Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets
Reason logo Reason logo
  • Latest
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • Crossword
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • All Shows
    • The Reason Roundtable
    • The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
    • The Soho Forum Debates
    • Just Asking Questions
    • The Best of Reason Magazine
    • Why We Can't Have Nice Things
  • Volokh
  • Newsletters
  • Donate
    • Donate Online
    • Donate Crypto
    • Ways To Give To Reason Foundation
    • Torchbearer Society
    • Planned Giving
  • Subscribe
    • Reason Plus Subscription
    • Print Subscription
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Subscriber Support

Login Form

Create new account
Forgot password

Politics

Postal Service Goes Negative on These Newfangled Electronic Mails

Katherine Mangu-Ward | 9.30.2011 10:44 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

The U.S. Postal Service is royally screwed. Mail volume is down, benefits and pensions are out of control, and the USPS is Out of Money. After careful consideration, they have decided to deal with these fundamental structural problems by…attacking these unreliable electronic communications the kids are using these days.

The new ads crow about how USPS customers "feel safe and secure that important letters and information don't get lost in thin air, or disappear with a click." Apparently these ads are targeted at old people who are still sorting out the whole single click/double click thing.

The first ad also features a horrifying montage of people jamming the paper delivered to them by the USPS into drawers, folders, accordion files, and decorative trays. Seeing all those dead trees hiding all over people's houses gives me the willies.

Also: How soon we forget. As Robert Cannon reminds us, once upon a time the Post Office was desperate to get into the email biz:

E-COM was a simple concept. The USPS would set up a network where a message would originate electronically. It would then be sent to one of a handful of participating postal offices that had terminals, where it would be printed out. The hard copy of the message would then be delivered to its destination—essentially in the same manner and with the same speed as first class mail. USPS launched this service in 1981.

The Postal Commission, the Department of Justice, and the FCC simultaneously freaked out about this idea, not least because there are rules against government agencies explicitly competing against the private sector. 

Well, the USPS would not accept "no" for an answer, tinkered with its network in order to weasel out of FCC jurisdiction, and launched E-COM in 1981. A message was priced at 26¢—and for each email message, the USPS was said to lose around $5….And by the way, if you used the service you had to send at minimum 200 messages. The service was one directional; if you got an error message, you would receive it in the mail two days later. When the E-COM messages were printed out, it would take two days more to be delivered. And it cost the same as First Class mail.

You know how this story ends:

Three years after service was initiated, USPS terminated the service and tried to sell it off.

For more on the USPS and its ad misfires, go here. 

Via Adam Thierer's Twitter feed.

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

NEXT: You Can't Call It An Unintended Consequence If You Knew It Was Going to Happen

Katherine Mangu-Ward is editor in chief of Reason.

PoliticsPost Office
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Show Comments (136)

Latest

Can We End Racism by Ending the Idea of Race Itself?

Rachel Ferguson | From the June 2025 issue

The Supreme Court Said States Can't Discriminate in Alcohol Sales. They're Doing It Anyway.

C. Jarrett Dieterle | 5.24.2025 7:00 AM

Cocaine Hippos, Monkey Copyrights, and a Horse Named Justice: The Debate Over Animal Personhood

C.J. Ciaramella | From the June 2025 issue

Harvard's Best Protection Is To Get Off the Federal Teat

Autumn Billings | 5.23.2025 6:16 PM

Trump's Mass Cancellation of Student Visas Illustrates the Lawlessness of His Immigration Crackdown

Jacob Sullum | 5.23.2025 5:30 PM

Recommended

  • About
  • Browse Topics
  • Events
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Shop
  • Amazon
Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS

© 2024 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

r

Do you care about free minds and free markets? Sign up to get the biggest stories from Reason in your inbox every afternoon.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

This modal will close in 10

Reason Plus

Special Offer!

  • Full digital edition access
  • No ads
  • Commenting privileges

Just $25 per year

Join Today!