How much would you pay for a stamp...

[suzanna1066@comcast.]

I would rather the powers that be just increase the price to 50 cents instead of raising every year by a penny or two.

 

[FireDancer]

Technically, email isn't free. You do pay a monthly bill for internet, right?

Not really. I would have the Internet at home regardless of whether or not I used it for email so while the Internet isn't free there is no opportunity cost to send an email.

 

[taylor1293]

My thoughts exactly!

I would pay a dollar a stamp no problem- I use a book a year to mail things other than christmas cards...everything else is done online- email, online banking etc...no need to use a lot of stamps.

 

[MariDisney]

I only use maybe 1 or 2 stamps a month. Some months I don't use any. I do still send invitations, thank you cards, Christmas cards, etc. So, sometimes I use a bunch. Anyway, I wish they'd just make it 50 cents and be done with it for awhile. I still think that's a fair price for the service.

I have a very clear memory of when stamps were 13 cents (and when there was a cent symbol on a keyboard!) and I'd walk to the postal counter at the neighborhood drugstore to buy stamps for my mom.

 

[diznygirl]

I say pick a price and stick with it. I never know what the current price for a stamp is anymore, or if the ones in my drawer will still work.

It's a bargain for sure.

 

[disneychrista]

Do we really have a choice/say in the matter? If the PO raises the rate we have to pay it or figure out how else to get things from point A to point B. The only thing I mail is my voting ballet and I only do this because I live in a no polling place zone (even though there is a polling place one block over from me).

 

[C.Ann]

The US still has the cheapest postal rates in the world. I am fine with the rate change if it gets approved. I am so thankful we have such a good postal system in comparison to other countries.

I agree.. I write a lot of letters to family and friends every week and for the most part, the post office does a great job of getting them to their destinations in a timely fashion..

An increase wouldn't bother me at all..

 

[scrapquitler]

Honestly, I don't mind paying more for my stamps. Back in 1988, when I spent a semester in Spain, I remember paying about $1.00 for stamps for my letters to the US, and letters within Spain were somewhere in the 60 cent range even then, more than 20 years ago.

 

[mrsltg]

The rate should be increased to eliminate all forms of government subsidy for postal service, including the exemptions from certain state and local taxes and licensing requirements for the USPS' competitive products operations. These subsidies are worth between $39 million and $117 million a year, according to Federal Trade Commission.

That's not simply a matter of dividing the value of the subsidies by the number of pieces of mail and adding that to the postage rate, because increasing the postage rate will necessarily decrease the number of pieces of mail. So the rate increase would need to be grossed-up to address that.

I agree with this, AND, everyone else needs to be able to get in on the game. No more monopoly. If FedEx and UPS want to deliver first class mail, so be it!

Of course $.44 does not sound like a lot. However, the USPS asks for rate hikes continuously. They are one of the few business models who, when loosing business, charges more to their current customers!?! Enough! $.46 may be a fair price to mail a letter. We'll never know, though, because no one is allowed to compete.

 

[bicker]

They are one of the few business models who, when loosing business, charges more to their current customers!?! Enough!

Well, let me play devil's advocate with you for a second.... Assuming that we make the USPS truly self-sufficient.... And they decide that residential postal service is not profitable enough (at whatever "Enough!" price dictate), and terminate that aspect of their service. Are you still feeling the same way as you do here?

I think this demonstrates the danger in trying to judge their business model in the way you have. Their business model is predicated on an assumption that they can't make service decisions based on what's best for their internal considerations. They have to go to Congress to get permission to change certain aspects of their service, to an extent that no other "business" (regulated or not) is required to.

I don't want to speak for UPS or FedEx, but I am pretty sure that if you suggested they get into the daily, routine residential mail delivery service, they'd laugh so hard they'd injure themselves. It's a money pit. The profit to be made is in delivering packages and overnight letters... stuff that costs at least a few dollars per piece.