What if you had a Sony TV, and Sony decided that they would hijack your TV and run random ads for Sony. Wouldn’t you dump that TV for one that just played the channel you chose with no Sony interruptions?

To be a citizen you need an address. Paychecks, taxes, insurance, etc. all are based on your address. So how can the Post Office send out ads for the post office? How can they sell all the addresses to Bed Bath and Beyond and Hollywood video. I have to have an address. I cannot exist without an address. If I don’t like radio advertising, I can turn it off. If I hate TV ads, the same goes. How do I stop getting ads from the Post Office? I can’t!

There needs to be some change. For the second year in a row in 2006 more bulk business mail (Standard Mail) was sent than personal mail (First Class Mail). The rub there is that businesses can also send First Class so the stats don’t show how much personal correspondence there is vs junk! First Class is more money, but at least there is a return service. So, the kind of mail where if you don’t exist, that mail gets returned to the sender so they can remove you from their list, is the the one that most businesses don’t use. Businesses don’t want returned mail, they just want saturation, low cost, and easy advertising. Who gets screwed? Us!

Standard Mail is how businesses get a better rate by grouping mail into zip codes for the post office. This mail is predominantly junk. From the USPS website here is what standard mail cannot be: “It can not be used for sending personal correspondence, handwritten or typewritten letters, or bills and statements of account.” Those are the only pieces of mail I want or need. So why do we need Standard Mail? We don’t, junk mailers do, and so does the USPS.

Check out these stats found on the USPS website. In 2005 pieces of first class mail delivered is eclipsed by pieces of standard mail delivered. Again in 2006. Look at the trends. First class mail is in decline and standard mail is gaining. Where is the future of the USPS? Junk mail!

When are we as a society going to draw the line and say enough? In every facet of our lives are we going to allow advertising to be foisted upon us?

I AM NOT “[Your] Nieghbor At…”!