Was it good for you too?

What used to be an important service – the postal service – has now become mostly a nuisance. (Postal employees, you have my sympathy, but…)

We (personally) have to rent a Post Office Box to receive mail. (No, they will not deliver it to our house.) We have to drive to the Post Office to get our mail. We have to spend time going through the mail which is 95% junk. We have to buy garbage bags to put the junk mail in. We either have to drive to a recycling station to drop off the junk mail or pay for garbage disposal. All the while, we get to worry about some dumpster-diver getting our personal information and stealing our identity and screwing up our credit so, oh yea, we have to buy a paper shredder. And/or we can pay someone to supposedly protect our identity. It’s all on us.

Regarding identity theft, whoever thought of using social security numbers as a general I.D. number needs to be publically flogged. That’s the person/department/entity that is responsible for identity theft. Social security numbers should be used strictly for Social Security and tax purposes. They should have no connection with our credit or our insurance or charge card applications, etc.

And why is it that a credit reporting agency has so much power over your financial credibility? Ironically it does not prove your credibility at all because life is not black and white. A credit report does not explain any late payments. The moral high road is not exactly lucrative. Maybe someone had great credit for 20 years and then was involved in a major auto accident and couldn’t work and was buried in medical bills (another screwing, anyone)? Maybe someone lost their job through no fault of their own and had a hard time getting back on their feet thanks to a massively suckitude economy (and who’s responsible for that)? When people are down they just get kicked harder. They’re struggling to make it but are burdened by oppressive interest rates. But the “well qualified buyer” mentioned in television auto ads will be offered 0% financing and could probably pay cash for the car. But, of course, the car companies know that. Why do we, the people, have to monitor our own credit report records? Shouldn’t accuracy be their responsibility? They’re the ones making money gathering information. They should actually check with us when a monstrosity shows up on a credit report BEFORE they publish it not in a little “by the way, there’s a negative entry on your report” notice. Gee thanks.

The credit reporting agencies collectively plus the social security administration plus the IRS should GUARANTEE that our identities are safe. THEY should pay for our protection because THEY are responsible for the very possibility of identity theft. And they should provide each of us with a shredder.

Why do we put up with this? Did we collectively agree to this? I know I didn’t vote for a perpetual screwing.

The Postal Service says that junk mail is its primary source of income. Why is that so precious but our time and income are apparently disposable?

If I went to the post office every day it would take about 25 minutes per day for the round trip plus the sorting time. That’s 130 hours per year mostly wasted out of my life. (I could probably make one trip a month to get the total mail that I actually want.) This doesn’t even include the cost of gas and the bother of disposal. What is my time worth? Apparently it’s worth nothing to them but it’s worth a lot to me. I’ll calculate low: at minimum wage that’s $942.50 per year I should get paid for my time, plus add gas money, plus add garbage bag money because I DON’T WANT TO go to the Post Office for junk mail and sort and dispose of junk mail. Basically I’m serving as a person who cleans the junk out of their box. They owe me part of their profits for participating in their junk mail campaign. If I order something through the mail then I want to receive that mail and of course I pay for shipping. Other than that I don’t want any of it. Nada. Unless I’ve ordered a package, then email me. How many trees are cut for the idiocy of junk mail. Are we really collectively that stupid? Can we do no better than acting like trained mutton?

I’m trying to come up with a way to just not have a mailing address. That should be interesting. Yes… that’s a plan worth pursuing.