# Is postage too high?? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 5, 2012, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737 "2012-09-05T12:35:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/21 "2012-09-05T18:29:03Z")
Mark me down for it’s “Crazy Cheap To Send a Letter in the US”. I just wish we could get to a nice round number for stamps (.50, .75) then just raise it a quarter every so often. These .42 and .47 rates are stupid ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/22 "2012-09-05T19:42:17Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > I’m in my 30s and most people I know my age and younger would balk at the cost and wastefulness of the card, not the postage. I’m 45, I think the price of cards is insane. I look for 99-cent cards because the idea of spending $3.99 on paper that’s going to be thrown away makes me cranky. That said, I have no problem with the price of stamps. Half-a-buck sends my cheap card \*hundreds \* sometimes _thousands_ of miles away. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/23 "2012-09-05T19:48:40Z")
The price of postage is too _low_. That’s why they are losing money hand over fist. \*Our \*money. If the USPS was required to actually break even, they would have to jack up rates so high that FedEx would put them out of business. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/24 "2012-09-05T20:00:43Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Mostly from older folks (mom and MIL, for example) who remember the good ol’ days. “It now costs 45 cents to send my son a $5 bill for his birthday! Outrageous!” ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/25 "2012-09-05T20:22:22Z")
[The Master speaks.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/729/is-it-true-u-s-postage-rates-are-among-the-lowest-in-the-developed-world) (possibly a bit dated) ---
**Author:** ![just\_some\_guy5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@just\_some\_guy5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/just_some_guy5)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/26 "2012-09-05T20:47:41Z")
> [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](#): > > Mark me down for it’s “Crazy Cheap To Send a Letter in the US”. I just wish we could get to a nice round number for stamps (.50, .75) then just raise it a quarter every so often. These .42 and .47 rates are stupid Those rates don’t seem stupid for business customers, which drive the vast majority (90%+) of priority mail. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/27 "2012-09-05T21:10:28Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Mostly from older folks (mom and MIL, for example) who remember the good ol’ days. Human minds don’t really handle inflation very well. It’s not that we’re incapable at doing the calculation, it’s that we use cognitive shortcuts and tend to think of money as a discrete real thing that doesn’t change in value (as opposed to an abstract mathematical/economic concept). So we tend to fixate on nominal prices. At average inflation rates in the US, prices double every 20 years or so. That’s slow enough that young people don’t have a really strong fixation on prices from their youth, and while they notice that prices increase, they’re probably making way more money than they did as kids, so it doesn’t matter as much. But by the time you’re 65, you can just about remember three doublings. At 70, stuff costs 10 times as much as it used to! Outrageous! So, that’s why old people complain about the prices of things. Our brains suck at math. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/28 "2012-09-05T23:56:29Z")
Jeeze! Compare it to the price of anything else! Gasoline! Candy bars. Comic books. A can of Coca-Cola. All of these have increased far, far, far more than the price of first class postage has. Some guys don’t know when they’ve got it good! ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/29 "2012-09-06T01:17:14Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > I’m 45, I think the price of cards is insane. I look for 99-cent cards because the idea of spending $3.99 on paper that’s going to be thrown away makes me cranky. Construction paper and crayons; enough to make dozens of cards? ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/30 "2012-09-06T01:47:21Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Seriously, postage is ridiculously cheap. I can send a letter to Hawaii in a couple days for less than half a dollar? That’s insane. I can send a thousand letters (emails) for free (or at least as a negligible part of my internet bill) to Hawaii each minute and it arrives at the speed of light. First class mail stamps are dinosaurs.. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/31 "2012-09-06T01:48:19Z")
We (Americans) do have a good deal on this. In comparison to what people in other countries have to pay, and I think also in comparison to what other small items cost, etc., it’s probably as cheap as it’s ever been. Like most other developed countries, there was a tremendous amount of inflation from about the early 1960s into the 1980s, and a lot of us do remember a letter costing only a dime or so. If, as **ftg** ’s link shows, the price was 5c in 1963, then I think today’s price of 45c is well under what we should have expected given inflation. For an unusual perspective, consider the fact the short-lived $3 gold coin of the 19th Century was intended partly for the purpose of buying 100 3c postage stamps at a time. Mailing 100 letters today costs far less than a similar amount of gold today, even without the recent run-up in gold prices. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/32 "2012-09-06T02:54:31Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > The price of postage is too _low_. Way too low. They should double the price of a First Class stamp. It’s definitely worth a buck or so to send a letter. > [@just\_some\_guy5](#): > > Those rates don’t seem stupid for business customers, which drive the vast majority (90%+) of priority mail. No one is paying those rates for Priority mail. That starts at $4-$5. