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In 1919, the cost of a first-class letter went to two cents from three. That may have been the last time in American history that postal rates dropped; this summer, the cost of a first-class letter is scheduled to rise from 34 cents to 37, because the U.S. Postal Service has been losing money.
When that happens to an enterprise, it has to raise prices or cut costs, and in the latter regard, the Postal Service is different from other utilities, which can cut costs by closing some offices.
For instance, when I moved to Salida 24 years ago this month, the local electric monopoly, Public Service Company of Colorado, had a big office downtown. You could walk in there and pay your bill or arrange for service. So did Mountain Bell, the telephone provider. Salida Gas Service Co., the local natural-gas company, had its office near the highway.
All three companies have been replaced. Salida Gas was acquired by Greeley Gas, a company owned 80 years ago by the famous lawyer Clarence Darrow, and currently known locally as the Greedy Gas Co. Public Service became New Centuries became Xcel. Mountain Bill became USWest became Qwest.
The other thing they all have in common is that they don't have offices here. You're supposed to pay your bill by mail to some remote place like Phoenix or Amarillo, and if you need something, you're supposed to call an 800 number and try to punch your way through the voice-mail-from-hell menus.
These utilities closed their offices in the Salidas of this world because it costs money to run an office, and they wanted to cut costs. I don't especially like it -- for instance, I suspect that service problems get fixed faster if somebody important, like the local manager, is also suffering, rather than just mere customers -- but those companies could take that course.
The Postal Service faces a similar problem. It has thousands of offices, scattered all over the country, and three-quarters of them lose money. But even if the Postal Service has received no direct governmental subsidy since 1982, closing a post office isn't just an economic matter. It's also a political matter because post offices are so important to community identity.
And if it's political, then Congress gets involved. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a North Carolina Democrat, has sponsored legislation that would make it more difficult for the Postal Service to close offices.
After all, he said, they're a source of community
pride and an important meeting place for folks in small
towns.
Indeed, rural post offices play a central
role in strengthening our social fabric, promoting our
North Carolina values and preserving our way of
life.
With supporters like that, small-town post offices don't need enemies.
To be sure, one of the most pleasant aspects of
small-town life is going to the post office in the morning
and catching up on local gossip. Indeed, if I were building
a town from scratch, the post office would sit next to a
non-smoke-free greasy-spoon diner that opened at 6 a.m. to
serve non-designer coffee, cholesterol-laden bacon and
sausages and copious quantities of hash browns -- there's a
place in hell for the person who first misused the word
breakfast
for bran muffins and fruit slices.
But I digress, sort of. The imaginary hash house I just
mentioned would do as fine or better a job of
strengthening the social fabric
in the backwaters of
this great republic. Preserving our way of life
is
almost always a justification for something expensive that
benefits the rich, like farm subsidies or repealing the
estate tax. And just why should a federal institution be
promoting North Carolina values
any more than it
should promote Colorado or California values?
I have read that whenever the Postal Service threatens to close money-losing rural post offices, it causes a storm of protest to Congress. And maybe that was so in 1988, when Congress got the Postal Service to agree to an informal moratorium on closings.
But it doesn't appear to matter that much now. Around here, we've lost several post offices in recent years. Most recently, it was Ohio City in Gunnison County. Before that, Texas Creek in Frémont County and Garfield in Chaffee County went off the list, and the Silver Cliff post office in Custer County was merged into Westcliffe's.
Did this inspire letters to Congress? I called Rep. Scott McInnis's office. To my surprise, his press liaison said that he couldn't recall a single complaint from a constituent about a post office closing.
This may indicate that we rural residents have already adjusted to the inevitable, and that the Postal Service, like other big utilities, will be able to trim costs and stay in business.
And we do need it to stay in business. Unlike the other communication utilities that promote services that they only offer in metro areas -- the Postal Service offers pretty much the same service everywhere in the country, even in the boondocks.
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