Many factors influence a county ’s offense pace or medium health . Some , likelead exposureand the quality of local governing , are n’t surprising , but a new newspaper raises one you in all probability did n’t require : how many post offices it had more than a 100 ago .
At the time of the US revolution , there were just 75 post offices in the 13 Colony , but as early as 1792 the raw nation identify expand the postal connection as an important gene in bear a far - flung res publica together . In 1841 , almost 80 per centum of civilian federal employees were postmaster .
Dr Jeffrey JensenandDr Adam Rameyof New York University were interested to see how these choices shaped the growing country long after some of the offices had been shut down . They essay correlations between the number of Emily Price Post offices a county had , per resident physician , in 1890 against a panoptic mountain range of modern measures .
Besides population number , Jensen and Ramey controlled for other nineteenth - century factors that might have a lasting bequest such as the racial intermixture , manufacturing output , duration of railways , and even turnout in presidential election of the era .
Even after allowing for these possible confounders , Jensen and Ramey describe inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesbeing well supply with Emily Post offices 130 years ago strongly correlate with bear few crimes , particularly rapes and execution , per caput today . citizenry in these old post - office towns are also less likely to die young and were more likely to have voted in the 2012 presidential election ( 2016 voting was n’t test ) .
The inter-group communication between these measures may seem so unsung it is easy to brush aside this all as a unauthentic correlation , like those betweenpool drownings and Nicholas Cage films . Correlation , after all , does notequal causing .
However , the author have an explanation for why the influence of post office could be so lasting . Local newspapers incline to be established close to stake government agency . In the days when post and telegrams were collected at the Emily Price Post office , it was hard to run a composition without being nearby . The presence of local newspaper set local authorities putrefaction and helped strengthen what sociologists call “ societal capital ” , measured by thing like the bit of civic , social , and non - profit organizations in an area .
Social majuscule has long beenused to explainwhy some surface area are healthier and have less crime than others , but that raise the interrogation of how the societal majuscule was grow in the first place . Jensen and Ramey propose government investments such as post role provide a important part of the answer .
With the postal service shin to compete commercially as technology changes , America is debating whether the governmentshould bail itout or allow it go under . The implications for 2150 do n’t seem to be consider .
