Postal Service: welcome to united states of austerity

the US postal service has fallen on hard times. the USPS has long been the brunt of jokes, mostly from the anti-government set. this is explained because of the power of the postal workers' union -- always a prime target of anti-worker elements on the hard-right fringe. at the same time, these guys who are always hollering about the constitution and the founders' intent should check their copy. it's pretty clear that part of a civilized society, the way the founding fathers saw it, was to have a healthy postal system.

now, of course, for many reasons including the sorry state of the economy generally, the USPS is struggling:

Postal Service faces "new reality," pitches cuts - CBS News: "WASHINGTON - In announcing the "new reality" it must face, the financially troubled Postal Service said Thursday it may close more than 250 mail processing facilities across the country and plans to reduce service standards for first-class mail in an effort to cut costs.

Such a change would mean that a letter mailed with a first-class stamp would take longer to arrive at its destination, increasing delivery time from a minimum of one day to two days, the service said.

The steps are part of a broad effort to cut costs for the agency that lost $8.5 billion last year and is facing ever more red ink this year as the Internet siphons off the lucrative first-class mail and the stagnant economy holds down the growth of advertising mail."

try to sell the idea of no saturday mail to oldsters whose lives revolve around the appearance of the postman -- not going down well. all the small communities, as well, whose identity almost hinges on the town post office -- they were first and loudest to slam plans to close many POs across the country.

it's wake-up time in the USA, as the reality of austerity and cutting big, bad government advances from a popular slogan to something we're going to have to live with. how long with the coloreds and the mexicans be able to absorb the blame for every new chop of the budgetary ax? eventually, even the hardest of the hard heads will come to realize that austerity is just dismantling society as they know it.