Monday, May 19, 2008

Forever Stamps, A Good Idea

Forever Stamps, A Good Idea

On May 12, 2008, the United States Postal Service raised the price of first class envelope mail to 42 cents from 41 cents. Standard postage stamps at 41 cents will need to be supplemented with an additional 1 cent stamp.

The USPS initiated a new type of stamp called the "Forever Stamp" which costs the standard first class envelope postage and can be used anytime for first class envelope postage without additional stamps whenever there is a price increase. Those that bought the Forever stamp before May 12, 2008 paid 41 cents for them and since May 12, 2008 the new price is now 42 cents per stamp. Those people that bought additional Forever stamps before May 12, 2008 are saving 1 cent each envelope because they do not have to add an additional 1 cent stamp. The postal service says they printed an additional 1.5 billion 1 cent stamps in anticipation of demand.

The Post Office has been regularly increasing the price of their services even though they have been making huge surpluses. Government agencies do not make a profit, what is leftover from their expenses from their total revenue is called surplus. Personally I think the surpluses are outrageous and that they should wait a long time before increasing the price of services again. I think we should let our congressional representatives know that we will not accept another increase in postal service rates for many years.

Besides saving a little money whenever the next price increase comes, the Forever stamps are about convenience. With Forever stamps one does not have to remember what the current price of first class postage for envelopes is anymore. Additionally, if you had 41 cent stamps after May 12, 2008, you would have had to buy 1 cent stamps to to reach the new 42 cent price. Over the years we have all had extra stamps over a postal increase and had to buy supplementary stamps to reach the new postage price which we will no longer have to do with the new Forever stamps.

The Forever stamps should have been created a long time ago because nobody like to run to the post office getting those one and two cent stamps. It just makes it a lot easier.