Sign of the Times?

Don't you love it when you get mail? I'm not talking about bills or catalogs, but a thank you note or birthday card? It's kind of fun because it occurs so rarely - case in point, the article below.

This piece of news illustrates two major "signs of the times" - the increase of electronic mail over paper mail and the severe economic situation our country is facing today. As a side note, I'd like to point out that despite all of our technology advances, the police department still only accepts money orders to pay even $5 fees...

Postmaster General: Mail days may need to be cut
WASHINGTON (AP) - Massive deficits could force the post office to cut out one day of mail delivery, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday, in asking lawmakers to lift the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week.

If the change happens, that doesn't necessarily mean an end to Saturday mail delivery. Previous post office studies have looked at the possibility of skipping some other day when mail flow is light, such as Tuesday.

Faced with dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year.

Total mail volume was 202 billion items last year, over 9 billion less than the year before, the largest single volume drop in history.

And, despite annual rate increases, the postmaster general said 2009 could be the first year since 1946 that the actual amount of money collected by the post office declines.