Saving the Postal Service: The Problems, the Solutions, and the "Surprise"

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At one point or another, we have all held and opened a piece of mail. Whether it was a birthday card, a letter from a friend, or even a bill, we have all held a piece of paper that was sent from somewhere else. Even in the age of Facebook and email, it is likely that you have held a piece of mail and most likely, the way it got from point A (the person sending the mail) to point B (the person receiving the mail) was through the United States Postal Service, or the USPS. In the past decade, the postal service has experienced a decreased volume in their letter mail. In fact, for the postal service, the volume of this letter mail has been "falling at a rate not seen since the Great Depression" and it is believed to be because the "substitution [of snail mail] to Internet-based communications" (Geddes). The postal service has started to experience such a decline in funds that they now face the issue of staying afloat. The United States Postal Service has to dig their way out of rut in order to keep from going down into extinction. Peter Rorvig, a United States postal worker in Zirconia, North Carolina, talks some about the USPS's struggles and the involvement that Congress has with the USPS in his blog "More Normal than Not." This passage raised two outside questions, exactly what is the postal service trying to do to solve this decline in funds and how much is Congress actually involved with the USPS?
Peter Rorvig mentions the idea of five-day delivery and the way Congress continues to put the idea on the shelf. He mentions how "we [the USPS] got word yesterday that the proposed stop to Saturday first class mail delivery has been shelved for now." He uses "we" throughout the post to talk about the USPS, including himself. This show...

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...orks Cited

AllGov. "United States Postal Service." "Departments." AllGov. AllGov.com. 2013. Web. 28 Sept. 2013.
"Amid $16B in losses, Congress proposes changes for the Postal Service - CBS News." CBS News. N.p., 27 July 2013. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.
Geddes, R. Richard. "Policy Watch: Reform Of The U.S. Postal Service."Journal of Economic Perspectives 19.3 (2005): 217-232. jstor. Web. 28 Sept. 2013.
Levitz, Jennifer, and Eric Morath."U.S. Postal Service to Cut Saturday Mail.” The Wall Street Journal. N.p., 6 Feb. 2013. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.
Longley, Robert. "About the U.S. Postal Service." About.com US Government Info. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
"Postal Service Wants to Increase Cost of Stamps, to 49 cents." Fox News . N.p., 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.
Rorvig, Peter. "Saving Face, Saving the USPS ." More Normal Than Not . N.p., 5 Nov. 2012. Web. 23 Sept. 2013.

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