Postal Service ends year $1.7B in the red (Stamp price to be raised to $0.37....GRRRRRRR...)

USA Today ^ | 12/4/2001 | N/A

[RooRoobird14]

WASHINGTON (AP)

[finnman69]

This is another reason why I pay most of bill online.

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

At one point in American history, the concept of one price for all made sense to promote national unity. Today, with Internet, TV, telephones, and other communication systems, the mail system in no longer the communications glue that holds the country together. City dwellers should not have to subsidize the expensive mail delivery to those who chose to live in the mountains of Montana.

Furthermore, local mail delivery within the same zip code or metropolitan area should be at a lower cost than mail that requires additional transportation and handling to be sent to other regions or states.

[1Old Pro]

The Federal employees union will destroy the postal service.

[Orangedog]

They used to make the contention that the bulk rate mail, mailed at low rates, carried the bulk of the overhead. Now, with the processing-security issues and costs directly related to piece count, this is no longer the case. Bulk mail should get a higher percentage of the handling costs.

Is bulk rate going up any? All I ever hear about is first class postage. I hope we are not the ones who think the bulk rate needs to go up as well.

[TexasRedeye]

...blamed the loss on ... increased competition.

A price increase coupled with a competition increase and no real cost decrease usually results in the death of a business.

As long a the Feds are involved (and the resultant number of employees who pay Federal Union dues), this dinosaur will continue to live.

The 37 cents will rapidly come to represent the number of days a letter takes to get to its destination.

[Gorzaloon]

And what about all those MANAGER BONUSES after the rates went up last time? FedEx Express Saver is half the cost of Priority Mail, with a company discount. I switched from Priority Mail for my products that last time the rates went up and never looked back.. Except when I have to clean all the JUNK out of my PO Box. So we have to pay higher rates so we can subsidize these dead-tree spammers who bury us with stuff we never wanted or read.

DIE, Post Office. Just DIE.

[WIladyconservative]

Raise it to a dollar a letter, but guarantee overnight delvery anywhere in the US. FedEx carries all their priority mail, anyway!

[Orangedog]

The Federal employees union will destroy the postal service.

You mean it hasn't done it already? If anyone thought that the airport screeners couldn't get worse, just wait until the union is through with it. I'll avoid flying like like desk workers at the DMV avoid work!

[rwt60]

What I want to see is for the Postal Service to raise postage rates to $1.00. That way, we can simply paste dollar bills on the envelopes and that avoids having to print stamps.

[Orangedog]

Went into a post office today and it was a perfect of example of government work. Four people, three talking behind the counter and one helping a customer with a line of 6 customers waiting. After about 5 minutes someone behind me said something, one of the three talkers replied Sir we're at lunch now someone should be up shortly. Took 15 minutes just to weigh a letter to make sure I had enough postage

LOL! Did anyone else see the post office skit on saturday night live (or was it Mad TV?) that was almost exactly what you witnessed? Funny and sad all at the same time.

[eisch]

Privatize. Amen!

[Protagoras]

Everyday there are fewer and fewer reasons to use snail mail. The whole thing will just be a memory in a decade or so. The need for it will be a memory to most people a lot sooner than that.

[Badfoil]

"But somehow they have enough money to buy those friggin Segway scooters..."

GOOD POINT!

How about they cut back Saturday delivery instead?

[Armando Guerra]

A price increase coupled with a competition increase and no real cost decrease usually results in the death of a business.

Exactly my thoughts. Only to idiots who have spent too much time working for the government do you respond to increased competition by raising your prices. That makes as much sense as saying the economic growth of the 90's was because of the largest tax increase in the history of the world. (By the way, I am still waiting for my promised Clinton middle class tax cut. You think its time I give up on that one?)

[RLK]

I have no complaints about the price of mail. I use it only for selected purposes. The post office is going broke because most mail today is done by computer email. That's what I use to conduct business and personal affairs. I get communications from the UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, India, SA, Japan, in minutes and the post office is left out of it. It's busting the post office.

[wai-ming]

Anyone know when this price increase is scheduled to take effect?

[cinFLA]

Recent priority envelopes took 9 and 13 days to travel from FL to CA. When I asked the postmaster why it priority mail took longer than first class, he stated that priority mail required extra processing time!

[discostu]

The rate were never the same to promote national unity, they're the same to make it easy to mail stuff. If we make some sort of bogus sliding scale for postage rates that depend on the distance traveled and population density of the area it will be nearly impossible to send mail without actually going to the post office. On the other side if you think it's cheaper to deliver mail in NY vs Montana you should look at the size of the vehicles. There's only so much mail they can stick in one of those. You're average NYC appartment complex has enough addresses that it's the ONLY place that carrier serves, some of the big ones require 2 or 3 carriers to handle the mail. Think about sending 6 guys to one block (or 6 trips in the truck, different buildings are handled different ways), that is not cheap. Not compared to some of those BFE Montana places where 6 guys can handle the entire town.

[NC Conservative]

Privatize.

According to "Puff" Dasshole you can't professionalize until you federalize.

[RLK]

My retirement checks are put into my bank account by somebody else's computer talking to the bank computer. Ten years ago it would have arrived by mail. If I apply for a job, my resume, eith email address, goes out by FAX. and is delivered in ten minutes. From then on, their computer talks to my computer. Snail mail is used only for very specialized tasks.