I Have Seen the Future....

............and it involves long lines.  I went to the post office this morning.  All I needed was a couple of stamps and I had to stand in line for half an hour to get them.  The budget cuts that will soon sweep the country have already come to the post office.  I won't go into all the reasons why the post office is wanting for money.  I'll just write that there are issues that go beyond email, reasons that include long-standing Republican policy that has been putting up roadblocks to an efficient, government run institution that benefits us all.

Oh those Repugs, they're at it again.  The tuskers argue that the mail should be run like a private business, that it should have week unions, or better yet none at all, and it should make a profit.  And so we get down to the fundamental argument of governance.  For those who agree with the Republican theory of things, the post office shouldn't even exist.  If an American citizen chooses to live somewhere it's not profitable for a private carrier to serve, or if that citizen can't afford the higher costs of a FedEx or UPS, so be it.  In the world of free wheeling, anything for a buck, market capitalism, that's just the way things are.  For those of us who think that it is the job of government is to provide needed services at a reasonable price, and that those services should be subsidized so that they can be used by all.....well, if we had our way, lines at the post office would be a lot shorter and Saturday service wouldn't be on the chopping block.