For Whom the Bell Tolls

I recently read a USA Today front page article by Rick Hampson, titled “Bell tolls for the U.S. Mail, as we know it.” The article serves as a wistful retrospective glorifying the historical significance of the USPS, calling it a “national treasure.”

But things always look better in the rear-view mirror; think how childhood memories gather fondness over elapsed decades. Hampson comes across as a Luddite in one paragraph, yet proselytizes the faster and cheaper communications enabled by the Internet in the next. I know certain people have newspapers to sell, but it may not be smart to throw the $1.1 trillion mailing industry and its 8.4 million jobs under the proverbial bus.