Save the Post Office!

John Robb, President and COO of Userland, writes today in his Weblog that the time has come to shutter the USPO and get the 300,000 people who work there into jobs more in tune with the future. I humbly disagree.

Probably the most critical use of regular mail is bill paying. Even for the computer-abled of us, though, not every transaction can be handled electronically, at least not yet. Two examples from my highly connected life: I want to send a one-off check to a charity, do I need to go through the hassle and wait of setting them up as a payee in my bank’s bill-pay system? I need to pay Uncle Sam some income tax, I don’t think at the moment that would be approved as a payee in the system. Also, I like reading some things on paper but how do I get my Analog and Wired magazines? The tech isn’t here yet to replace them.

The biggest question, of course: What do the sizable number of people who don’t own a computer or do but don’t have an Internet connection do to pay bills? Tell them to go to the public library once a week? And how about all those people who don’t even have bank accounts, much less credit cards? They need to receive their bills by regular mail.

No, we need the post office for the time being.

Update: John posted a reponse (same link) and says we should spend the money to overcome the technology issues, which is swell except that it will take time to develop the technology and we need to safeguard the system immediately. And I think there are social issues that John is underestimating–a lot of people like getting catalogs and magazine in the mail, throwing them in a pile and reading at their leisure, there is the entire direct mail industry to consider, and what about the simple, old-fashioned appeal of writing a letter to a loved one?

Update 2:David Plotnikoff, writing in the SJ Mercury News (so I sure hope this link lasts more than seven days!), spouts the same line as Robb. He says that as “for the delivery of physical goods, United Parcel Service and Fed Ex do a nearly flawless job.” But Plotnikoff completely ignores my objections above and focuses on the fact that his bank has a really poor implementation of online banking. Come on David, you’re writing for a major newspaper, so please look a little deeper!