经济学人下载:鹅毛大雪,倾盆大雨

The Post Office      
邮政局

Neither snow nor rain

Nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers. But the internet will

鹅毛大雪 倾盆大雨 炎炎烈日,昏暗夜色都无法使邮差停止送信。但因特网能。

Aug 20th 2011 | LOS ANGELES | from the print edition

THE US Postal Service has an unofficial creed (above) that harks back to Herodotus, who was admiring the Persian empire’s stalwart messengers. Its own history is impressive too, dating to a royal licence by William and Mary in 1692, and including Benjamin Franklin as a notable postmaster, both for the crown (which dismissed him in 1774 for his revolutionary leanings) and then for the newly independent country. Ever since, the post has existed “to bind the Nation together”.

美国邮政服务有条非正式的信条。这一信条的出处要回溯到希罗多德,他对波斯国王忠实可靠的信使大为赞赏。美国邮政，历史悠久，于1692年得到威廉国王和玛利皇后的皇家许可，开始邮政服务。本杰明.弗兰克林出任邮政总长更是值得一提：他曾先后为英国皇家（因他的革命倾向，于1774年被解雇）和刚刚独立的美国服务，出任此职。从此以后，邮政的存在象征着“整个国家连在一起”。

But as ever more Americans go online instead of sending paper, the volume of mail has been plummeting (see chart right). The decline is steeper than even pessimists expected a decade ago, says Patrick Donahoe, the current postmaster-general. Worse, because the post must deliver to every address in the country—about 150m, with some 1.4m additions every year—costs are simultaneously going up. As a result, the post has lost $20 billion in the last four years and expects to lose another $8 billion this fiscal year.

自从越来越多的美国人选用网络而不是用邮政收寄信件,邮政的递送量便直线开始下降。现任邮政总长，帕特里克.多纳霍谈到，十年前对邮政事业持悲观态度的人都没预料到衰退会如此之快。更要命的是，邮政服务必须送抵全国每一个邮政地址——美国现有邮政地址约一亿五千万个，每年都会多增加一百四十多万个——这使得邮政支出同时增加。结果一目了然，邮政局在近四年损失合计二百亿美元，本财政年度预计损失为八亿美元。