An Impressive Graphic: "A World Without The Post Office"

This is an impressive graphic of the statistics of the US Postal Service ... and the popularity of some stamps they have created through the years, too:

http://www.numbersleuth.org/trends/usps/

What a great link! The statistics are awesome. The numbers about actual stamps are boggling. And yet, we complain...I believe the US has some of the lowest mail rates in the world.
I use email, the telephone, a cell phone, and I write letters and cards, too. I would not give up my physical correspondence, no matter what the reasonable cost.
It has been discussed in other threads that those of us who collect postally used stamps appreciate the cancellation and the fact that the little stamp has done its job.
So, everybody go mail a card or letter (remember: "Please Mr. Postman, look and see, if there's a letter in your bag for me")

It's interesting, including some photos of stamps I need to find on ebay as well.

But problems not mentioned. Does the tripling of Gas prices have an effect on the operational deficit? Do the age of vehicles and lower MPG efficiency do as well?
I suppose not, I don't hear about school buses and police cars having trouble anymore at 3.50 a gallon like I did at 2.25.

Also, This email blame game doesn't jive with me as well. Did they ever blame the telephone, fax machines, and such on declining mail volume? Chances are if it's in text messages or email, I was going to tell in person or on the phone anyway.
Let's go thirdly. I notice a big drop in 2008. Around the time the government started banning SSI checks being physically mailed, SSI yearly statements becoming banned(all US workers of any age received them just a few years prior), Government pay stubs being banned via the mail, some other stuff just stopped this year as well, followed by some other companies that have cut their mailrooms(and the employment rate I bet) as well.

I think these things are HUGE, and they are always ignored, to blame email instead.

I see those Elvis stamps in antique shops, I reckon they're not exactly rare looking at those numbers.

I can certainly attest to using e-mail more than snail mail, especially at work when you include other means of electronic transmission.

I've been working at a law firm for four years, and even in that time, the volume of mail I send out has decreased. 90% of the time, we file pleadings electronically rather than mailing to the courts. Contracts, purchase agreements, etc. can be e-mailed to a client to be printed and signed. In many instances, the client can then scan the executed document and e-mail it back to us. My previous position was with an accounting firm. They don't mail tax returns to the IRS anymore; it's all done electronically.

I personally don't send as many letters or cards as I used to, and I think most people would agree. For example, I started college in 1993, just when e-mail was becoming "mainstream". My best friend went to school several states away, and we sent letters to each other constantly - sometimes twice a week! - the first couple of years. Then we started using e-mail and IRC, and the letters quickly fell by the wayside.

methinks that they should have at least put more information on the bottom of that piece about the stamps. I have both a #63 and a #65 and the #77 I'm here to tell ya' I'm not rich! lol

I don't want this to turn political but I cant help but wonder why a constitutionally authorized entity (the P.O. I'm talking about) doesn't get tax dollars/revenue? I mean heck, even the president gets mail? We pay for the politicians mansions and extravagant trips and their fancy cars why not the mail? Go USA!

The USPOD/USPS is not the only enterprise within the federal government that was intended to operate on its own revenue.

I will give you another example, close to my heart. The Panama Canal Company was part of the Federal government. It took no tax dollars, and made no revenue for the IRS (unless you counted the income taxes paid by its employees). Even as control and ownership of the Panama Canal was being slowly transferred to Panama, it still operated based on its own revenues.

The challenge with the USPS is the lobby pressure to make it impossible to operate effectively, thereby giving more business to private carriers.

The number that is most important to me is the eight million employees, all receiving a decent wage upon which to bring up and care for their families.

Do FedEx and UPS employees fare as well? I can assure you they do not.

That's another one for my list that I didn't include due to time and space. You're NOT ALLOWED(read banned) to do them by the mail anymore, you are required to file electronically if you do more than 10 in a year, if and it's on paper, you must provide an explanation of why you're using the mail.

The government really likes to support itself doesn't it?

I can keep going with this list of things the government has done to try to stop you from using the postal service, should anyone want to be annoyed.



I see this with everyone and I can't stand it. For once in a while stuff it would be ok, but it seems that everyone wants me to pay for my own ink to print everything out for them, on my own paid for paper, then spend all the time to scan it, upload it, and such. It adds up to annoyance when it's multiple people per month. It's going on a tangent, but my lines crossed of doing everyone elses job for free, and buying their office supplies for them. My day is busy enough without the extra time nor money. But I wish I could(or maybe I should) send this suggestion, by the mail, to every agency and company that keeps expecting this of me.

You'll be happy to know that the attorney I work for does prefer to send out hard copies, often with a return envelope for the client's convenience.

Nice statistics. Very nicely presented. I wish more people are aware of the importance of USPS in society.

I look at that, and I'm sure this will be very unpopular around here, and say "great, what have you done for me recently?" There's nothing on that chart that's still true today. The high-cost stamps are all nearly or over 100 years old, and in fact, the most expensive one is a mistake made by the Post Office, it wants credit for making mistakes? Most of the "highest produced" stamps were just catering to collectors, that's all the Post Office does today and I suspect that a lot of those "highest produced" stamps were destroyed due to lack of interest. I'm not going to look at the Post Office with nostalgia goggles and a vague memory of how good they used to be, I'm seeing them as they actually are today, useless, whoring to collectors and inefficient.

I haven't sent a single letter or stuck a single stamp on an envelope in a long, long time. If the Post Office went away tomorrow, I doubt I'd notice.

If the post offices ceases to exist, no more stamps to buy! Haha

That's fine, I stopped buying U.S. stamps in 1993. There's a whole wide world of stamps to buy, even if every post office everywhere vanished.