end of USPS, newspapers - things that should happen - part 2

three and half weeks ago i wrote about how GM should go bankrupt. now it seems like it's more likely to happen as the government rejected the automakers plan and forced out GM CEO. it's not quite an i told you so moment, but i think it will be in the coming months.

so here's another couple of things that should happen and so eventually will.

the US postal system will cut service (will soon be down to only 5 days a week) and in the next 20 years be phased out completely. likely, it will be replaced with some sort of government wide email system. packages will continue to be delivered by private companies (fedex, ups, dhl). when i graduated college, i got a permanent alumni email address that forwards to my current, main email (@yahoo.com). the alumni account has its own crude email interface but i prefer yahoo's. i believe that just like social security numbers, people will get an email account that they can forward. rain, sleet and snow may not hold back the post man, but budget cuts will. the problem of course is that the USPS currently employs nearly 800,000 americans. within 20 years, it's hard to imagine the USPS existing.

another thing that should happen is all print newspapers except for perhaps the WSJ, the NY Times, the USA Today and possibly a few gossip-like papers (eg ny post) will go out of business. the handwriting has been on the wall for a long time. i don't see why these money losing publications are even trying at this point. maybe they can survive as a web publication but the printing and distribution costs no longer make any economic sense except at massive scale. in a world where devices like the blackberry, iphone or kindle can provide real-time data at a fraction of the distribution cost, how do you justify a newspaper? i hear the argument about enjoying the experience of reading a paper newspaper, but it reminds me of the Luddites who refused to get or leave messages on answering machines. so farewell newspapers. i never figured out how to hold you on a plane without severely crumpling you or annoying my seat neighbor anyway.

lastly i want to send a shout out to one of my few readers tara. thanks for reading.