DO WE NEED POSTMEN?

Canada Post strike: Residents ask if they really need a postman

I had the gall to bring this up in a discussion today and felt like the messenger was about to be stoned. There have been rumblings down here as well. They have talked about a number of things, but most common is no more Saturday delivery. However, Canada is getting even more creative in their considerations.

“When Canadian letter carriers went on strike three weeks ago they hoped to force the National postal service, Canada Post, to back down from a cost-cutting proposal to dramatically reduce wages.

Three weeks later, lawmakers are preparing to legislate them back to work, but Canadians are asking just how much a modern cyber-connected society needs the post office anyway.”

I have lost track of how many postal strikes I suffered through while living in Canada. It was annoying. For that reason I am not surprised that Canadians are asking if we really need postmen. The citizens are finding that they can survive with them. That’s a shock.

I would assume the feeling is mutual south of their border. That is, if you do not canvas senior citizens. We still have people who will not put money in the bank because of the ’20’s stock market crash. Those alive then were infants at the time.

There are many who resist any change. I understand change can be hard. It is confusing when you cannot even turn on your TV without help. They cannot turn the little red light out and are annoyed by the flashing 12:00. How do you stop the confounded thing? Not many even have cell phones. The ones that do have cell phones find many of the functions a waste of time. All they want is to make phone calls and save the numbers of family and friends. That one is helpful. Some do not return messages because they do not know how to get to the message. The instruction books make no sense at all.

“A worldwide trend toward e-mail, online banking, electronic bill payments, and communication through social media is causing a dramatic drop in revenue for the postal services around the world.”

I will never use a computer. I will never bank on line. I will never give up the post office. But what if they take it away from you. They can’t do that. Yes they can. I’ll fight it to the bitter end. That may come sooner than you think. Put your armor on and practice your sword fighting.

How do you expect to send your letters, your checks, your little notes to friends and family if there is no system to handle mail. They can’t take that away from me. They can, but probably won’t, at least not completely.

It makes sense to combine postal service in a number of convenience stores or pharmacies. Create many more outlets in smaller places. Why not drop first class mail. Statics indicate that there is very little first class mail. I for one would not care if the junk mail stops. Yes, I know. Many people will be out of jobs. Jobs change. The job I trained for no longer exists. I helped teach people how to do that job. They are out of work in that specific area. I have some mourning for the loss, but care more about the work getting done, not the title. That continues to happen.

Things do not stay the same. I genuinely ache for my friends. The coming changes are terrifying. But we, like nearly everyone else, have a number of these “modern conveniences”. We just do not have or use those things in the next wave of loss. I remind them that almost none of the things that frighten them the most will change over night. They will be just fine.

One lady is panic stricken about how we will pay our rent beginning in August. Our main office has been next door, but they will move to the next city over in July. At present we drop our checks in a box. Since there will no longer be regular traffic between our places, the box will be removed. The word on the street is that we will have to mail our rent. What? Mail? We can’t put it in the box any more? Well, I’m going to deduct the cost of my stamp from my rent. Yeah, right! Try it! This is an insignificant change but the natives are in turmoil. They mail all their other bills. Why is this a problem? I mentioned that they could set up an automated payment with the company or with their bank.

I had no idea there were so many who do not have a bank and run around to all these places to pay their bills each month. Convenience does not seem to be an issue.