With any luck, one of life’s minor annoyances is about to disappear – and both the public and the Postal Service will be richer for its absence.
The U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission has achieved a bureaucratic triumph by recommending a new type of stamp – dubbed the “forever stamp” – that will be good for first-class postage whenever it is used, even if the price of new first-class stamps goes up in the future.
This week the commission recommended a 2-cent increase in first-class rates, to 41 cents. As with past increases, the change will force customers to trek down to the post office to buy enough 2-cent stamps to augment however many 39-cent stamps they still have. Assuming the proposal wins final approval, however, postal customers will have the satisfaction of knowing this is the last last time they’ll be pestered by that trivial chore.
Instead of carrying a specific denomination, the new forever stamp will always sell for whatever the first-class rate is at any given time. Assuming the 41-cent rate goes into effect, forever stamps will initially sell for that price. If the rate goes to 43 cents in two years, that’s what you’ll pay for new stamps – but any old ones lying around your home or office will still be valid.
This change makes sense all around. It actually costs the Postal Service more to print and sell those 2-cent nuisance stamps than it collects in revenue from their sale. And there is no real risk that the Service would lose money if some customers choose to buy large stockpiles of stamps to avoid a future rate increase. Most businesses use meters, not stamps, for their mail. And a homeowner who uses 10 stamps a week would be foolish to buy a two-year supply, 1,000 stamps, for $410 and keep them for several years in hopes of maybe saving $20 if and when the rates next go up. Indeed, the Postal Service would probably welcome such hoarding, since it would amount to a long-term, interest-free loan.
The commission’s recommendations now go back to the Postal Service’s board of governors, which can accept or reject them. We urge the governors to approve the new rate plan, which contains one other bit of good news – a reduction in the price of mailing heavier letters.
Currently, first-class mail costs 39 cents for the first ounce and 24 cents for each additional ounce. While the first ounce would rise to 41 cents under the new rates, each additional ounce would cost just 17 cents. Thus, the price of sending a 2-ounce letter would drop from 63 cents to 58 cents.
The proposal also recommended a 2-cent boost, to 26 cents, in the cost of mailing a post card.
That may prompt a sigh from those of us old enough to remember when the term “penny post card” meant just that. But then, you can’t get a shave and a haircut for two bits anymore, either.
