You didn’t take into account the size of the US.
A 29 cent stamp delivers a letter to any of the 50 states, including Hawaii and Alaska. A 55 cent stamp (now more than 60 cents) in Switzerland delivers a letter within a country hardly larger than Virginia. At that rate, imagine what it would cost to send a letter from Miami to Nome, Alaska!
A link to the column is appreciated. It’s this one: Is it true U.S. postage rates are among the lowest in the developed world?
Sorry, I forgot. Thanks bibliophage!
Alas, no longer is this true. It now costs a dime more to post a letter in the US. The SD Classic was published 13 years ago.
Indeed.
Our $0.39 rate for first class mail pales with everyone save Spain.
[list=a]
[li]Canada $0.51 CDN $0.45 USD[/li][li]Germany 0.55 e $0.70 USD[/li][li]France 0.50 e $0.64 USD[/li][li]United Kingdom 32p $0.61 USD[/li][li]Japan 80 yen $0.69 USD[/li][li]Italy 0.60 e $0.77 USD[/li][li]Spain 0.29 e $0.38 USD[/li][/list]
So, as you can see, ours are almost the lowest, and considering that we’re not as small as Spain, pretty remarkably cheap.
http://www.post.japanpost.jp/english/fee/domestic/letter.html
For Australia the current exchange rate is approx AUD$1=US$0.77
The flat postal rate is 50 cents, so that’s almost exactly the same as the rate in the US.
Is the USPS solvent?
-FrL-
Yes, indeedie, they are solvent. They made 1.4 BILLION last year.
http://multichannelmerchant.com/news/USPS_profit_120705/index.html
There are quite a few groups who are pissed as hell that they’re making that much money, yet not lowering stamp prices.
(in spite of having such relatively low prices!)
Can’t those groups read? Cut all stamp prices one cent and those numbers change to $600 million in the red.
Well, not exactly, there are probably tax issues and such, but still.
If you mean that taxpayers help, they don’t, except by paying for USPS services directly. The USPS receives all revenue from stamp sales and the like (bulk mailings, package shipments, etc.), and no money from tax payments.
They’re also exempt from income taxes, which doesn’t hurt. (And they occasionally get loans from Congress, but no direct appropriations as you note.)
I thought that was Congressional payments for their postal usage, but I could be wrong.
No, I didn’t know they were exempt from income tax, and wanted to CMA. But since they are, my calculation is perfectly correct, and I’m happy. 
I have to comment that I have always been very impressed with the USPS and thought it was quite a bargain. Even at $.39. I can mail a letter today at noon and it will very likely be delivered within the state by tomorrow and out of state within two or three days. For THIRTY NINE CENTS.
A bargain at twice the price.
Quite, they’ll hear you.
I had heard that the post office is experiencing, or maybe just worried about, a decline in “snail mail” in favor of electronic communication, particularly with the bulk mail that makes up most of their business. Hence the need to pre-emptively raise prices. I could be wrong on that, given that somebody said last year was a record year.
A few years ago, the USPS toyed with a few ideas to jump onto the Email wagon. One idea was to give everyone USPS-specific email addresses, provide the option of printing emails and delivering them in the mailbox (or vice versa, scanning a letter and sending it electronically), and allow the email address to be used as a substitute for an actual mailing address (ie: Mailing a letter addressed to Cecil@USPS.COM with proper postage would cause said letter to turn up in his mailbox a few days later).
Privacy concerns (as well as questions of just how they’d do any of this) kinda shot a lot of that down.
Still, USPS is my favored method for sending/receiving things that won’t easily fit in an email, such as photography equipment and film. If it’s important that the item gets to where it’s going, I send it Priority Mail and maybe buy insurance or extra tracking on it, and that drives the cost up to a whopping $6 most anything I’ve sent.
I propose they put a sizable chunk of that extra cash in a piggy bank for a rainy fiscal day, and find a way to spend the rest on improving things somewhere (not sure exactly where they need improvement, but I’m sure they can think of SOMETHING.) Failing that, they can always donate some or all of it to some cause in need.