Save the Trees! Save the Paper Storm!

It has occurred to me that in the 30-some years that I have been doing my own taxes that I rarely looked at old receipts.  Of course, some receipts are important for tax deductions, and some are important if the item I purchased has a warranty.  But, really.  Am I going to need to revisit the receipt for a tank of gas, a cup of coffee or some miscellaneous items from Target?  It used to be helpful when tracking expenses, but now everything is online and can be looked up, when necessary.

Today I started collecting the information for the 2011 tax year, and I see that my pile of documents has shrunk.  This can only be good since a few years ago I went through old boxes of tax information to shred, and each year took me longer than I thought it needed to.  When I put gas in the car yesterday and the machine asked me if I wanted a receipt, for the first time I pressed no.

Liberation from the white blizzard!  Well, it's now down to a light sprinkling of snow...

A US Postal Service Solution

What to do about the US Postal Service?  I know that people are quick to complain about the USPS, but I, for one, LIKE those people.  Sure, the mail sometimes gets mixed up when we have a sub or new person on our route.  Lines can be long at the PO.  But where else can you send something to someone 3,000 miles away for 44 cents?  Maybe we don't like the USPS because we get too much junk and not enough "real" mail anymore.

I hear that the PO needs about 8 billion dollars to stay afloat (and keep 600,000 people off the unemployment lines).  That's about 18 billion first-class letters (I think. I'm doing some back-of-the-envelope calculations here).  I don't plan to start paying my bills with checks and stamps anymore, and neither do most people, which is one of the problems that has led to declining revenues.

However, here's my thought.  Back in February I blogged about a book I'd just read called 365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Gratitude Changed My Life by John Kralik. Kralik's life took a turn for the better over the course of the year in many ways, not only when he felt gratitude for what others had done for him, but when he took the time to put that gratitude in writing as well as put a stamp on the envelope and mailed it.  His relationships with people not only transformed, he became a happier person, and his job as a lawyer became profitable once again.

We could all use some healing in this country and this world these days, couldn't we?  I would like the PO to keep running (I have a hard time with the private companies of UPS and FedEx, but that's another post) and keep those 600,000 employees off of food stamps.  I would like more people to get real mail in their boxes again. The US has a population of about 312,000,000.  If every one of these people (this is a stretch) would send one thank you note a week for a year (and everyone in Congress would send one a day...) - the $8 billion gap would nearly be eliminated.  But what would the other consequences of such an act be?