Stamp prices rise from 39 cents to 78 cents while USPS loses billions

If you want to send me a letter via e -mail with your opinion about this column, this would cost you 78 cents.

Let that sink.

That is the current price of a stamp in America forever – yes, the same that cost 39 cents in 2006. That is an increase of 100% in less than two decades.

In just the last five years, the stamp prices have risen from 55 cents to 66, then 68, then 73, 76 and now 78 cents. That is an inflation percentage of 8% per year on stamps since 2020.

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The US Postal Service (USPS) increases prices so often, it starts to feel that you are trying to send your letter via Space X to Mars, not to your grandmother in des Moines.

And yet they somehow lose money, the only thing that the government is great.

Let’s unpack this. According to USPS finance overviews, the agency posted a net loss of $ 6.5 billion in 2023. Yes, billion – With a “B.” This is after price increases on stamps, shipping and parcel delivery services.

Although USPS has heard money, it also outsources millions to failed pilot programs such as Sunday deliveries that nobody asked for. (Fox 29 Philadelphia)

And the kicker? Mail volume continues to fall. First class e-mail has fallen more than 50% since 2001. It is not difficult to see why. If everything, from paying bills to saying “Happy Birthday”, can be done with the tap of a telephone screen, why would someone almost lick a stamp?

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Here is the brutal truth: the American post service is a 247-year-old relic, which clings to a 20th-century business model in a digital economy of the 21st century. It is as a blockbuster trying to survive in the Netflix era.

And who pays the price? You do it. I do. Every American taxpayer does. And every company owner who tries to send a product or communicate with customers. Have you recently seen the costs of an overnight stay or FedEx package?

And they are not just stamps. USPS lost $ 94 billion between 2007 and 2020. The agency has more than $ 188 billion in obligations and non -full obligations. In the meantime, private carriers such as FedEx and UPS, they are innovating and investing in automation, while USPS is blown up, bureaucratic and bogged down by outdated infrastructure and a workforce that is almost impossible to reform because of the pressure of the trade union and congress disorders.

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Some will say: “But Ted, the postal service offers an essential public interest. It connects National America. It provides medicines. It provides fairness.”

I don’t disagree with the mission. But can we at least agree that every company – public or private – that loses billions of dollars every year and still increases prices for lower service must be held responsible?

Here it is becoming even more ridiculous. Although USPS has heard money and has thrown the E -mail volume, it also outsources millions to failed pilot programs such as bank services, Sunday delivery that no one asked, and electric vehicles that sound great in a press release but many more costs for taxpayers than the savings they will ever make.

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The Postmaster General has already warned that there are more price increases. So maybe it’s $ 1 to email a letter by next year. But I will ask you again: Is your opinion worth 78 cents?

The Postmaster General has already warned that there are more price increases. (Beata Zawrzel/Nurphoto via Getty images)

In the age of social media you can tweet me, post me on my LinkedIn page or leave a comment below – immediately, free and everywhere. But the government that promised to provide “universal service” at low costs now charges more for a worse product. And they still expect an applause. Recently it took 10 days before a birthday card came to my own mother.

This is not just about stamps. It is about waste from the government. It’s about poor planning. It’s about politicians who have been kicking the can on the road for decades and refusing to modernize, streamline or privatize when needed. And it’s about us, the American people, who are asked to pay more for less – and be told that they are grateful for it.

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So if you think strongly about what I have written, I dare to see you: write a letter to me. Stick a stamp on it. Mail it to my office. But before you drop it in the blue box, just ask yourself: Is your opinion worth 78 cents?

Because that is what it costs to be heard in America America if you want to send your two cents via USPS.

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