How Post Office Closings Will Be Harmful to Rural Health

Cezary Podkul and Emily Stephenson examine the likely economic and social consequences of efforts by the U.S. Postal Service to close thousands of rural post offices this year.

February 22, 2012, 11am PST | Jonathan Nettler | @nettsj

While officials blame the internet for killing the U.S. Postal Service, an examination of plans for post office closures reveals that "about one-third of the offices slated for closure fall in areas with limited or no wired broadband Internet."

Furthermore, "Nearly 80 percent of the 3,830 post offices under consideration are in sparsely populated rural areas where poverty rates are higher than the national average," and the post office serves as the only way to do business.

Although the Postal Service has chosen which offices to close based on revenue, "The statistics show that closing all the post offices under consideration would save about $295 million a year, about four-tenths of 1 percent of the Postal Service's annual expenses of $70 billion."

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Post office closings may increase rural isolation, economic disparity

Published on Friday, February 17, 2012 in The Washington Post