Why yes, we do need the Post Office.

I really should never watch clips of Fox News, even when they are being offered by friends to show that even Republicans know racism when they see it.*  Because I get distracted. In this case by the fact that everyone in this clip argues that the Postal Service should be abolished.

Distracted because all of these white professionals are so completely out of touch with the realities of many people's lives -- especially poor people. Older people. Or people in rural areas where there is not a lot of broadband availability.

According to the commenters on Fox, the Postal Service can be shown to be obsolete because of the threefold path of FedEx, the Internet, and cell phones.

Yes, of course,  FedEx makes a lot of money each year, certainly more than the post office: they charge a lot to ship things, that's why.  An overnight letter from FedEx is $33.87.  That same letter from the US Postal Service is $18.30. And before anyone complains of quality of service, I have had problems with FedEx as well as USPS.

What bothered me most, though, was the idea that the Internet and cellular phones have made the postal service obsolete.  Because, of course, everyone has Internet service.

Except my mother.  She's 82, and not very comfortable with technology.  And she is not alone, at least in not having Internet service:  according to figures released earlier this year, 40% of Americans do not have Internet access in their home.  Public libraries can offer some people access, as can schools, but both of those institutions are being increasingly squeezed by budget cuts in most parts of the country.

So, lacking Internet access, how do people pay their bills, or order goods, or communicate with their loved ones?  Through the mail.  Contrary to popular belief, the letter and card is not completely obsolete: I get them all the time from relatives. (We live in different time zones, so phone calls become tricky.)

And as for cell phones... right.  I was  galled at the woman who brought up depositing checks by phone:  I have a decent phone, with a good camera, but I can't do that.  You need an iPhone -- current retail price for the cheapest model $99.  While that is a far cry cheaper than they were originally, you still need to have a two year contract with AT&T.  Which means switching carriers -- not necessarily a inexpensive proposition.  If you rely on sell-phones without a contract, that you can add minutes to as you need them, you're simply out of luck.

The mistake -- or deliberate ignorance -- that all of these people make is to examine their own experiences and extrapolate from there.  They show a profound lack of understanding of how other people -- the poor, the elderly, the rural -- live their lives.**

And it is those people who would most suffer from any scheme to kill the Postal Service. Personally, I think that the Postal Service should be like roads, or sewers, or the services that help support the populace in their daily lives.  We all benefit from having a service which allows people to manage their affairs in a responsible fashion.

But then what do I know?  I'm not on Fox News.



*But yes, kudos to Senator D'Amato for calling out racist bullshit when he saw it.
** This is at its heart a lack of empathy, that quality so decried by the Republicans during the Sotomayor hearings.  But, as I seem to keep saying a lot these days, that's a rant for another day.