First-class stamps to cost 49 cents as of Jan. 26

WHTM.COM ^ | 24 DECEMBER 2013 | AP

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mailing a letter is about to get a little more expensive.

Regulators on Tuesday approved a temporary price hike of 3 cents for a first-class stamp, bringing the charge to 49 cents a letter in an effort to help the Postal Service recover from severe mail decreases brought on by the 2008 economic downturn.

Many consumers won't feel the price increase immediately. Forever stamps, good for first-class postage whatever the future rate, can be purchased at the lower price until the new rate is effective Jan. 26.

The higher rate will last no more than two years, allowing the Postal Service to recoup $2.8 billion in losses. By a 2-1 vote, the independent Postal Regulatory Commission rejected a request to make the price hike permanent, though inflation over the next 24 months may make it so.

The surcharge "will last just long enough to recover the loss," Commission Chairman Ruth Y. Goldway said.

[kaehurowing]

Inflation, what inflation Comrade? All price increases are merely temporary! Here in Soviet Union we have no inflation thanks to effective government.

[Olog-hai]

“According to need” or according to the whims of their pension plan demands?

[Olog-hai]

I don’t see anything in the Constitution prohibiting entities other than the federal government from delivering mail, not even in the Postal Clause of Article 1 section 8. Of course, the SCOTUS legislated from the bench in the case of decisions like Ex parte Jackson (which determined that Congress had the power to decide what can or cannot be sent through the mail, among other sweeping powers), but that does not speak to the actual constitutionality thereof.

[DH]

help the Postal Service recover from severe mail decreases

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Typical government “business model” operation.

Raise your price...get less business...create your own competition...piss off customers...etc...while offering your customers even more crappy service.

AND THEN RAISE YOUR PRICES AGAIN and hope business improves.

And these idiots think that Obamacare is any different?

[DH]

You are forgetting something very important: The postal system is really part of the government even though they play like they are independent.

Free market forces are forbidden.

[DH]

After all it takes great skills to be able to read a number and match it with a PO Box and/or house number...

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They can’t even do that properly. How many of you have had your mail stuck into someone else’s mail box or worse yet, had yours stuck into “who knows” mail box?

[cripplecreek]

There’s no reason to believe that the unions operating within the parcel delivery services will behave any different. Those unions already side with the postal service unions.

Besides, neither UPS nor FedEx have any interest whatsoever in delivering first class mail door to door.

[Olog-hai]

I’d say that Ex parte Jackson discourages interest, but if that were rescinded, who knows what Federal Express or United Parcel Service would get interested in; after all, the USPS had to play catch-up with the overnight document delivery business. There is also the situation with Royal Mail, which bears watching and comparison.

[Inspectorette]

Justice like charging $19.99 instead of $20.00. Supposedly to make you think you’re getting a bargain.

[cripplecreek]

We had a UPS company rep at a local town hall meeting with our congressman about the postal service. He said that UPS would never want door to door delivery because the costs would be too high. At best he said they would make very limited rural route deliveries and continue deliveries to local post offices.

He said the cost of them delivering a letter would be a matter of dollars rather than cents unless there were some kind of subsidies paid somewhere.

I personally would give UPS and FedEx all the long distance stuff and ditch the big USPS distribution and sorting centers where the real costs are. Let the locals figure out how to proceed from there.

[Olog-hai]

When you have the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee claiming that door-to-door delivery costs $353 per delivery point (and curbside delivery $224 per same unit), one has to question just what they are counting in their assessment, especially since the majority of “door to door” is actually mailbox to door or post office to door. UPS and FedEx still deliver parcels to people’s front doors after all, and it can’t be anywhere near those costs.

[Neidermeyer]

Can I buy $100,000 of “forever” stamps the day before and sell them back the next week?

[ladyjane]

I’m not sure money is what is needed to put the postal service in better shape. A change in attitude for some of the employees is needed. There are some very angry, very unmotivated folks in the postal service.

[cripplecreek]

Its not a problem around here. Our postmistress goes well above and beyond. She called me last weekend to tell me to not bother coming down because the mail hadn’t been delivered yet.

If I’ve already made my daily trip to the post office and UPS or FedEx delivers a package, she calls me and tells me. I’ve seen her copy dosage info and print it large for one of my elderly neighbors who couldn’t read it.

Around here its where all the neighbors catch up on all the local news and gossip. In fact that’s one of the things Franklin intended. He even mentioned it in his testimony to the house of commons when he was explaining the growing unrest against the crown.

[ladyjane]

You are very fortunate to have a good post mistress. I had a good mail delivery person a while back. Actually he was a great delivery person. He was replaced by a Muslim from Bosnia.

I have seen post office clerks locking doors early and laughing at people trying to get in to mail letters. Once I saw a clerk come very close to assaulting a customer. I really thought he was going to punch a young girl who started crying when he wouldn't sell her stamps. (I bought some stamps and gave them to her outside the building.)

[cripplecreek]

We’ve got a young guy we’re training for when Janet retires. He fills in on Saturday. He seems to be a pretty good guy. He’s an Afghan war vet and was showing us a bunch of photos from Afghanistan.

I’d just as soon do away with the postal service nationwide but keep the local post offices as local entities. FedEx and UPS can handle all deliveries between them.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

I’d just as soon do away with the postal service nationwide but keep the local post offices as local entities. FedEx and UPS can handle all deliveries between them.

I'd rather let email and fax machines handle the necessary document transfer. Let Fedex have the remaining mail duties (original or signed documents) cut the union thugs out of it completely.

To hell with the US Junk Mail Service.

[cripplecreek]

Actually you’re choosing 1 union over another.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Which union would that be?

[cripplecreek]

UPS is all unionized and there are many unions working for various FedEx departments like the long haul parcel transportation.