Well, come May 14th,

http://www.usps.com/ratecase/ratecase_faqs.htm

it looks like most everything is going up in price, again! Yet, there's no improvement in quality... I wonder, is the USPS secretly working with Sony?

cheers,

-avatar!

It's all about the price of oil.

I have read that the USPS makes no profit whatsoever, and that postage rates cover just enough to keep them out of the red.  That's either BS or they're telling the truth.  However, they are run by the government and the government doesn't usually run for-profit businesses.

the government itself is non profit but everyone in it tweaks things for their own personal investments.

watch Fedex & UPS stock jump next month

I don't know what to think here, I've heard various excuses over the years why the rates keep on rising: the most common excuse being the internet - which really makes no sense to me. Sure, people may not send each other letters at the rate they use to because of e-mail ("paper communication" is still used for bills, magazines and the like) you think the shipping of packages from online transactions from businesses and sites eBay would make up for that. I mean there has to be a mindboggling number of packages going from place to place any given day on any given hour.

I asked them that exact question once, and the response was "have you seen the price of gas lately?"

-Joshua

Exactly. The more that people are using eBay or other sites where one party independently ships an item to the other party, the more that the Post Office is going to charge. It makes sense to me in that "dirty business" way. Supply and demand is up for the USPS; a LOT of people are getting and sending off stuff through the USPS because of these auction or personal sale sites. If you have one million people sending out a packages a day at an even rate of $3 (factor in media, first class and priority) and then you raise that price by just 5% and you're seeing a $150,000 increase in revenue per day. However, you do also have to factor in the fact that the more packages that are getting shipped out, the more workers are going to be on the clock to get everything processed.

Who knows? Maybe whoever oversees the USPS is just being a dickhead.

What kind of buisness wouldn't want a slice of that pie? If they didn't it be so un-American -  and how more American can you get than the post office!

Contrary to popular belief, the USPS is no longer funded by the government.  It needs to make a profit to survive, and they have done a very good job keeping the business going overall.  Unfortunately, service is not good at all post office areas.

There probably will be a small rush to get the forever stamp.

Yeah, and I also don't believe that the government is a non-profit institution either! It should be, and as a whole maybe it is... but as someone already pointed out, there are PLENTY of people who milk it for all that they can, and "non-profit be damned" is their motto. Much like some universities. Universities claim to be non-profit, but I want to know how a university that sits on many billions of dollars and just invests it in real-estate, hedge funds, etc, can possibly be non-profit??

cheers,

-avatar!

The cost of *everything* rises over time. That's just the way it is. I don't see why everyone shits a brick each time the cost of stamps goes up 2 cents.

As for the "forever stamp," other countries have been using this method for years. It's not a new concept, and I for one welcome it.

That's generally the dichotomy with things, isn't it? True or false?

I think most universities are for-profit.  Non-profit does not mean that the organization has zero profit.  It means that all profits are directly reinvested back into the organization.  The profit is not given back to any stakeholders. 

Universities want huge endowments (accumulated assets) to generate interest.  The university typically uses the interest, not the principal, to pay for operating expenses.  This is good when enrollment is down, as the university can still pay the bills and not affect the quality of life for students or faculty badly.

I know of universities whose operating expenses are paid by tuition payments.  When enrollment is down, the university has trouble paying its operating expenses, so the students and faculty suffer.  This is why these universities aggressively seek alumni donations, especially from wealthy alumni.  A university would like to have enough money to establish an endowment.

the 2 cent stamp increase is the smallest increase... look at priority mail (aside from the 1 lb rate and the flatrate box), air-letter post, air-parcel post, and international EMS,, youre looking at 15%-20% increases

EMS was already insanely-expensive.  Did the US postage increase cause other countries to start charging more for EMS mail sent to the US?

Found this interesting:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28897426/?GT1=43001

Businesses will probably go unaffected (they've been acting as though there is no USPS for years), but as someone who makes the bulk of his purchases through Standard Mail these days, I'd be irritated at least.

Priority mail and EMS (both  domestic and international) went up 2 weeks ago.. the may increases are the rest of the services following suit

The volume has been decreasing?? They didn't specify if that was LETTER volume or PACKAGE volume (or both) but I find that a bit hard to believe...

we spent over $60k on USPS shipping last year, and it will certainly be more this year...

get a quote for the same international shipment for Fedex or UPS,, EMS is less than 1/3 the price.. plus USPS doesn't dimensionally weigh EMS or PMI (yet).