The US Post Office needs money. As this chart shows, US postal rates, at 45 cents for a first class stamp, are the lowest in the world, often by far, excluding a few small island countries. Yet Congress, the Postal Regulatory Commission, set up by Congress in 2006 to oversee the Post Office, has proven unwilling to allow that rate to rise to any significant degree. In 2010 the Post Office asked for a 2 cent increase, from 44 to 46 cents. The PRC approved only a penny.
A few days ago, the Senate rejected an amendment that would have allowed the Post Office to raise the price of a first class stamp by a nickel. That would have raised sufficient money so that no local post office or processing facility would have to be closed and the US would still have been the leader in world wide rates.
We all save a nickel. The Post Office, the most ubiquitous and I dare say, beloved public institution in America continues to disintegrate.
Stamp Rates World-Wide
US First Class Equivalent
|Hong Kong, China||$0.18|
|Isle of Man||$0.58|
|Tristan da Cunha||$0.40|
|United Arab Emirates||$0.27|
|Wallis and Futuna Islands||$0.64|
Source: Postal Regulatory Commission