USA Postal Rates increasing

[sox83cubs84]

Many of you are aware of this, but, if not:

As of 1/26/14, the first class letter price will increase to 49 cents. This is something to keep in mind for those of us who send out autograph requests to ballplayers. Of course, if you buy Forever stamps before then, you'll pay 46c each and be able to use the sme stamps for the 49c rate. For those of you who are old school like me and love using older, numerical rate stamps, it might be wise to start adding another 3 cents on your SASEs ASAP, to make sure they requests come back if the players are slow to respond.

Happy New Year!

Dave Miedema

[Roady]

Got to keep paying their employees for life.
Never have figured out why the people who work for us in Government have better benefits than we do.

[both-teams-played-hard]

Got to keep paying their employees for life.
Never have figured out why the people who work for us in Government have better benefits than we do.

I agree! If we pay benefits for the retired and injured Military and their families, we will never survive.

[Roady]

I agree! If we pay benefits for the retired and injured Military and their families, we will never survive.

That is not what or who I meant. Obtuse much?
I want to pay our military. I don't want to pay some fat postal clerk for the rest of his life.

[earlywynnfan]

That is not what or who I meant. Obtuse much?
I want to pay our military. I don't want to pay some fat postal clerk for the rest of his life.

Just curious, what do you do?
Besides paint everyone with the same brush, that is.
Can you draw me the line?
Military personnel: yes
PO workers: no
Teachers? Firemen? Police Officers? Congressmen? Whose benefits would Roady like to pay for?

Don't most private employees have some sort of benefit system in place through their employer? Well, check me if I'm wrong, but for public employees, WE are their employer, so yes, we are on hook for their benefits.

[Roady]

Most Government employees or their fellow employees vote themselves the benefits they receive without much public, you know their employers, input.

You can always tell someone who works, or has a family member, for the Government. They don't believe you have the right to question their pay or benefits. Elitism at it's finest.

[rufusandherschel]

As the quality of the USPS postal service diminishes, the cost of the service increases.

Great service model !

[both-teams-played-hard]

As the quality of the USPS postal service diminishes, the cost of the service increases.

Great service model !

Exactly! Trust private companies like Fedex and UPS to deliver your packages on time. Just not during Christmas...

[xpress34]

My personal opinion on this matter - at least for me - is that the USPS does a hell of a lot better job than UPS and FedEx. Every time someone has sent me something FedEx or UPS, it has been a night mare. And I am not exaggerating - I don't mean many time or some times, I mean EVERY time.

I ask them to require a signature - they leave it unsecure on my porch. I ask them to just leave it, they make me drive out and sign for it at their hub here in Denver.

That said, I believe the government forcing the USPS to pay FULL Employee Benefits 75 years ahead (as stated earlier - unheard of for ANY other business) was a means to try and hobble the USPS enough that they could privatize mail delivery and give it over to UPS and FedEx and close down the USPS.

Even though they are not funded by Tax Dollars (and the reports listed previously not withstanding), I'm sure some Politicos will eventually start using the USPS in the deficit reduction plans (like Social Security - which also is NOT 'tax funded' per say, but is PAID for directly by every working American)...

Sorry for the rant, but I'll support USPS over UPS and Fed Ex in my local market every day.

- Smitty

[MSpecht]

Interesting and well-researched, but after Dave's first post pretty it got decidedly off-(sports) topic. Should probably go through individual posts and do some editing, but just going to lock it up before someone really crosses a line.

Mike