Postage Stamp Prices Could Rise Sharply

[gristy]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/8258575.htm

RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Postmaster General John Potter warned that a postal rate increase planned for 2006 could be 4 cents or more for first class letters unless restrictions on how the agency operates are eased.

Potter asked a joint House-Senate hearing on the future of the post office Tuesday to free $3 billion in postal funds from an escrow account and to remove a $27 billion obligation for the agency to cover military retirement benefits for its workers who previously served in the armed forces.

The agency is facing a future clouded by shrinking mail volume and rising costs. The Postal Service is asking Congress for help becoming more flexible in responding to market conditions and for funds to cover anti-terrorism efforts.

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[gWbush is Mabus]

1. 2006 - the year America stopped sending X-Mas cards

[trogdor]

2. Or shed the envelopes...

...so they could send them at the postcard rate.

Hey! That sounds like a business plan! Give them a sort of antique appearance. Colorized black and white photos and such.

[maxsolomon]

15. way ahead of you

who cares about the envelope, anyway?

have an eco-yule!

[Bandit]

9. I send most of my cards on line. They are much better and have motion

and sound. E-Cards are the new way.

[Liberal Christian]

3. Even if they raise rates as expected

The USPS is one of the best deals around. I don't understand why it is that we expect rising fuel prices, inflation, and other increases to affect every sector of society EXCEPT the Post Office.

I know I use far less postage than I used to. Stamps last me forever as I do online bill pay, email, more phone calling, less writing. Yet I still expect the Post Office to deliver my mail from door to door and to be fully staffed and efficient when I go there to mail something. That's a lot for 37 cents. It's even a lot for 41 cents if that's what they raise the rates to.

[gristy]

5. I agree that the Postal Service is a good deal.

Can you imagine if it were "privatized"? :scared:

[JoFerret]

16. Yep - a good deal

If split up like the phone system say then remote and rural areas would really suffer.

[ixion]

7. no increases at the Post Office?

hmmm.. I would debate that one. They've been raising the cost of postage using one thing or another as an excuse fairly regularly -- increases which have never increased the level of service. I think they would do fine, if they weren't managed like a bureaucracy. That is a notoriously wasteful way to run things. I don't think the USPS should be privatized, but I'd like to see things improve when they raise rates, which is something I've not yet seen. Who makes money at the post office? Why, the administrators do, of course. :eyes:

[BlueJazz]

4. Not to start an argument but the idea of getting someone...

....(or company) to pick up a piece of mail, process it and deliver it as far as 3000 miles away from where it was sent for under a
half a dollar seems like a mighty good deal to me.

In a way I wish that the post office would just raise the rates to 50 cents so that the price would stay the same for a few years.

[bobbieinok]

6. ANOTHER ATTACK ON RETIREMENT BENEFITS?????

AND THE MILITARY????

from the above

'...remove a $27 billion obligation for the agency to cover military retirement benefits for its workers who previously served in the armed forces.'

[pw]

13. Why should the USPS pay military retirement benefits?

Why shouldn't the Pentagon be responsible for paying those benefits, as it is for every other veteran in the country?

If the USPS is supposed to be self-funding and all, it doesn't really make sense to have it fund other parts of the government as well.

[reprobate]

8. One main reason rates go up.....

One main reason postal rates go up is the extremely low rates the corporations pay for their bulk mail.

If bulk mail was charged what it actually costs, wouldn't first class rates be more fair?

[amazona]

11. yes, I tend to agree but...

...I think the argument here is that bulk mailers would just send less mail and so the Post Office would end up taking in less money.

My feeling is that anything that saves trees/energy is good, and if higher prices discourage bulk mailing, that's wonderful.

However, in the 1970s, the Postal Service was privatized and it is now expected to make a profit (although it failed to the last couple years due to anthrax, rising fuel costs). If we remove the provision that it make a profit and bring it back under the public sector, I believe we could make much better policy -- higher prices could indeed be assessed with the hope of discouraging "junk" mail and saving our trees and shipping fuel.

In the last twenty years, I have had the pleasure of doing much business through the mails at two extraordinarily well-run Post Offices, so I am not criticizing their organization as it stands, just think it could be a bit more beneficial for society as a whole if it were not forced to turn a profit.

[happyslug]

12. But "junk mail" volume has gone UP

The bread and butter of the Post office has been "Junk Mail" since at least the 1960s (when Direct Dial long distance Phone service came into existence). Starting in the 1960s almost NO ONE SENT PERSONAL LETTERS, they called on the phone. Starting in the 1970s most insurance companies stop asking for you to write to them about an accident (or contact your local agent) instead they WANTED YOU TO CALL THEM (The companies could make sure they had ALL of the information they needed in one call, instead of exchanging letters for weeks on end). Other businesses followed, but these drops were outnumbered by the increase number of Credit Card (and other) bills (which also are mailed first class).

Thus since the 1960s most first class mail has been bills and payment of bills (Christmas Cards are a once a year mailing, Bills are monthly). The recent decline in First Class Mail is related to more and more people getting their bills on line and paying their bills on line. This has lead to a slow but steady decline in First Class Mail. This is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

Given WHAT first class mail has been since the 1960s, the Postal Service main source of funds has been Bulk and Third Class mail (i.e. "Junk Mail"). This makes MONEY for the Postal Service. Look at your own mail, except for bills what FIRST CLASS MAIL do you receive? At home almost none, businesses receive more First Class Mail, but even businesses most mail is "Junk".

Thus the Post Office is making money on Junk Mail, and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Remember the difference between First Class mail and Junk Mail, First Class gets priority AND IF THE ADDRESS IS BAD IS FORWARD ABLE OR RETURNABLE. Junk Mail is NOT forward-able or Returnable (If the address is Bad, Junk Mail gets trashed).

This is all complicated by the Law setting up the Postal Service in 1970. In that act, ALL CLASSES OF MAIL MUST PAY FOR THEMSELVES. Simply put, the Postal Service can NOT subsidize First Class Mail by the profits of Junk Mail (and vici-versa). This was put into the Act because of "fears" that the Postal Service would use its profits from First Class Mail to subsidize Postal Post (Which United Parcel Service opposed and had just in the 1960s started to deliver more packages than Postal Post did).

Thus since 1970 EVERY Class of mail has to make a "profit" AND pay its "Fair Share" of the Postal Service Overhead. Given this aspect of the Law, you can expect a steady increase in First Class mail price over the next ten years (and decreased volume of First Class Mail over that same ten year period).

I fear that someday soon, First Class Mail volume will drop so low that it will NO LONGER BE ABLE TO PAY ITS "FAIR SHARE" of the Postal Service overhead. At that time the Postal Service will have a severe problem, how does it continue First Class Mail Service? Some Neo-cons are looking for that day so they can Completely "Privatize" the Postal Service. No one is proposing such privatization at present, but demands for such privatization will occur whenever First Class Mail can no longer contribute to the overhead of the Postal Service.

[amazona]

10. I think I would support an increase

I don't think 41 cents for a first class letter is out of line. I don't support saving a few pennies here and there and then cheating people out of their retirement benefits when they are already too old to replace them! People who have military AND post office retirement clearly have been in the work force a long, long time, and have been planning for these pensions.

We have the best postal service in the world and I would like to have it stay the way.

[Endangered Specie]

14. Just put where you want your mail to go as the return address...

(and your adress as the place to be sent), and no postage.

:evilgrin: