USPS
I read this article about the USPS some time ago, back when it was ungated, and considered never publishing this post, but upon rereading these two blurbs I had copied from the article, I figure I may as well share:
Americans receive 55 percent of the world’s total mail volume
After all, almost every piece of paper mail delivered today started out as an electronic file that was converted to paper, delivered through an energy-intensive and polluting process, and in some cases even reconverted to an electronic document once it arrived at a place of business. Why go from digital to paper only to go back to digital? Why not skip the paper stage altogether?
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:36 pm
I’d like to know what percentage of US mail is junk mail. A large percentage of my mail is junk mail that’s not even addressed to me. (Or real mail that’s not addressed to me: perhaps the postal service is going broke because they can’t tell the difference between “Tenth” and “Zenith,” or “6″ and “2.”)
More seriously, I think one thing holding up a conversion to 100% electronic is the lack of a universally accepted and supported method of *secure* electronic communication–something like encrypted email–along with digital signatures. Once, or if, public-key crypto gets built into the intertoobs, mail really will be dead for everything except packages, postcards, and hardcopy spam.
March 3rd, 2010 at 9:50 pm
That statistic about Americans receiving 55% of the world’s total mail volume is amazing.
March 5th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Unfortunately, really unfortunately, my impression is that junk mail is what is keeping the postal service afloat, so to speak. It costs the P.O. much less to deliver than real mail. I would love to ban it entirely, but then we’d probably have to pay a lot more for letters and packages. But wouldn’t it be great to get only mail from people or companies we really want or need to hear from!