I frequently hear complaints about how expensive postage is. I had to look it up - as I write this, it costs 45¢ to mail a first-class letter in the US. For that paltry sum, I can send a card or letter hundreds or thousands of miles, confident that it will arrive within a few days. I’d spend more than than driving to the post office to buy a book of stamps…
Yes, I know, once upon a time, you could send a letter for a penny or two - what was the average income in those days?
It’s interesting that some people apparently have no issue with spending $3 for a hunk of card stock with a silly or sappy message pre-printed on it, but the thought of slapping on that 45¢ stamp just pushes them over the edge. And that’s the excuse some offer as to why they don’t write letters any longer - the cost. Ummmmm, OK. If you say so.
I used to write letters all the time - long, newsy letters, occasionally funny letters, and in those days, I bought stamps in rolls of 100 and used them up pretty fast. I no longer do that, but it has nothing to do with the cost. Frankly, it’s partly because I’m too lazy, partly because email is faster and easier, and partly because I got tired of writing and not hearing back more often than not. Is the cost of a stamp really that huge a deal? Is it ridiculously high elsewhere on the planet? What do you think is a reasonable price to carry a letter or greeting card from your door to another in a few days?
Mostly from older folks (mom and MIL, for example) who remember the good ol’ days. I’ve had friends tell me they no longer send out Christmas cards because of postage costs. Random comments like that.
OK, I can see that. The thing is, though, Christmas cards cost way more than double the cost of postage. And sending a dozen cards, with postage, is still probably the cheapest thing you’ll spend money on during the holiday season.
I used to go to the corner store with 45 cents and a returnable coke bottle. I’d come home with a pack of cigarettes, two candy bars, some bologna, and a baseball.
Then they installed those damn surveillance cameras.
This page has a chart showing the US postage rate corrected for inflation. Remarkably consistent for 40 years and not all that wavy going back over 100 years given the discrete nature of the prices back then.
Note: buying “forever” stamps to stash away as a hedge against inflation has been a lose unless you buy them fairly close to a postage increase.
Small package prices are the ones that are much higher than one would expect, historically, right now.
The USPS is going thru the rigmarole for a 2 cent raise, which shouldn’t be enough to get anybody’s panties in a twist.
For a sizable chunk of my childhood a first class letter was ten cents. I think I was in 6th grade when it went up to twelve. They’ve been increasing it by tiny increments with some regularity ever since. I don’t mind the cost at all. For what you get I think it’s a bargain. It’s the changes that bug me. I’ve been saying since it was about thirty two cents that I wish they’d just make it a dollar already and leave it that way for a while.
The “forever” stamps help.
Still, I love to write letters and send them to California, Oregon, Colorado, and New York all for the same price. I value that service more than I do a candy bar and yet it costs significantly less.
If bulk rates went way up maybe it wouldn’t be cost effective for Capital One to send me 18 offers a week. Wouldn’t that be nice?
That may very well be true. I don’t balk at the effort of buying the cards. I don’t balk at the cost. I don’t balk at the cost of the postage. But addressing them all can be a huge waste of a night.
I’ve had more trouble with mail taking longer or simply not reaching destination, and total lack of response when contacting USPS about service problems. I’m also aware that the Postal Service is cutting employees and post offices, and wanting to cut down delivery.
Our mail services have been almost eerily consistent here in MN for as long as I’ve been buying my own stamps. (We’ll just round it down to 40 years if you don’t mind ;).) Maybe your local branch needs a shake-up. I don’t think the USPS as a whole has had any decline in quality.
BTW, the cost-cutting measures you mention are not something the post office wants to do. They are being forced to consider these measures by some pretty complicated financial issues that could be easily addressed if we had a functioning Congress. There are several recent threads regarding the US Postal Service’s financial woes here on the SDMB that you might want to take a look at.
