretary Robert Shapiro — not the defense lawyer for O.J. Simpson — estimates that the subsidies and legal monopolies bestowed on the USPS by Congress are worth $18 billion a year. One of the preferential laws prohibits any other shipping service from delivering mail and packages directly to residential and business mailboxes.

The organization also enjoys certain tax and borrowing rate breaks, along with exemptions that save it over another $2 billion annually. And the salaries and benefits of postal workers are far above the rates paid to similar workers in the private sector. Overall, the USPS's monopolistic position places an economic burden on others. If it were subjected to the same competitive pressures as private firms, the cost of postage, for example, would be cheaper for those of us who still use it.

A glimmer of good news is that the balance sheet of the USPS seems to be improving slightly, due to the fact that packages cannot be sent by e-mail. Still, more and more customers are opting for private operators like Fed Ex and UPS.

If there were any chance of doing away with public mail service altogether, seniors — despite their disappointing yields — might be the first and the loudest to protest. A while back I heard from a college classmate in Connecticut, who had just plucked from her mailbox the latest edition of our college magazine. In anticipation, I immediately took the elevator six floors down to the phalanx of mailboxes in the foyer of my apartment complex, only to find that my copy had not yet made its way across the continent.

In the recesses of my mailbox, however, I found two letters. One was from the Neptune Society, and the other from Forest Lawn Cemetery, which is not all that far from where I live. They both wanted my business, even though they had to get it over my dead body. At least the politicians and insurance brokers have an interest in my survival — if only long enough for me to cast my vote or sign on the dotted line.

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The Seasonal Tsunami of Senior Mail; No Longer a Pandora's Box

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