Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Last week, I received a letter from the US Postal Service. They asked me to participate in a study. They have contracted IBM to survey households in regards to their mail service. Considering that I get my mail at 6pm every day, I was not the best choice. Each day, I am to log in to an account that they have set up for me and let them know how many pieces of mail I get. Then I need to tell them how many pieces have "smart codes". Those are the uneven bar codes on the bottom of the envelope. The other type of bar codes are even on the bottom. I wonder...are those ones called dumb codes? I will be sent a scanner to log in these pieces. Then, if I do the job right, they will send me a gift card. I am not sure why IBM had to be called in for this. Maybe to waste millions of taxpayer dollars. We seem to be running out of ways to squander Americas' bank account. So now, I get to add the title of Mail Reporter to my resume. Too bad the title doesn't come along with a promotion and a raise.