Bear in mind that in Denmark, all government mail goes through Digital Post.[1] Once you remove government letters and bills (as that's also digitised unless you really feel like paying extra to do it the old-fashioned way) from your postal system, there's not a whole lot left for the postal system to survive on other than packages and physical spam mail. Letters become a very low priority, since it's not like there's a tremendous amount of business correspondence or personal letters and postcards propping up the system either.
I'd imagine any other country where even the government isn't going/obligated to send you physical mail will eventually go down the same path. No point in propping up the system if even the government doesn't have a central use of it.
I agree, but that argument becomes a lot harder to make when the things that usually did use that infrastructure, like government mail, completely evaporates.
As per the article, the parcel side of the postal system is still profitable, so no problems there. It's the letter side of things that has fallen into disuse, and is thus being scaled back into nothingness, since nothing serious or important actually uses it anymore.
In a way it makes sense. My US mail is mostly junk - coupon brochures, scams (like extended warranty scams disguised to look legitimate), and bills or noticed that are legally required to be physical. I do enjoy greeting cards from friends or family but that type of thoughtful communication is rare these days and mostly replaced by casual digital stuff. Still, having the ability to send things to other people feels like an important government funded service.
> My US mail is mostly junk - coupon brochures, scams (like extended warranty scams disguised to look legitimate), and bills or noticed that are legally required to be physical
I recently started taking a closer look at the junk, and found that a lot of the coupon brochures here have useful coupons for places I actually do occasionally shop at.
For example now nearly every time I decide I don't want to make lunch or dinner and instead go grab something at a fast food place I've got a coupon for a pretty good deal.
Bear in mind that in Denmark, all government mail goes through Digital Post.[1] Once you remove government letters and bills (as that's also digitised unless you really feel like paying extra to do it the old-fashioned way) from your postal system, there's not a whole lot left for the postal system to survive on other than packages and physical spam mail. Letters become a very low priority, since it's not like there's a tremendous amount of business correspondence or personal letters and postcards propping up the system either.
I'd imagine any other country where even the government isn't going/obligated to send you physical mail will eventually go down the same path. No point in propping up the system if even the government doesn't have a central use of it.
[1] https://lifeindenmark.borger.dk/apps-and-digital-services/Di...
> there's not a whole lot left for the postal system to survive on
postal mail is infrastructure, not just a cost center
I agree, but that argument becomes a lot harder to make when the things that usually did use that infrastructure, like government mail, completely evaporates.
As per the article, the parcel side of the postal system is still profitable, so no problems there. It's the letter side of things that has fallen into disuse, and is thus being scaled back into nothingness, since nothing serious or important actually uses it anymore.
In a way it makes sense. My US mail is mostly junk - coupon brochures, scams (like extended warranty scams disguised to look legitimate), and bills or noticed that are legally required to be physical. I do enjoy greeting cards from friends or family but that type of thoughtful communication is rare these days and mostly replaced by casual digital stuff. Still, having the ability to send things to other people feels like an important government funded service.
> My US mail is mostly junk - coupon brochures, scams (like extended warranty scams disguised to look legitimate), and bills or noticed that are legally required to be physical
I recently started taking a closer look at the junk, and found that a lot of the coupon brochures here have useful coupons for places I actually do occasionally shop at.
For example now nearly every time I decide I don't want to make lunch or dinner and instead go grab something at a fast food place I've got a coupon for a pretty good deal.