Andy Rooney, the nostalgic curmudgeon from 60 Minutes, thinks it's "crazy" to close post offices to save money.
In this October 4 broadcast, he points out that, "In 1900 there were 77,000 post offices around the country. Today, with four times as many people, there are only 37,000 post offices." An email, he says, "has all the charm of a freight train." Depending on what you think of freight trains, I suppose, that could be either good or bad. But his point is clear - as communications styles change and postal services disappear, we're getting a lot fewer of that more personal kind of letter that comes to the box by your front door.
Judging from the comments posted on the 60 Minutes website, however, it's not just nostalgia that is causing alarm about the trend toward fewer postal services. Many of the comments are from workers in the postal industry who are watching the workforce shrink or have been laid off themselves.
One commenter said, "Andy, it is time for you to retire... NOW. Email and computers are part of the 21st century..... snail mail and typewriters are part of our history." Rooney's response? "I would rather have a mail man or woman deliver junk mail to me than to get an email."
Take a look. What do you think?
