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U.S.: Time to close post offices

Americans are writing 10% fewer letters every year. So why aren't we closing post offices?

Americans are writing 10% fewer letters every year. Email's quicker. The Post Office has less and less to do. It's looking at a $6 billion loss this year. More than 300,000 postal workers are ready to retire.

So why aren't we closing post offices? There were 27,200 last year, down just 1 percent over the previous five years. And year-old plans to close 33 area mail-processing centers (the closest of these is in Wilkes Barre; the work would move to Scranton and Allentown) are moving slowly: Only four shutdowns have been approved so far.

Why? The Postal Service "faces formidable resistance to closing and consolidating facilities," reports the Government Accountability Office. Politics, you know.  Read the full report here.