Going postal

Behind the motor of technology, the world is changing at light speed. It imparts a lesson to every business, every agency, every individual: Adjust or suffer the consequences.

Our president rose to power on the crest of an Internet tidal wave. Several major newspapers have died because they did not or could not adjust to the new challenges, and new opportunities, of online information delivery. Grandma will miss so much of what's happening with the family if she doesn't join the social media revolution soon.

The U.S. Postal Service, too, must change or suffer the consequences.

As one of the largest employers of the nation's single largest employer - the federal government - massive Postal Service cuts brought on by pending insolvency would deliver a hammer blow to American employment. Conversely, so dire is the Postal Service's economic outlook that serious change must be embraced or catastrophe is assured anyway.

The agency's union, with best intentions no doubt, isn't doing its members a favor by organizing petition drives around the country, including Kootenai County last week. By mobilizing its forces in a PR campaign designed to show how essential six-day delivery is, the union has erected a lightning rod for citizens who think the agency would benefit from a few bolts of reality that would disintegrate some of the waste. They're finding out that many Americans, perhaps most of them, believe the Postal Service must adapt to technology and adjust to the hard economy or learn that it is not quite as essential a service as its supporters believe.

Earlier this year, a Bureau of Labor Statistics study examined jobs that exist in both the federal government and in the private sector. It found that salaries in more than 80 percent of these jobs is higher in the public sector than it is in the private work-a-day world. Further, the study found the average benefit package for a federal employee - health, pension, etc. - was $40,785 per year. And that was for the calendar year 2008. Since then, the gap must have grown. Many government salaries and benefits have been flat or increased in the past three years, while cuts in pay and benefits in the private sector have been the norm.

The Postal Service is positioning itself as the whipping boy for angry Americans frustrated by such disparities and feeling powerless to get runaway government spending under control. This is a time to figure out how technology can aid the ailing agency rather than seek support from a constituency that is anything but sympathetic.

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