Oldfashioned Security
Posted on June 17, 2012 5:19 pm under General
Tags: mailbox, security | 1 Comment
Some people are unhappy with the government’s decision to discontinue mail delivery of federal benefit checks. By March 2013, federal benefits will be paid directly to a bank account or debit card.
Significant portions of U.S. recipients do not have bank accounts – nearly 10% for those in the southern states. Difficulty accessing ATMs and associated fees for debit card usage are also cited by opponents of this change. Others see it as a security threat, claiming that it gives the government the ability to track their expenditures.
Check theft and identity theft related to mailbox delivery is the government’s strongest argument, with US Postal Inspections reporting nearly five thousand mailbox theft convictions in a one-year period. This is probably a small percentage of the actual loss, since perpetrators may not be found or convicted.
Secure mailboxes weren’t much of an issue, when I was young. I don’t remember anyone claiming that mail had been removed from their box. When we moved from the countryside to a small town, our mail had to be picked up at the local post office. Security exceeded even that provided by a locking mailbox, since we had to go to the counter and request it from the postmistress. Identity theft was never an issue either. She knew all of the town’s residents by sight, children as well as adults. She knew that we picked up mail for our elderly neighbors along with our own. When their check arrived, she handed it over with a stern warning not to dawdle along the way.
I don’t have a problem with electronic delivery of my Social Security check. Delivery is quicker and more reliable than the U.S. Postal Service, even with a secure mailbox. Do I worry about the government tracking my expenditures? Of course not. After housing, utilities and food, there isn’t anything left to track!
One Response to “Oldfashioned Security”
June 21st, 2012 at 11:15 pm
I feel sorry for those who have to pay a bank service charge so that their SS checks can be delivered. That law has been passed by careful lobbying from the banks. The banks pretty well run this country now. It doesn’t matter who is in office, the banks get their laws while the rest of us watch a congress-in-limbo.
Some banks do not charge service charges if there is a monthly electronic deposit of a certain amount. Mrs. Jim’s SS is so low that hers doesn’t qualify. Thank goodness mine does.
She loses sixty-six percent of what she has earned, I lose 25%. That is because we retired as school employees who didn’t pay in. But we both paid in before we went to the schools so we have earned some SS. But then we are penalized for not paying in by not getting all of what we have earned.
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