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/33 "2012-09-06T03:07:03Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Human minds don’t really handle inflation very well. It’s not that we’re incapable at doing the calculation, it’s that we use cognitive shortcuts and tend to think of money as a discrete real thing that doesn’t change in value (as opposed to an abstract mathematical/economic concept). So we tend to fixate on nominal prices. At average inflation rates in the US, prices double every 20 years or so. That’s slow enough that young people don’t have a really strong fixation on prices from their youth, and while they notice that prices increase, they’re probably making way more money than they did as kids, so it doesn’t matter as much. But by the time you’re 65, you can just about remember three doublings. At 70, stuff costs 10 times as much as it used to! Outrageous! > > So, that’s why old people complain about the prices of things. Our brains suck at math. A while back, I came across a truly delightful (and true!) saying– “Nostalgia is the ability to remember yesterday’s prices while forgetting yesterday’s wages.” ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/34 "2012-09-06T08:32:48Z")
[Why postage is high.](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B5XM8TSkC9U/Tbzk_QEoFxI/AAAAAAAADTE/2Pnb8YWjqVs/s1600/200+%281280x1047%29.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/35 "2012-09-06T10:48:54Z")
45c in the US is very low indeed, especially when you consider the size of the country. Here in the UK there was outrage when the prices were [hiked](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17859782) earlier this year by 30% (for first-class mail) and almost 39% (for second-class). I don’t know why, seeing as the average family spends less than 50p a week on stamps. A second-class stamp, which should get a letter anywhere in the UK within three days, is now 50p (80c). A first-class stamp, which should get it there next day, is 60p (95c). I don’t know why people would complain about 45c in the US - I would have thought $1 or even $2 would be more like it. What can you buy for a dollar these days? I must admit, though, I did buy a couple of hundred pounds worth of stamps before the prices went up (they remain valid whatever the postage rate), as I use quite a lot of stamps selling items on Amazon and eBay. In fact, because of the way the pricing works out, it actually became cheaper to post a CD after the prices went up, as long as you’re using stamps bought at the old price: Old price: £1.09, which equals two 1st class stamps at 46p each, plus 17p extra. New price: £1.20, which equals two 1st class stamps bought at 46p, now worth 60p each, and no extra postage needed. Total cost to me, 92p. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/36 "2012-09-06T11:48:12Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > 45c in the US is very low indeed, especially when you consider the size of the country. Here in the UK there was outrage when the prices were [hiked](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17859782) earlier this year by 30% (for first-class mail) and almost 39% (for second-class). I don’t know why, seeing as the average family spends less than 50p a week on stamps. > > A second-class stamp, which should get a letter anywhere in the UK within three days, is now 50p (80c). A first-class stamp, which should get it there next day, is 60p (95c). I don’t know why people would complain about 45c in the US - I would have thought $1 or even $2 would be more like it. What can you buy for a dollar these days? I guess the terminology that our postal systems use is not quite identical. A First Class letter costs 45 cents for the first ounce (more if it is odd-shaped or has large dimensions) anywhere in the country. It is usually delivered in one to three days. Within a major metropolitan area, one day is normal, outside the immediate area 2 to 3 days is normal. But there is no guarantee. If you want guaranteed next day delivery, you have to pay for Express Mail. That costs $12.95 to $28.00 for the first 8 ounces (depending on distance) or $18.95 if you use a special flat-rate envelope provide by the Post Office. This is guaranteed in that you can apply for a refund of postage if it is not delivered on time. (The guarantee is two days for some remote and hard-to-deliver areas.) We don’t have the option of something like second-class mail for a discount. All other classes of mail can only be used for bulk machine-prepared mailings, printed materials (books, bound pamphlets), or merchandise. We used to have a class for newspapers and magazine mailings called Second Class, but that has been replaced by [Periodicals Mail](http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/707.htm) and restricted to bulk mailings. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/37 "2012-09-06T12:02:25Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > It may be that “postage costs too much” is a sort of code phrase for “it’s too much trouble overall and no one really seemed to care anyway.” I think it’s code phrase for “Get off my lawn!” ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/38 "2012-09-06T12:45:33Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > A while back, I came across a truly delightful (and true!) saying– > “Nostalgia is the ability to remember yesterday’s prices while forgetting yesterday’s wages.” I want to embroider this on a pillow or print it on a t-shirt! ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/39 "2012-09-06T15:54:14Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > The price of postage is too _low_. That’s why they are losing money hand over fist. \*Our \*money. If the USPS was required to actually break even, they would have to jack up rates so high that FedEx would put them out of business. The USPS is making an operating profit. The reason they are losing money is that they are being required by Congress to fund retirement benefits very far in advance, more so than what any commercial company does. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737/40 "2012-09-11T14:54:42Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Did you miss the part where I said I’m lazy? 😉 > > OK, fine, maybe I’ll look into it… Right - here’s your chance - round three thread in mpsims. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-postage-too-high/633737.md?page=1)