Mailing a letter to cost a penny more next year

[OhioChick]

Source: AP

Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 2:52 PM

WASHINGTON -- It'll cost a penny more to mail a letter next year.

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday that it will increase postage rates on Jan. 22, including a 1-cent increase in the cost of first-class mail, to 45 cents.

Under the law the post office cannot raise prices more than the rate of inflation, which is 2.1 percent, unless it gets special permission from the independent Postal Regulatory Commission. The PRC last year turned down such a request.

The post office lost $8 billion in fiscal 2010 and the bottom line is likely to be even worse when final figures for fiscal 2011 are released next month.

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2011/10/mailing_a_letter_to_cost_a_pen.html

[FSogol]

1. Why does a Government Service have to operate like a business?

The whole "cash-strapped USPS" idea is a fraud.

[ejpoeta]

4. are they really operating like a business? does a business have to come up with all that money

up front for pensions? I don't understand why it isn't part of the government. It is in the damned constitution! These nutjobs LOOOVVVEE their constitution, yet they vilify one of the things which SHOULD be performed by the government.... the post office.

[FSogol]

5. Exactly and what business has a Federal restriction on their prices?

Stupid F'ing Republicans.

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. What part of the Constitution requires the Post Office to be part of the government?

[d_r]

10. Sarcasm?

I can't tell honestly.

[plumbob]

13. Article I, Section 8, Powers of Congress

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

[Freddie Stubbs]

18. It states that Congress shall have the power to establish Post Offices

It does not state the Congress must establish Post Offices.

[plumbob]

21. Check the grammar from the 18th century. Shall is must.

In the sense you mean, it would have been written the Congress may establish Post Offices.

And yes, I do have an English degree with a double in Economics, concentration in 18th century literature and grammar. Both inform the other, since modern economics began in the 18th century as well.

[Freddie Stubbs]

25. So, a modern translation would be that

Congress must have the power to establish Post Office.

[expatriate2mex]

27. LOL.nt

[plumbob]

32. No, a modern translation would be "sell it and shut it down so UPS

can make big bucks

[Angleae]

36. The constitution doesn't say "shall establish post offices"

Section. 8. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
(etc)

Shall have the power and shall use the power are two differenct things.

[newspeak]

34. they do if congress orders it

I figured some of those privatizing loving congress critters were attempting to destroy the USPS so their friends could take over. I'd gladly pay the increase than have one of their favored corporations take over.

[Celebration]

14. ha!

A business does not have to get permission to raise prices.

[boppers]

22. Cable franchises, Utilities.... In other words, monopoly business operations.

They are granted that monopoly on the grounds that their pricing and services are then subject to regulation.

[JackRiddler]

16. Of course it's a fraud. The USPS accumulated a $50 billion surplus that the Congress now pretends...

does not exist. Sort of like they're eventually going to do with the $2.6 trillion surplus accumulated in the Social Security fund.

[Serve The Servants]

2. Forever stamps FTW! n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Yep, time to stock up.

I just now ran out of the 42 cent forever stamps.

[slackmaster]

8. I bought 500 of them at $.037

:smoke:

[lester94111]

19. I post a total a ONE letter in a year

500 stamps will last me about 500 years! lol

[slackmaster]

28. I send out actual Christmas cards about every other year, as many as 40 of them

But it's still a multi-year supply.

[louis-t]

7. Still a bargain. Can you imagine what a privatized post office

would charge? My guess would be $.75-$.80 to start.

[JackRiddler]

15. Private operators will fix it so that nothing costs less than five bucks.

They'll find ways to justify that, eventually. Fancy envelopes, ring your doorbell and pick it up personally, service with a smile, track your letter online, send you a text message soon as it arrives, back up your letter electronically, blah blah, it will all be sold as value added and deflated in the calculation of the inflation rate (hedonic deflator). There will be "discounts" for shorter distances or city to city and premiums for mail to Podunk, Alaska. Such "features" will be forced on everyone as the excuse for a massive rise in the price of sending an ounce's worth of paper to your grandmama.

[uppityperson]

20. Seriously, it is a quite good deal.

[saorsa]

23. + 100!

[BanzaiBonnie]

9. It has more to do with the government mandate

that was passed in the lame duck session in the 11th hour of 2006 that requires the USPS to fully fund postal service workers benefits for the next 75 years ~ they are required to collect 75 years of funds within 10 years time.

[anokaflash]

11. Postal Clause

The Postal Clause in the Constitution:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Clause

And Good ole Ben Stein thinks postage should be $1.00:
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/16/sunday/main20121044.shtml

Isn't he suppose to be a Republican?!?

[sarcasmo]

12. Buy the forever stamps.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

35. Absolutely right!

Buy them now, before the price goes up again, buy them in as large a quantity as you can.

They will always be good, no matter what happens to the postal rates.

[RebelOne]

37. Most stamps sold nowadays are forever stamps.

I still have almost a full book of them that I bought last year. The price hike does not bother me because I only mail about 3 letters per year. All my bills are paid online. And any greeting cards are also sent online.

[MrNJ]

38. +1

No wonder USPS is struggling. Their business is the proverbial "buggy whips"

[juajen]

17. Save our Post Office. The post office has always been a well run

part of every day American life. I don't want to see this country lose everything. One penny a stamp is not unreasonable, IMHO.

[saorsa]

24. thanks to all who recognize what's at stake here, to my mind

the post office has been in the crosshairs of the right wing for decades now. Just another crucial part of the infrastructure a real democracy needs; I can't believe people are just standing around waiting for the vultures to pick it to death and sell it off. Man, for 30 years all the Right has had to do in this country is target what they want and it gets handed to them without a whimper. Now we see the trickle up of pain and suffering spreading as the middle class is squeezed out of existence after too many years of letting the poor do human shield duty against the Right.

[tawadi]

26. Here's a thought

Double the rate for businesses to send their unwanted junk mail. That, alone, should give the postal service the ability to cut staff and save a forest or two in the meantime.

[Freddie Stubbs]

29. Would business continue to send junk the same amount of junk mail?

Or would they send a whole lot less?

[tawadi]

30. A win-win either way. eom

[Freddie Stubbs]

31. It's not a win-win if it causes the USPS's revenues to decline

[mikeytherat]

33. Our local headline seems a bit more reactionary

Postal service to raise stamp prices

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - Stamp prices are about to rise again. The announcement comes at a time when people are already pinching pennies.

http://www.nbc12.com/story/15730292/stamp-prices-are-going-up

Then they mention the rate going from $.44 to $.45. Gotta love our local "news."

mikey_the_rat