Postal Letter

Postal stamps are going up in May to .42 cents. Why do they keep raising mailing prices?

I get forever stamps. I had a feeling they were going to raise it again soon.

Public Comments

1. postage is cheap try to fedex a letter for 42 cents
2. I think it's because email is putting the snail mail out of business. I'm sure they have lost lots of money. I think it is regulated, they can only go up so much per year.
3. Because they are losing business to electronic communications. So, because it's a government system, they assume that raising prices will generate more business. Sort of like how the Democrats believe raising taxes and taking money out of people's hands helps the economy.
4. because the dems keep imposing more tax on gasoline etc and causing their operating expenses to go up.
5. I havent bought a stamp in years. I do most of my stuff online or i just "borrow" a stamp from someone (which is like once or twice a year)
6. It's a ratio...lack of service is proportional to price...the worse the service, the higher the price. BTW- get your forever stamps NOW- before the hike. I'll save a fortune cz, I rarely use snail mail anymore.
7. 1) Inflation. 2) Loss of business due to email. 3) But mostly inflation.
8. Forever stamps are a good way to go. Postal rates have gone up a bunch in the past 15 or so years for a number of reasons. One of the big factors is electronic transmissions. Before the internet became popular, people sent all of those emails, e-vites, and photo shares through the U.S. Postal Service. Something like the USPS requires a certain amount of fixed infrastructure (i.e. it costs about the same to hire a postman to bring 1 letter as it does for him to bring 10, there are still postal facilities, postal trucks, postal planes) that costs a fixed amount of money. The amount of income from stamps has dropped a lot while the costs have stayed relatively the same. Therefore, they have to make up for the drop by charging more per stamp.
9. Some of you Americans crack me up,you make it sound like 0.42 cents to send a letter is going to put you in the poor house. Try the cost of stamps in Europe, a stamp will cost ya 3 x as much. And don't even think about sending one over seas........................
10. It would be an HONEST statement to say that the increases in postage costs have kept a rather even pace with the cost of inflation, at least over the last half century. I just wish our salaries would do likewise. As long as cheap illegal labor keeps being imported, our pay will continue to lag WAY behind the rate of inflation. Maybe government should be more realistic. Buying Forever Stamps now would be a good idea. DON'T overbuy though, if you had stocked up on them when they were first issued, you could have done MUCH better by putting you money in other investments. On the SHORT term, it would be a good buy. Buying them just before May and buying only what you can use over a 3 month period will be okay. (I bet the Gov. will UP the price of the Forever Stamp PRIOR to the scheduled increase in postage. The price will probably go up at the same time the new stamps are issued.)
11. It wouldn't have anything to do with trucks would it?
12. I don't know why the postage stamps are going to be higher in May. Guess what? If you have Forever Stamps, then you are in luck. The post office is accepting those particular stamps as being worth 42 cents. Between now and May, try and get what stamps you require. Then you will save some money. Peace!!